We face life at the Madstad without the Craic

By BrianC
October 28 2004

Just as our on-field performances have left much to be desired this season, the situation off-field now appears to be in some disarray.

To save costs, we are told £5000 per game, the Craic in the Cowshed has been cancelled for all our remaining home ZP games with the exception of the next home game against Leicester and the St. Patrick’s Weekend match against Quins.

This cannot have been an easy decision for our club, one can only begin to imagine what shape the finances are in to have forced such a decision. That said to many, this author included, this appears to be a bad decision.

Over the years the name of London Irish has become synonymous with the Craic. In a club who’s (lack of) marketing strategy we have often pointed out, the Craic has been the one consistent theme. ‘The Craic in the Valley’ and ‘It’s more than eighty minutes’ have been our unique selling point for some time now. Whilst the slogans will no doubt still be used, they will be largely meaningless.

That this will impact the number of casual supporters who come to matches is not in doubt. Our club must be aware of this and will have calculated that the cost saving is greater than the revenue that would be generated by such visitors. Where I feel greatest concern is that for a short term financial saving we appear to be jeopardising the long term development of the support.

This year we proudly announced 3500 season tickets sold. Part of the package that was sold to those season ticket holders was the Craic. How many of those now existing customers will feel to a greater or lesser effect let down? My guess is that this will have a significant effect on ST renewals for next year where some will just chose to come to the games which have the Craic.

Over the years many of us have recruited new supporters/season ticket holders by inviting them to matches and letting them enjoy the experience that is London Irish on a match day. Again my guess is that less people will be invited and that of those who are, less will want to repeat the experience.

In any company that is experiencing financial difficulties the marketing budget is often one of the first things to get hit. Often, with hindsight, this is shown to be a mistake. I sincerely hope I’m wrong but this strikes me as a clanger of monumental proportions.

We can try to change our clubs mind about this but that is at best a long shot. As much as anything else for the decision to be reversed someone would have to admit to having made a mistake, not something our club has a good record in. It seems therefore that it is up to us to make our own Craic be that in the hotel or somewhere in the centre of Reading.

It’s time to get our collective thinking caps on folks, all suggestions are welcome.