FAO Barstoolers

[dublinfella]

I'm not interested in ice hockey, curling or bridge. I don't even know if we have local teams in these pastimes and, as Seanie so eloquently put it, I don't give a f**k either. Am I immature, bitter or just stupid? Can somebody give me a list of the things I should be interested in?

If you aren't interested, you aren't interested. The issue is those people on here who follow foreign ice hockey, curling or bridge on tv while abusing local ice hockey, curling or bridge players and fans.

That is, by any rational attitude, a bizarre way of following sport, and the anathema of the ideals of Gaelic Games.

[lynchbhoy]

I'm not interested in ice hockey, curling or bridge. I don't even know if we have local teams in these pastimes and, as Seanie so eloquently put it, I don't give a f**k either. Am I immature, bitter or just stupid? Can somebody give me a list of the things I should be interested in?

If you aren't interested, you aren't interested. The issue is those people on here who follow foreign ice hockey, curling or bridge on tv while abusing local ice hockey, curling or bridge players and fans.
That is, by any rational attitude, a bizarre way of following sport, and the anathema of the ideals of Gaelic Games.

that suits your own personal agenda to think that.
theres plenty of evidence on this thread alone to show that plenty of people dont dislike local soccer and some even follow it - or go to the odd game.
Plenty of people on here would most likely not follow club football if it wasnt their own county.
likewise soccer.
ok so the standard of soccer is fairly rubbish. but the main reason why a lot of people dont like league of Ireland soccer is that its a huge clique and closed shop. People used to give out about the irfu and it being a D4 cartel. It may have been but that is no longer the case. Anyone can get onto the Irish team and into decent rugby clubs these days. Devin toner and many more lads from ordinary backgrounds are supreme examples of this!

[Main Street]

It's natural enough for football fans to want to watch quality soccer on the box, but Ireland in particular is a place where many of those people have a complex about their  domestic league to the point of directing dismissive abuse towards it.

I don't know what the League of Ireland can do to get the crowds back, but telling your target audience that they have a 'complex' is not likely to be a winning strategy

That is, if you consider those type of barstoolers to be a target. There are plenty of football fans who just don't go to LOI games, but they don't necessarily have a complex about LOI standard of football.  A couple of hundred more punters attending all the LOI games would make a difference. You will find in countries that had once a similar standard to the LOI, where the TV has been saturated with EPL coverage since the 1980's, that football fans still follow their domestic league. They may have their EPL favourite team but their real allegiance is for their domestic team.

[dublinfella]

that suits your own personal agenda to think that.
theres plenty of evidence on this thread alone to show that plenty of people dont dislike local soccer and some even follow it - or go to the odd game.
Plenty of people on here would most likely not follow club football if it wasnt their own county.
likewise soccer.
ok so the standard of soccer is fairly rubbish. but the main reason why a lot of people dont like league of Ireland soccer is that its a huge clique and closed shop. People used to give out about the irfu and it being a D4 cartel. It may have been but that is no longer the case. Anyone can get onto the Irish team and into decent rugby clubs these days. Devin toner and many more lads from ordinary backgrounds are supreme examples of this!

The LoI is a clique and closed shop?  Two whom? You aren't even trying now.

My point is obvious. GAA folk follow their county. Its rare to find anyone who bandwagon jumps. No-one from Cork follows Killkenny hurlers. No Dubs follow Kerry football. Yet the same people who profess to be soccer fans too, follow the 'winners' in whatever English side are popular at the moment and many hate their local sides. Its a strange one.

Of course many have an interest in domestic football, they are sports fans. But there are some on here, as in the GAA family, who are GAA fans only and thats fine. But there are some who are GAA fans and foreign soccer fans, and thats hard to reconcile. Why don't they follow 'better' GAa than their own county?

[lynchbhoy]

that suits your own personal agenda to think that.
theres plenty of evidence on this thread alone to show that plenty of people dont dislike local soccer and some even follow it - or go to the odd game.
Plenty of people on here would most likely not follow club football if it wasnt their own county.
likewise soccer.
ok so the standard of soccer is fairly rubbish. but the main reason why a lot of people dont like league of Ireland soccer is that its a huge clique and closed shop. People used to give out about the irfu and it being a D4 cartel. It may have been but that is no longer the case. Anyone can get onto the Irish team and into decent rugby clubs these days. Devin toner and many more lads from ordinary backgrounds are supreme examples of this!

The LoI is a clique and closed shop?  Two whom? You aren't even trying now.

My point is obvious. GAA folk follow their county. Its rare to find anyone who bandwagon jumps. No-one from Cork follows Killkenny hurlers. No Dubs follow Kerry football. Yet the same people who profess to be soccer fans too, follow the 'winners' in whatever English side are popular at the moment and many hate their local sides. Its a strange one.

Of course many have an interest in domestic football, they are sports fans. But there are some on here, as in the GAA family, who are GAA fans only and thats fine. But there are some who are GAA fans and foreign soccer fans, and thats hard to reconcile. Why don't they follow 'better' GAa than their own county?

sorry , but I know plenty of non kilkenny lads that follow kilkenny hurling (Dubs, Down folk, Derry men etc etc)
I know lads in the north that follow Dublin football (hard to believe but true - one such lunatic is a cousin of mine).
sorry but your notion of GAA isnt completely correct.

loi soccer is a clique. half the teams are leated or their fathers and uncles and grandfathers all played loi etc etc. Have a pal who was ex home farm/longford town who also maintans that if you are not from the loi families, you dont get a look in in dublin! his words not mine.

[dublinfella]

sorry , but I know plenty of non kilkenny lads that follow kilkenny hurling (Dubs, Down folk, Derry men etc etc)
I know lads in the north that follow Dublin football (hard to believe but true - one such lunatic is a cousin of mine).
sorry but your notion of GAA isnt completely correct.

But its RARE, as I said. Most people follow their local teams regardless of quality. Yet to the opposite for soccer.

loi soccer is a clique. half the teams are leated or their fathers and uncles and grandfathers all played loi etc etc. Have a pal who was ex home farm/longford town who also maintans that if you are not from the loi families, you dont get a look in in dublin! his words not mine.

I don't know enough about the LoI to comment on that, but it doesn't strike me as just a soccer thing. Christ, look at some GAA clubs

And how does that impact on following the sport?

[Main Street]

It doesn't bother me that GAA fans, when choosing to watch soccer, will want to watch quality soccer.
They are already actively committed to a sport.
If I chose to watch rugby on the box, I'm not going to watch a mud splattered grind, I'll want to see the top professional games.

The self loathing of the standard in the domestic game is another issue and using that as one of the reasons in order to justify why one considers a foreign team to be 'our team' "we". The sheer naivety of someone who has never even been to Liverpool, considering them to be "our team".  The definition of club 'fan' club 'supporter' has been debased.

Even on the day of the FAI cup final, the media prioritises such items as mundane EPL news. But despite the relegation of LOI coverage to a background news item, I bet you when the tv viewing figures are published they will show that the cup final had decent viewing figures and many of those viewers will have been well satisfied that the domestic league was able to produce such an event.

[lynchbhoy]

sorry , but I know plenty of non kilkenny lads that follow kilkenny hurling (Dubs, Down folk, Derry men etc etc)
I know lads in the north that follow Dublin football (hard to believe but true - one such lunatic is a cousin of mine).
sorry but your notion of GAA isnt completely correct.

But its RARE, as I said. Most people follow their local teams regardless of quality. Yet to the opposite for soccer.

loi soccer is a clique. half the teams are leated or their fathers and uncles and grandfathers all played loi etc etc. Have a pal who was ex home farm/longford town who also maintans that if you are not from the loi families, you dont get a look in in dublin! his words not mine.

I don't know enough about the LoI to comment on that, but it doesn't strike me as just a soccer thing. Christ, look at some GAA clubs

And how does that impact on following the sport?

nope, its not 'RARE' .
Also plenty (as in fecking loads) of people wouldnt support their local club but might support their county or vice versa. Others would support other clubs or other counties and not their own local ones for various reasons.
you just dont seem to know people at all !

the clique thing might be part of Irish society, but to hear recent players dissing the fai league for being a big bad clique and remembering the 50 officials and their wives in first class going to the 94 world cup - it seems that things havent changed much...