Is the earlier Championship a success or failure?

[onefineday]

August will be rubbish

Only from a tv point of view. Lots of club games of real quality to look forward to.

GAA becoming niche for about half the population. There'll be little awareness of it again until next May, then it'll get a 2 month window in the sun when there's so many games people can't keep track of them anyway. Not a way to build a lifelong passion in our games imo and suspect it will be revisited once the financial implications become clear too.

Not sure how you can quantify the financial impact in a meaningful way considering the cost of living has sky rocketed and if anything the GAA hasn't help by the pricing of tickets for the semi-finals (€55) and the finals ($80) probably put quite a few off.

The other side of this is that County Boards aren't having to spend so much on team managements, traveling expenses, backroom teams with the condensed season, but I can see a few tweaks coming with maybe the two finals pushed out to the end of July/early August based on club championships not starting till the latter part of August driven by player availability, i.e. holidays and J1 visas.

I don't think there's been a huge problem with football attendances. The financial implications are more around the value of the product to sponsors and TV given the tiny exposure window the games now have. Another problem for TV/media is trying to give coverage to everything, which just isn't possible currently when there are a multitude of top class games on simultaneously. For TV purposes the ideal is one or two games per weekend for as long as possible, sells advertising and fills schedules. 40 games over 20 weekends generates much more revenue than 40 games over 10 weekends does. Inevitably the value of your TV rights drops. Similarly with sponsors, less chances for exposure or over a relatively short window, the lower the value sponsors will put on the product.

[thewobbler]

I was in Albufeira last weekend.

Walked down town for the second half of Dublin v Kerry. Almost every single bar was showing the GAA, and all of those were busy. This will only ever happen in English friendly resorts when there's nothing else to watch.

That's exposure. Sitting on your arse for a month between games doesn't generate exposure.

——-

I'd also wonder how World Cups (rugby, soccer, darts, snooker, and so o) can possibly thrive and have advertisers beating down their doors, when they run off their competitions so quickly, with multiple matches at once?

——

Exposure?

I reckon your angles are altogether skewed on this one.

[Captain Scarlet]

Ignore Joe at your leisure depending what you think of him but Lee Keegan also gives it a ringing endorsement.

https://punditarena.com/gaa/andrew-dempsey/joe-brolly-rubbishes-concerns-over-shortened-all-ireland-schedule/?amp

[Rossfan]

"The players want it"
Enough said.

[onefineday]

I was in Albufeira last weekend.

Walked down town for the second half of Dublin v Kerry. Almost every single bar was showing the GAA, and all of those were busy. This will only ever happen in English friendly resorts when there's nothing else to watch.

That's exposure. Sitting on your arse for a month between games doesn't generate exposure.

——-

I'd also wonder how World Cups (rugby, soccer, darts, snooker, and so o) can possibly thrive and have advertisers beating down their doors, when they run off their competitions so quickly, with multiple matches at once?

——

Exposure?

I reckon your angles are altogether skewed on this one.

Let's hope any new watchers of the sport were watching Kerry v Dublin and not Galway v Derry because in truth, the less exposure that game got the better!

[keep her low this half]

I think a lot of the objections to the shortened inter county season are being led my GAA journalists and TV analysists. A shortened inter county season means less pay checks for those guys, less weeks of the Sunday game so less TV exposure.
The GAA has a huge problem with burnout of players at the top level, if the shortened county season helps reduce this then all the better, plus the club season is greatly improved by it.
I listened to RTE radio on Sunday spend 20 minutes explaining how cruel and dangerous it was to play an all ireland final in July, completely ignoring the fact that Munster and Leinster finals have always been played in July. Lots of vested interests at play particularly in the broadcasting world.

[Milltown Row2]

It's time rte started looking at the club championships to fill their spots...

Giving grassroots hurling/football a media platform throughout August and September will generate plenty of attention

[Cavan19]

It's time rte started looking at the club championships to fill their spots...

Giving grassroots hurling/football a media platform throughout August and September will generate plenty of attention

They have been doing that the last few years.

[Eire90]

exactly the club championship should be promoted more and you could say it is  far more competitive    than intercounty

[onefineday]

exactly the club championship should be promoted more and you could say it is  far more competitive    than intercounty

Yeah, the Dublin county final was a ringing endorsement for top class club football alright.
People like us will watch club games if they're on, we're in the minority. It's difficult to generate an interest for casual supporters in a club game where they've no affinity with the club or county.
Games played on shitty pitches, 15 men behind the ball, probably played in a giant stadium that's about 20% full at most. It's just not appealing to most people, and in my opinion, never will be.

[thewobbler]

exactly the club championship should be promoted more and you could say it is  far more competitive    than intercounty

Yeah, the Dublin county final was a ringing endorsement for top class club football alright.
People like us will watch club games if they're on, we're in the minority. It's difficult to generate an interest for casual supporters in a club game where they've no affinity with the club or county.
Games played on shitty pitches, 15 men behind the ball, probably played in a giant stadium that's about 20% full at most. It's just not appealing to most people, and in my opinion, never will be.

* to most people *

Try yourself.

[yellowcard]

Players want it and most GAA people that I speak with at grass roots club level want it. The only people who are complaining are those working in the media who are pushing their own agenda and a lot of casual armchair fans who sit at home getting their entertainment via their TV screens. Many of those same fans will take their opinions from pundits on those same sporting events. So it's mostly those working in the media who want to push this notion.

I think it's worked very well so far but wait until the end of the club season before it can be fully judged. For example I'm still at a loss as to why the AI club competitions cannot be finished within this calendar year.

[Rossfan]

exactly the club championship should be promoted more and you could say it is  far more competitive    than intercounty

Yeah, the Dublin county final was a ringing endorsement for top class club football alright.
People like us will watch club games if they're on, we're in the minority. It's difficult to generate an interest for casual supporters in a club game where they've no affinity with the club or county.
Games played on shitty pitches, 15 men behind the ball, probably played in a giant stadium that's about 20% full at most. It's just not appealing to most people, and in my opinion, never will be.

* to most people *

Try yourself.

Most of the general public are not interested in club hurling or football games even in their own Counties never mind other Counties.

[thewobbler]

Most of the general public have no interest in early round championship matches, or indeed the Super 8s. Fewer again the Tailteann Cup.

So why the county season should be dragged on interminably when there's only 8-10 matches in each code that interest the general public, I'll never know.

[Milltown Row2]

It's time rte started looking at the club championships to fill their spots...

Giving grassroots hurling/football a media platform throughout August and September will generate plenty of attention

They have been doing that the last few years.

Yes TG4 have been doing it for many years and recently RTE got their finger out and doing it now...

Club games obviously will never meet the highs of last Sundays final, but personally I love them, it's the lad from up the road ya know who's playing on National tv, brilliant promotion at grassroots and not these counties who have a separate bus to carry their gear!