BBC NI Headline News

[snatter]

Solomon,

don't get me wrong, its not my wish to bash NI soccer, merely to highlight the imbalance of BBC NI Sports coverage.

I reassert that BBC NI / UTV coverage of NI soccer bears no relation to the numbers that attend it.

To illustrate, the second most important story on BBC NI Sports @ the minute:

FROM BBC SPORT >>
Dick quits Glens after Walker row
Glentoran's Director for Football Tom Dick resigns in the wake of managerial shambles at the club.

When is the last time that a GAA county board chairman's resignation / non-election has been a BBC NI Sports news item?
I'll save you the bother of having to look it up - the answere is NEVER.

Was Pete McGraths appointment as Ireland manager in the compromise rules the main story on the news (not sports) page?


They rarely report on off-field GAA matters, yet equivalent events within the NI soccer sphere get coverage.

My guess is that BBC NI confuse the percentage of people in NI who say they are interested in soccer with those interested in Northern Irish soccer - most soccer fans in NI are really English premiership fans.

Fair media coverage is important because the GAA can only rely on local BBC NI /UTV coverage to promote their games.
They don't have UK based programs doing that for them, as is the case for soccer.

If you added UK "national" soccer coverage to local Ni soccer coverage and then compared it to GAA coverage, you would find that BBC NI / UTV coverage is even more skewed agaisnt GAA.
If anything, local media should be skewed in favour of GAA to address this imbalance.

What chance have the GAA got of eventually getting the whole community involved, if its not a fair stage to promote its product?

If BBC NI / UTV aren't up to the job, maybe its time that viewers in the north were allowed free and unrestricted terrestrial access to RTE (even if their Sunday Game is crap).

---

45000 replica shirts sold over the last finacial year. Between 250000 and 300000 viewers for each Northern Ireland game shown on TV. |Not bad going for 15000 fans. Maybe they bought 3 shirts each 

On a separate note, I'm pleased for you that 45000 jersies have been sold.
The big question then is why only 15000 of their wearers actually go to watch NI games?
Do they buy them solely as fashion items, badges of perceived political/national allegiances, etc?

If you can get the missing 30000 to turn up, you won't have any problems filling the Maze - in fact you might need to get its capacity increased to 45k all seated, rather than the 35k seats currently proposed.

Also 45000 sounds impressive, but that is probably well below GAA county jersies sold over the last few years to Tyrone and Armagh.

[wesaysanchez]

"lawrie we will always love you. " Catch a grip of urself. That man did not give one toss about yous. I bet you he could not wait to get out of the north. He seen what sort of biggoted supporters he was dealin with when yous all turned on him. Goodbye north of ireland football for another 20 years or more. (I hope)

wnehn did we call turn on him. sure when we beaten sweeden we shouted for him not to go. we never NEVER never never turned on lawrie. sure he brought us higher than the other ireland team and we beaten sweeden england spain and another country, ? whaqt's your problem. is it because were the reigning british isels champions that stuciks in your throat and all? lawire sanchez this time last year weas the best international manager in the BRITISH ISELS and that includes brian i dont really kerr, sven i like you secretaty your maine goring ericson and your other men in the other wales and stotland. lawrie sanchex scored a goal with his head against liverpoll in 1988 FFS. he took wycombe to the facup semifinals FFS. he beaten sweeden and engl;and andf spain and other countirs maybe not big countirs but sure the likes of licktinstein and georgvia can still put it up to your, wee were not the wipping boys that we wore under sammy nor the other lawrie. we are feared now we are respected thats all because of lawire snachec and his tacterial genuis,. so dont say we turned on him because we didnt

[gawa316]

The big question then is why only 15000 of their wearers actually go to watch NI games?

Maybe because that's the capacity of Windsor Park

[snatter]

Quote from: snatter on Today at 11:22:49 AM
The big question then is why only 15000 of their wearers actually go to watch NI games?

Maybe because that's the capacity of Windsor Park

Then why all the carping about NI soccer fans never being able to fill a 35k capacity stadium?

Sammy G - who's right here?
Do you have 35k fans or not?


Anyway, I want this to be a thread on the imbalanced local media coverage of GAA.
Whether you do or don't have enough fans to fill the Maze is irrelevant - the undisputed fact is that GAA has more spectators yet receives less and lower quality coverage.

[Mack the finger]

"lawrie we will always love you. " Catch a grip of urself. That man did not give one toss about yous. I bet you he could not wait to get out of the north. He seen what sort of biggoted supporters he was dealin with when yous all turned on him. Goodbye north of ireland football for another 20 years or more. (I hope)

wnehn did we call turn on him. sure when we beaten sweeden we shouted for him not to go. we never NEVER never never turned on lawrie. sure he brought us higher than the other ireland team and we beaten sweeden england spain and another country, ? whaqt's your problem. is it because were the reigning british isels champions that stuciks in your throat and all? lawire sanchez this time last year weas the best international manager in the BRITISH ISELS and that includes brian i dont really kerr, sven i like you secretaty your maine goring ericson and your other men in the other wales and stotland. lawrie sanchex scored a goal with his head against liverpoll in 1988 FFS. he took wycombe to the facup semifinals FFS. he beaten sweeden and engl;and andf spain and other countirs maybe not big countirs but sure the likes of licktinstein and georgvia can still put it up to your, wee were not the wipping boys that we wore under sammy nor the other lawrie. we are feared now we are respected thats all because of lawire snachec and his tacterial genuis,. so dont say we turned on him because we didnt

Such mastery of language; to be able to reduce complex information to concise, readable sentences; the wit of Wilde and the intellectual rigour of Chomsky.

Wonderful post, and surely a front runner in the 'post of the year' stakes.

And before anyone thinks about questioning the mighty sanchez, just remember, he scored goals with his head.

With his head.

[SammyG]

Quote from: snatter on Today at 11:22:49 AM
The big question then is why only 15000 of their wearers actually go to watch NI games?

Maybe because that's the capacity of Windsor Park

Then why all the carping about NI soccer fans never being able to fill a 35k capacity stadium?

Sammy G - who's right here?
Do you have 35k fans or not?

Er... the problem with the Maze is that you can't get that number of people to and from it rather than the actual capacity.It wouldn't make any difference if the Maze held 20K or 200K it has no infrastructure an no plans or buget to build any.

As far as numbers of fans it would depend what measurement you use. Internationals get 250-300000 viewers on BBCNI (not counting people in pubs, people watching online or people watching in GB on digital), we had approx 25K applications for block bookings for the last tournament but only 14K seats, we've sold 40K+ jersies on the other hand in the last 25 years we've had crowds as big as 40K and as low as 3K, so it really depends on what measure you use.

My guess would be that we'd average around the 20K mark if the capacity allowed. Which in terms of spectators to head of population would actually put us amongst the top European countries.

[T Fearon]

If you thinks thats bad, check out "Northern Ireland's National Newspaper", the Belfast Telegraph, owned by the Dublin luminary Anthony O'Reilly. This paper virtually ignores GAA affairs, despite the GAA being Ulster's most popular sport. You will never see a GAA preview on the sports back page preceding a big Ulster Championship game and even the Tyrone Armagh All Ireland Final clash in 2003, which was the biggest sporting event in the history of the six counties captivating most interest, failed to make it onto Anto's rag's back pages.

To be fair to the BBC, they do take cognisance of reality and give due coverage to the FAI International team and GAA affairs

[snatter]

My guess would be that we'd average around the 20K mark if the capacity allowed. Which in terms of spectators to head of population would actually put us amongst the top European countries.

Thanks Sammy,

which backs up my claim that the average fanbase of those who support NI soccer is way below the numbers that attend GAA matches.

Why then, as illustrated in my three examples, does NI soccer get such prominence from BBC NI / UTV?
Why do local media report on NI soccer events when equivalent events in GAA get no coverage?
Why is there no correlation between attendance and coverage?

Can anyone with connections in BBC NI / UTV enlighten me?

[SammyG]

My guess would be that we'd average around the 20K mark if the capacity allowed. Which in terms of spectators to head of population would actually put us amongst the top European countries.

Thanks Sammy,

which backs up my claim that the average fanbase of those who support NI soccer is way below the numbers that attend GAA matches.

Is it? How many GAA matches attract 20K +

Why then, as illustrated in my three examples, does NI soccer get such prominence from BBC NI / UTV?

Sorry but that is complete nonsense.On the BBC, NI football gets 10 minutes on a Saturday teatime (when most people are actually at a match) and a couple of minutes on the news. The GAA get 'The Championship' every week (twice as it's repeated during the week) plus numerous live games. UTV give absolutely no coverage of Ni football.

Why do local media report on NI soccer events when equivalent events in GAA get no coverage?

The announcement of the new NI manager is a newsworthy event. I do not know any country in the world that would not report the appointment of their new international manager. Outside that see previous answer.

Why is there no correlation between attendance and coverage?

Don't understand the question. The BBC cover GAA matches with 2 men and a dog as well as the big matches, how much more coverage would you like?

Can anyone with connections in BBC NI / UTV enlighten me?

The BBC are legally committed through their charter to cover local sport.

[T Fearon]

Stew.

I had no hand nor part in Mac's banning from this Board. I will raise the issue however at the next OWC/GAA Summit Tallks

I have never supported the banning of anyone. Everyone is entitled to air their views, in my opinion

[ziggysego]

[Evil Genius]

I'M OUTRAGED. OUTRAGED, I TELLS YE!

I turned on the BBC NI News at 6.30 this evening, expecting to hear a good 20 minutes (at least) on the appointment of our new Dear Leader, his Nigelness, and it wasn't even the lead story.

Instead, we were subjected to some story about a couple of oul pensioners having a party in a garden or something. ("Lizzie and Phil", was it?).

Anyhow, it's a flaming disgrace! And to think I have to dodge my licence fee for thon oul rubbish. I blame Paisley, myself....

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

How many GAA matches attract 20K +

UTV give absolutely no coverage of Ni football.

The BBC cover GAA matches with 2 men and a dog as well as the big matches, how much more coverage would you like?



Sammy, of the 3 matches I've been to so far in this Ulster championship attendance was: Cavan v Down - 15k
                                                                                                                            Down v Cavan (replay) - 16+k
                                                                                                                            Donegal v Armagh - 21+k
Not bad for just three weeks into the championship, BTW Donegal v Tyrone is likely to see anything upto 30k at Clones.


Hate to break this to you, but UTV give the GAA fcuk all coverage as well!!!


Now correct me if I'm wrong but the BBC only show coverage of the Ulster final and if they meet before it Armagh v Tyrone. You'll be waiting a long time to see Fermanagh v Antrim on the BBC! 

[snatter]

SammyG,

Is it? How many GAA matches attract 20K +

Here are the latest full year attendance figures that I could find:

2005 Ulster Teams Championship attendances.
(NOTE that these exclude the qualifier series matches).

USFC: Armagh V Tyrone	61000
USFC: Replay Armagh V Tyrone	32000
USFC: Derry V Armagh	27633
USFC: Donegal V Armagh	25622
USFC: Tyrone V Cavan	23441
USFC: Armagh V Fermanagh	23107
USFC: Replay Armagh V Donegal	18227
USFC: Tyrone V Down	18200
USFC: Replay Tyrone V Cavan	16492
USFC: Monaghan V Derry	16314
USFC: Cavan V Antrim	10500
USFC: Replay Cavan V Antrim	3865
AIQF: Tyrone V Dublin	78514
AIQF: Armagh V Laois	32187
AISF: Tyrone V Armagh	65858
AIF: Tyrone V Kerry	82112

Note that these are official figures.
Earlier round games in particular will probably show figures lower than the real attendances - Non-paying kids aren't taken into account.

--------------------------------


Northern Ireland figures:

Competitve NI soccer matches played in the same period.

Northern Ireland V Azerbaijan   11909
Northern Ireland V England      14069
Northern Ireland V Wales      13451

JJB Irish Cup Final 2005 Portadown V Larne  5,431

Sammy - you will note that only two Ulster GAA mathces of 2005 had lower attendances
than any NI world cup qualifying match.

And Sammy - Don't forget that these GAA matches involve INDIVIDUAL COUNTIES, NOT A CONGLOMERATION OF SIX.
That makes these figures even more stark.

Hopefully this will settle any dispute about attendance figues.

[Aerlik]

"lawire sanchez this time last year weas the best international manager in the BRITISH ISELS and that includes brian i dont really kerr"

Wesaysanchez, how did you know Brian Kerr was on holiday in England?