extranjero (Wexford) - Posts: 375 - 11/06/2016 23:21:21    1865321

and u have to factor in just how popular following the likes of man utd and liverpool etc is here

alano12 (Dublin) - Posts: 2208 - 12/06/2016 00:52:24    1865331

mediaman has provided fact after fact...what is your response to this?..why is the coverage negative?..u suggested they show the sports most popular solely on the basis of a website ignoring practically every piece of evidence showing gaa especially gaelic football is the most popular sport followed by soccer especially if the national team is going well

alano12 (Dublin) - Posts: 2208 - 12/06/2016 00:53:58    1865332

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8115 - 12/06/2016 10:22:13    1865379

"...every piece of evidence showing gaa especially gaelic football is the most popular sport followed by soccer..."

alano12 (Dublin) - Posts:51 - 12/06/2016 00:53:58



But by what criteria could we claim it's more popular?
For example, I was on the Irish Sports Council website, and had a look through some of the "Irish Sports Monitor Annual Report 2013" (I'm pretty sure there's a 2015/16 report aswell but it doesn't seem to be on their site yet, if anyone can find it please let us know).
In the report, (in section 3, page 20)
are the percentages of adults involved in the most popular sports. Here is a selection of those mentioned:

5.9% Soccer
2.6% Gaelic Football
1.7% Hurling/Camogie
1.4% Rugby

As we can see, soccer has higher participation levels than the other 3 combined.

Now before anyone has a pop at me, I'm a GAA fan first and foremost, but I'm just trying to show sometimes things are more complicated than they first appear.

extranjero (Wexford) - Posts: 375 - 12/06/2016 10:33:14    1865382

The most popular games are GAA play wise and supporter wise. Every community in the country has a team with some clubs having over 50 teams. Every club is well supported. I judge support by the amount of people who attend matches on a daily/weekly basis - not just a single match. So I repeat my stat that the ratio of support for the GAA games are many many times more supported than any other sport. Turning on a TV set is not support, maybe support for the power supply company! May I also add that there was a map of Ireland completed recently showing locations of every GAA field inside our 32 counties (county with most pitches Cork and Fermanagh least follower by Leitrim). Is there any soccer or rubghy club with over 50 teams and if so, how many of these clubs are there?

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 12/06/2016 10:53:59    1865397

Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 12/06/2016 12:15:53    1865433

The biggest story of the weekend? By a country mile. Tipperary's MSFC defeat of Cork. No argument! Unless of course you're RTE's Sean O'Rourke. He opened the weekend football debate on this morning's show by asking about Louth. Yes Louth. And why? Because Louth are playing again next weekend in the Qualifiers. The one even mildly negative story of a great weekend's football got top billing on the Sean O'Rourke Show. Ahead of Tipperary's stunning win over Cork, ahead of Roscommon's dramatic comeback against Sligo, ahead of Donegal's clinical 14 man dismantling of Fermanagh and ahead of Westmeath's heroic 'El Classico' defeat of Offaly. Who in his/her right mind would put Louth's situation ahead of Tipperary's historic win?

PS. Great to see the enormous underage efforts made by Tipperary over the last few years finally bearing fruit. Congratulations to everyone concerned.

mediaman (Antrim) - Posts: 355 - 13/06/2016 15:41:38    1866230

by looking at participation numbers, attendances and viewing figures, gaelic football is the most popular sport in the country...soccer is very popular participation levels especially younger age groups where its the biggest sport in the country near enough but there is a big drop off after that

On a side note...look at rtes coverage of what tipp achieved yesterday....lazy, uninformed, disinterested and disrespectful and a good example of why people are constantly annoyed at the coverage rte provides

alano12 (Dublin) - Posts: 2208 - 13/06/2016 15:46:13    1866234

It's a joke. Rte ignore the gaa for most of week but use words like 'debacle' and 'marred by' to qualify almost every story they run. Contrast that with how a friendly win over the most racist sporting nation on earth is called historic? At least they gave some time to the blatant thuggery by Stander which saw his dismissal. Oh wait...that was accidental of course.

sceptical (Cavan) - Posts: 544 - 13/06/2016 16:35:41    1866280

alano12 (Dublin) - Posts: 2208 - 13/06/2016 16:58:54    1866297

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8115 - 13/06/2016 19:05:31    1866323

The RTE 6.01 News and Sport hit a new low tonight and in the process showed exactly why they are not to be trusted in relation to their football/hurling coverage. Just look at the stats for the last 6 Mondays.

Monday May 09th. - no coverage of football or hurling.
Monday May 16th. - no coverage of football or hurling.
Monday May 23rd. - no coverage of football or hurling.
Monday May 30th. - no coverage of football or hurling.
Monday June 6th. - coverage of Meath v Antrim (score controversy).
Monday June 13th. - coverage of Westmeath v Offaly (full-time controversy).

It's fairly what the above shows. No controversy. No coverage. Tonight they showed 20 seconds of VT showing Westmeath and Offaly players milling around at the end of the game. Despite studying the footage a number of times the only physical contact I can see is two players shaking hands. In the lead up to this game the 6.01 News and Sport never once mentioned the fixture and on last night's programme they didn't show even 1 single second of highlights. Yet tonight it's of national importance. Of course the most glaring omission this evening was their decision again to completely ignore Tipperary's massive win yesterday. But then that would amount to a good news story and RTE 6.01's football coverage doesn't extend to that.

mediaman (Antrim) - Posts: 355 - 13/06/2016 21:44:25    1866389

It's the only full-time professional team sport in the country. That doesn't make it more popular, participation-wise, than GAA sports. But regardless of participation RTE are surely looking at potential listener and viewer figures rather than number of participants. Be it soccer, rugby, boxing, horseracing, GAA, whatever, but for provincial finals, All Ireland semis and finals and a few other GAA clashes how many people wiĺl watch games not involving our own county over some of the other sports. Hoganstand posters probably all would but we're a percent of a percent of RTE's potential viewing audience.
GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts:2451 - 11/06/2016 21:14:30 Being the only full time professional team sport in the country doesn't make it more popular but it makes it 100 times more accessible and easier for the media to cover rugby.

in general gaa is simply more popular and deserves better coverage..gaelic football especially...all the sports have their place but it is pretty lopsided against the gaa in terms of the coverage and the tone of the coverage especially which is extremely negative..soccer we are usually negative bar when we quality for a tournament..in rugby its all positive....the money involved and sponsors probably a big issue for the extra coverage they receive
alano12 (Dublin) - Posts:62 - 11/06/2016 22:16:44 Rugby coverage isn't at all simply positive and if GAA is negative then they must look within themselves why its so negative. The pundits are all from the GAA and are ex coaches/players etc etc. That they are negative is not the fault of RTE etc.

i would argue soccer is the biggest professional sport in ireland yes by a distance just our players play abroad
alano12 (Dublin) - Posts:62 - 11/06/2016 22:37:40None of thse players who play abroad are based in Ireland or live in Ireland. They don't play much or train much in Ireland. Rugby is the biggest pro sport in the country considering the several hundred professional players across the country

The most popular games are GAA play wise and supporter wise. Every community in the country has a team with some clubs having over 50 teams. Every club is well supported. I judge support by the amount of people who attend matches on a daily/weekly basis - not just a single match. So I repeat my stat that the ratio of support for the GAA games are many many times more supported than any other sport. Turning on a TV set is not support, maybe support for the power supply company! May I also add that there was a map of Ireland completed recently showing locations of every GAA field inside our 32 counties (county with most pitches Cork and Fermanagh least follower by Leitrim). Is there any soccer or rubghy club with over 50 teams and if so, how many of these clubs are there?
browncows (Meath) - Posts:980 - 12/06/2016 10:53:59There likely isn't any rugby club with 50+ teams due to simple fact in areas where there might be, in Dublin/Belfast etc the majority of kids don't play any rugby in a club between the ages of 12 and 18/19
The number of games in terms of grassroots doesn't mean there should be more coverage. The attendance figures don't mean coverage should be higher.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 13/06/2016 22:09:55    1866400

sceptical (Cavan) - Posts: 544 - 13/06/2016 22:27:07    1866406

Yep - or maybe they felt showing live coverage across tv and radio and also a highlight show that maybe, just maybe some people arent interested in GAA or sport at all. They are a national broadcaster , they actually show far more sport than justifiable. Even within sport participation levels in running and swimming are leagues ahead of GAA. But for some someone training months and running a marathan is not a sportsman because they are not paying membership to a club and drinking cheap pints and registered as a 'player'. The world of stats eh..

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4653 - 13/06/2016 22:40:16    1866412

. No controversy. No coverage. Tonight they showed 20 seconds of VT showing Westmeath and Offaly players milling around at the end of the game. Despite studying the footage a number of times the only physical contact I can see is two players shaking hands.
mediaman (Antrim) - Posts:323 - 13/06/2016 21:44:25 1

ah thats solves the mystery two lads shook hands and ..puff, by magic somebody gets a bloody nose, id better get on to my local church to tell them not to bother with the sign of peace for health and safety reasons

janesboro (Limerick) - Posts: 1502 - 13/06/2016 22:43:15    1866413

janesboro (Limerick) - Posts: 1502 - 13/06/2016 22:45:45    1866416

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8115 - 13/06/2016 22:53:06    1866420

It's pretty damning in my opinion but some others won't see it that way regardless of the evidence.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 13/06/2016 22:56:11    1866424