Crowd issues worry Galway Utd boss
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Bray Wanderers are far from the most captivating of visitors for your first home league game of the season, but having accommodated more than twice the number spectators for the visit of Hull City only seven days previously, Galway United are already talking about the attendance issues that may hamper their Premier Division campaign.
Addressing the issue before a game which saw only 902 paying customers (as compared to 1426 v Dundalk last year) witness Galway register their first points of the season, club CEO Nick Leeson stressed the importance of healthy gate receipts to the club's future in the match programme.
"Sean (Connor) has assembled a team that will compete in this league on a budget that is the lowest I have seen at the club. He has to be applauded for that and get on with the task of fielding a team and making sure we are hard to beat.
"But if attendances at Terryland do not start to improve during 2010, the budget for players will continue to reduce and completely remove any attempt that we can make to be competitive going forward."
Speaking after the game, Sean Connor also expressed his feelings on the matter but hoped that, with the likes of Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk next on the home calendar, the situation will improve.
"It’s worrying because it’s the first home game. Maybe Bray wasn’t such an attractive opposition. I was up at the Showgrounds last week and there were 3,000 there for the visit of Shamrock Rovers. There might have been 700 Shamrock Rovers fans, so there were at least 2,300 home fans. That’s a big worry.
"As a football club if we want to compete at the top, we need the bigger crowds. Hopefully winning tonight will bring some people here when we play Shamrock Rovers. If we can play like we did in the first thirty minutes, it might make it worth their while to watch.
"Certainly the venue and the facilities here are good, so we can’t say there’s something wrong with coming to Terryland Park, because it’s probably one of the most comfortable grounds in the country to come to."
The issue has affected Connor's search for playing staff as he desperately scours the free agent market to add more attacking options.
"We’re working hard on signing another striker, we certainly need one. We could do with a couple, but at the end of the day, my budget’s my budget and there wasn’t a massive crowd here tonight to give us a chance to really expand the squad. What we have is a decent starting XI, but once we go outside that we’re weakening our team and we don’t have any options to change the game."
Addressing the issue before a game which saw only 902 paying customers (as compared to 1426 v Dundalk last year) witness Galway register their first points of the season, club CEO Nick Leeson stressed the importance of healthy gate receipts to the club's future in the match programme.
"Sean (Connor) has assembled a team that will compete in this league on a budget that is the lowest I have seen at the club. He has to be applauded for that and get on with the task of fielding a team and making sure we are hard to beat.
"But if attendances at Terryland do not start to improve during 2010, the budget for players will continue to reduce and completely remove any attempt that we can make to be competitive going forward."
Speaking after the game, Sean Connor also expressed his feelings on the matter but hoped that, with the likes of Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk next on the home calendar, the situation will improve.
"It’s worrying because it’s the first home game. Maybe Bray wasn’t such an attractive opposition. I was up at the Showgrounds last week and there were 3,000 there for the visit of Shamrock Rovers. There might have been 700 Shamrock Rovers fans, so there were at least 2,300 home fans. That’s a big worry.
"As a football club if we want to compete at the top, we need the bigger crowds. Hopefully winning tonight will bring some people here when we play Shamrock Rovers. If we can play like we did in the first thirty minutes, it might make it worth their while to watch.
"Certainly the venue and the facilities here are good, so we can’t say there’s something wrong with coming to Terryland Park, because it’s probably one of the most comfortable grounds in the country to come to."
The issue has affected Connor's search for playing staff as he desperately scours the free agent market to add more attacking options.
"We’re working hard on signing another striker, we certainly need one. We could do with a couple, but at the end of the day, my budget’s my budget and there wasn’t a massive crowd here tonight to give us a chance to really expand the squad. What we have is a decent starting XI, but once we go outside that we’re weakening our team and we don’t have any options to change the game."
About Alan Dooley
is one of Extratime's longest serving contributors. Based in County Galway, Alan has been following the League of Ireland since the mid-1980s. His first memory of the drama of domestic football was Vinny Arkins, then … View Full Profile