Televised Games and the Travelling Supporter

Gimme a drink...
By Sea_point
August 2 2006

The TV schedule for the first half of the inaugural Magners League was announced this week, and it didn’t make pleasant reading for beleaguered Connacht Supporters. Continued......

 

 

The breakdown of the coverage (37 matches in all) makes for interesting reading and not surprisingly reflects the base of the participating broadcasters as Cardiff (BBCW & S4C) participate in no less than 9 televised fixtures, and Leinster (Setanta) are featured in 7 TV matches.On the back of the Connacht Branches unusual decision to play all matches for this season on Friday nights, there is another disappointing blow for Connacht supporters outside the city and province as of the 37 matches being broadcast there are only two fixtures featuring Connacht being broadcast up until year end.  Previous seasons schedules do not hold out much hope for significantly more appearances for our beloved team.

One can imagine that in the interest of building crowd attendance that the Connacht Branch may have requested that Setanta Ireland only cover a small proportion of Connacht games. However with the timing of the games set for 6.30pm on Friday evenings, a time that makes it impossible for supporters outside the city (let alone those keen to attend from outside the province, never mind opposition supporters) to get to the ground it does not make any sense. Connacht needs two things urgently, (1. bums on seats to increase support and revenue and (2. to maximise their appeal to sponsors. The first will not be achieved by alienating existing supporters, and the latter will be achieved by having another season of 1500-1900 supporters in the Sportsground.

One of the most interesting fixtures is when Connacht host Munster in the Magners League, a New Years Eve fixture on Saturday 31^st December at 18.30. One would expect that Munster Supporters would be keen to travel to support their side, certainly the Limerick hordes would be expected to travel. But an evening fixture on New Years Eve with the prospect of a late drive back…? I could be wrong, but I thought we need to generate more income to improve the quality of the side.

For the record, this site hosted a poll based on a thread on the offical site messageboard in which people were asked to indicate their preference by the editor for when Connacht Games should be regularly played. The response as can be seen on here from Supporters indicated by a huge majority that Saturday was the preferred day and over half those polled indicated that they wished the matches to be played in the evenings.

The most detrimental aspect of many of these unusual decisions is the complete lack of communication from the Connacht Branch to its supporters either directly or through the local or national media. The scheduling of the fixtures has huge implications for supporters, their families and in some cases the cubs they play for (though how many attending are actually active players is an interesting question). How on earth can those in charge realistically hope to improve the lot of Connacht Rugby when they do not ask what people want, and when people tell them anyway they seem to ignore them. With respect to the professional entity that is Connacht Rugby, the supporters are the key to long term success and not the provinces clubs who only have their own interests at heart in their representations to the branch. Unfortunately it does not seem possible to seperate the two even when the long term future is still far from guarenteed. The long term succes of rugby in the province is going to be judged on the success of the professional side, and not the amateur ones.

If the Connacht Branch really has the best interests of the Team and it’s supporters at heart then they will do well to canvass supporters attending the early games in the season to find out their opinion and to act accordingly to ensure that both the team and the spectators receive the best support possible.

To that end, can I ask all Connacht Supporters who use this site and regularly attend fixtures at the Sportsground to please indicate your preferred day and time from the options listed on the Poll. (If you are not regularly a Connacht Supporter then I would kindly ask you not to enter a choice as this will simply dilute the effectiveness of the polls results).  

Question of the Week

 

Question: When would you like Connacht to play their home fixtures?

Friday Evening 13% Saturday Afternoon 33% Saturday Evening 52% Sunday Afternoon 2% Sunday Evening 0% Number of votes:  63        (to 02/08/2006)

   To view all televised fixtures please click on this link: http://www.magnersleague.com/fixtures