That does not sound possible
Totally agree and the decline of interest in major events in other sports when they were shunted out of their usual time window due to Covid, ie. the Champions League mini-tournament in Lisbon, the NBA finals and the US Masters, should be a warning. A lot of people complained that the Covid GAA championships of 2020 didnât feel like proper championships not only because of the lack of attendances but because of the winter scheduling. Lack of attendances affected the GAA deep into 2021 but the 2021 championship still felt more like real championships because they were played in the traditional time window of summer/early autumn.
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That doesnât happen now. Kids donât give a fiddlerâs fuck about anything except premier League soccer. Even then they donât actually watch games they just follow fellas like Ronaldo, watch goals and skills on YouTube and do siuu celebrations. They certainly donât sit in watching 35 frame snooker matches or Wimbledon 3rd round games involving Dave wheaten on sunny days like we used to. They hardly watch Ireland soccer matches ffs.
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Seven months to complete a competition? How come it wouldnât be possible?
Club county championships being completed by mid June and then the All Ireland by the 24th of July is not possible. There arenât enough weeks between
The angle of the sun also needs to be factored in.
That late August/early September haze is absolutely iconic.
What we got on September 17th 2017 (the greatest GAA occasion of them all) being the prototype of this genre.
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I would agree with that. Formerly niche sports which grabbed the publicâs attention are now just even more niche and only people in their 30s and up have any interest in them in the main. Would kids these days even watch the Olympics much?
Know nothing about tennis anymore.
I suppose one of the problems with starting club championships early is the sheer amount of pitches you need across the country. You can still get postponements into April and if youâre on a tight time frame that could be a problem.
I donât think itâs realistic to expect club championship to be played in February/March.
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Very true
I donât buy the marketing argument though. I donât think the purpose of the GAA is to market itself. I think playing numbers will actually go up by having a set, defined season.
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Both mad and nieve. Every organisation needs to market itself. If any organisation, anywhere, needs money to function, then it needs to market itself. The GAA is world class at self flagellation when it comes to promoting itself.
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All Ireland club football and hurling should be played on open draw basis. Would take 5 weekends for football and 4 for hurling. It would create some intriguing match ups and take up less time in the calendar. Surely a win win situation.
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Thatâs an argument for keeping the GAAâs showpiece competitions in the months where they attract the most attention.
Nothing to say GAA wonât suffer in the same way ânicheâ sports have done.
It was mentioned that the Ireland association football team now struggles to attract attention. Ireland playing international association football was not niche. It was the countryâs primary sporting focus for many years, and certainly will be again if we reach another major finals.
Ireland are crap though. Start producing good players and interest will return.
Is that Ireland or Eire in the soccer youâre referring to? Or both, maybe.
Intercounty championship will still be on TV every Saturday and Sunday for 4 months. Its not going to become tennis or athletics or cycling in terms of popularity
Iâm not saying no marketing should taking place. I just donât think moving the AI from September to July will have a catastrophic effect on kids playing the game & people attending games. And I certainly donât think it should be the primary focus of the organisation.
The split season is definitely worth a go, weâll see how it goes. Iâm all for it.
You might not know any modern kids but the sporting landscape you and I grew up with is dead and buried. Kids play and are involved in more sport than ever but they simply donât watch it like we used to. They go to their counties games if they come from a strong county and increasingly go to their club senior teams big games. Discussing this on the basis of kids and watching on TV is a total waste of time. Gaa is becoming more about the club and involvement than watching county games on telly.
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But it has chosen four of the most packed months in terms of counter attractions, when there are three other ones with little in the way of counter attractions.
Liverpool and Manchester City are going to dominate most weekends from now to the end of May.
The Heineken Cup still exists. There is a considerable crossover between those who who like to attend Thomond Park and those who like to attend the Gaelic Grounds, Pairc Ui Chaoimh or Thurles.
And the Heineken Cup itself is a warning of how a highly successful competition can be downgraded by poor decisions.
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True, I wouldnât have club championships starting at the start of March. Your point re pitches is valid. But in reality It really shouldnât take four months to complete a club championship. That wouldnât be a competition fit for purpose. If it really was an issue, then put county finals in to July and AI club in to August. Intercounty could be ran off in two months, similar to this years league structure and you could still have November/December free from everything.
Alliteratively to my proposal to have intercounty AI finals at Halloween, would be to have them before Christmas, ala 2020. Iâm not gone on it personally, but it could work. It would free up time and give county boards all the time in the world to finish their club competitions.
My point being that club should be before intercounty and is the natural precursor to the intercounty competition.