Have you seen this picture yet?
What an embarrasing sight ‘The Aviva’ was on telly last night, with more green seats than green jerseys on the television, in fact I could still make out ‘AVIVA’ written in the seats of one stand.
I have made one visit to the new Lansdowne Road, and that was for an encounter between the two S.R.F.C’s, a great clash between Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers. With low-cost tickets, the F.A.I managed to bring a respectable crowd there but more importantly they managed to bring an atmosphere, as low prices make games more appealing to younger fans, often the most passionate.
There was no passion in that stadium last night at all. Why would there be? My job brings me into contact with tourists who are visiting this city, and this match was not the first time sports-mad people from abroad, who would normally take in a game on any trip, told me they just couldn’t stomach the F.A.I’s ticket charges.
The F.A.I needs money of course. Would they rather charge fewer people more than fill a stadium via cheap tickets? Perhaps, but there are long-term advantages to making these friendlies more accessible, not least introducing many to live football.
There is no need for the national team to play even a friendly out in a half (and that’s being optimistic) empty stadium. Last week I attended a clash between Saint Patrick’s Athletic and Dundalk. With ticket sales evidently slow, why did the F.A.I miss the opportunity presented in Inchicore, Dalymount and stadiums like them last week? League of Ireland fans are the diehards who take in football every week and truly love the game- lowpriced tickets to national clashes should be on offer at League of Ireland clashes before friendlies like this one. It would bring more people not only to the Aviva, but also the local game.
Many League of Ireland fans do not attend the national games owing to the unaffordable nature of it. It costs a family (an adult and two children/students) about €40 to take in a match in Dublin any given Friday. The F.A.I can rely on many of these people to come out rain, hail or snow. Yet evidently, the F.A.I aren’t particulary good at getting people into either the Aviva or the local game. What a pity that is.
In my household, we’ve handed over money to attend football matches in Turners Cross, Dalymount, Tallaght, Dundalk and a host of other Irish grounds. Why do the FAI not reward families who feel a passion for the game and generate some revenue by opening the new stadium to domestic football fans on nights like this one?
Image from thescore.ie, taken at 8:57pm
thescore.ie ‘as it happened’ match report.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Excellent post. When I went to get tickets for last week’s game with Macedonia for myself and the young fella I was told a) it was gonna cost me over the ton for both of us in the seats that were available and that b) we’d have to pay the same again to go to the friendly last night. You can’t have one without the other… We stayed in Inchicore.
The idea of cut price tickets for Landsdowne Road being made available at LoI games the week before is a great one. However, after the shambles they made of the John Giles Foundation walk last Sunday, I very much doubt they’d be able to get it together to run it properly.
It is a disgrace. I had a season ticket for AC Milan, cost? €180, my friends asked me to go to Ireland v Russia – shit buzz €70, no espresso, no ultras, no sambucca, no chance I’ll be going again.
anarchaeologist
does that mean that……..
a) for the Macedonia game the tickets, for you and your son, were more than €100 combined?
b) you also had to pay the same for the Uraguay game
Therefore to watch both games you’d to pay, on average, €50 for each seat to watch each game. Where were the seats located; top tier, bottom tier, goal ends or at half way? For that price FAI might have supplied the prawn sambo, no?
Celtic’s unofficial Ultras The Green Brigade had a banner with comparable games possibly last year. Something like…..
Dormund v Werder €10;
Sevilla v Barca €12;
Milan v Roma €10.
Kilamrnock v Celtic £25
and Dormund fans had a boycott last year which seems to have gone in their favour…….. top of the Bundesliga by 7 points at the moment!!
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/raphael_honigstein/09/09/german.soccer.fans.protest.ticket.prices/index.html#ixzz0z4dlhMnv
And why when the media report do they entertain the thought that the reason is anything other than the exorbitant ticket prices? They waffle about whether it’s to do with the team and the game they play. It’s all about the price and the FAI and IRFU are fleecing the irish punter.
from the RTE Sports News section………
FAI scraps ticket bundling policy
Following poor ticket sales for the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2012 qualifying game against Macedonia and the friendly with Uruguay, the FAI is to scrap the policy of selling tickets in bundles for multiple games.
In a statement released today, the governing body revealed that ‘following a review, it will sell (tickets for) all of its upcoming home matches (Northern Ireland, Scotland, Slovakia and Armenia) on a single basis’.
A disappointing attendance of 30,000 turned out for the crucial qualification game with Macedonia and that appears to have forced the organisation’s hand.
Tickets for that game could only be bought as a part of a package that included a ticket for the Republic’s friendly encounter with World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay, or as standalone ‘premium’ tickets
The FAI has stopped short of further reducing general sale ticket prices after announcing a reduction in February.
Tickets for friendly internationals will continue to cost €30 and €45, while tickets for Euro 2012 qualification games will be priced at €60 and €45.
The statement added: ‘As was recently announced, ticket prices have been reduced by up to 25% for friendly matches and 14% for competitive matches.
‘On Monday, the association will write to clubs to offer them a further special discount offer for the Northern Ireland and Scotland matches which will consist of 50 tickets for €700 (40 children’s tickets for €10 each and 10 adult’s tickets for €30 each).
‘A total of 5,000 seats will be made available at this price, equivalent to an average of €14 per seat.
‘In addition the association will continue to offer 1,350 seats for €10 each through its schoolboy/girl affiliates as well as continuing to operate its family section consisting of 2,000 seats in which four tickets can be purchased for €80 through selected media partners
http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2011/0330/fai_ireland_tickets.html