We always hear Lad's here refer to rugby as a minority sport, just wondering , by their rationale is hurling then also a minority sport ? Only played to a high level by 8/9 out of 32 counties. Practically ignored by over 14 counties...... rugby is played just as much at underage nationally, probably even more. We know football and soccer are out 2 biggest games, but what's next ?

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 29/05/2015 08:21:45    1729766

I'd be confident enough hurling would outstrip rugby in terms or affiliated clubs, registered players, underage structures,match attendances and tv audience.

I mean Liam you stated arbitrary that its only played at the top level by 8-9 counties. That's always the problem when people talk about hurling, they think a lack of success at inter-county level means there is sweet eff all hurling played in those counties. I'm from a village in North Kerry which is at the centre of hurling's heartland in the county. There is a vibrant, intense and passionate hurling community in Kerry, many of whom would have little enough time for the football. The upward curve of the Kerry hurling team is finally showing the country proof of this. There's hundreds of youngsters in Kerry who play hurling every week and outside of the 4-5 major towns there is no rugby clubs. I'm sure its a similar situation in most of the Christy Ring grade counties.

Hurling is at least the third sport in Ireland and it could be a lot closer to soccer than people think...

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 29/05/2015 13:22:09    1729963

Hermit, would u agree Rugby is higher profile than hurling in most counties in Ireland?
I would contend outside the 8/9 that it is

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 29/05/2015 13:55:48    1729989

A Minority sport !!
No is the short answer no matter how you try to measure it. By attendance in order:
1.) Gaelic Football
2.) Soccer
3.) Hurling
4.) Rugby
*2013

Number of Clubs per sport in ireland top ten
1.) Soccer
2.) GAA
3.) Ladies Gaelic Football
6.) Camogie
Rugby is not in top ten

Club Membership:
1.) GAA 550,000
2.) Soccer 250,125
3.) Golf 166,419
4.) Ladies Gaelic Footbal 130,000
5.) Camogie 85,000
6.) Rugby 70,000

And so on, in terms of Gaelic football and Hurling - if you look at the Camogie/Ladies Gaelic football figures I suggest the GAA figure of 550,000 would be broken two thirds to one third or approx 366,000 to 214,000

But no way is Hurling is not a minority sport. The figures can be taken anyway you want, they may vary GAA membership could mean the guy cutting the grass pitch for all I know. The soccer ones are specifially players as are the GAA affiliated codes. Don't know the rest. Most figures were for 2013 except Camogie/Ladies football/Rugby.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4896 - 29/05/2015 14:06:31    1729999

i think you'd really have to break that down county by county - and even then, can you really name a county where rugby is the clear winner?

I'd hazard a guess at Antrim and Tyrone, after that, I really am not so sure. Rugby would have been bigger than hurling in Dublin 10-12 years ago but not sure it is any more.

The other real rugby strongholds are Limerick, Cork and Galway and hurling is very strong in those counties.

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5012 - 29/05/2015 14:21:10    1730004

Rugby is no longer a minority sport and one could argue it never was. Minority sports are Judo, Squash, Sailing, cycling etc. Hurling will be on our TVs every week for the next 3 months with huge viewing figures. You could harldy clasify it as a minority sport even if it has been passsed out by rugby in terms participation which I doubt.

ZUL10 (Clare) - Posts: 693 - 29/05/2015 14:23:33    1730005

arock
County: Dublin
Posts: 2585

1729999
A Minority sport !!
No is the short answer no matter how you try to measure it. By attendance in order:
1.) Gaelic Football
2.) Soccer
3.) Hurling
4.) Rugby
*2013

Out of curiosity, where is this list from?

mayo_hurler (Mayo) - Posts: 113 - 29/05/2015 14:56:55    1730018

a higher profile liam?>..you have to realise the casual nature in which rugby is followed largely by people in this country...basically the national team and whatever province is going well....the participation levels have improved but they are still way off the bigger sports...there is only 1 rugby club in a good few counties

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 29/05/2015 15:05:16    1730022

Football and soccer are the two major sports in Ireland. No doubt about that.

In terms of media presence rugby is on a par with the two above for obvious reasons but is a long way behind both in terms of particpation/membership of clubs and attendances compared to football especially.

Rugby is probably ahead of hurling in terms of media presence but I'd doubt it comes anywhere near it in terms of participation and membership. Take Dublin for example, hurling is far more widely played here than rugby at club level both underage and adult as well as particulaily in schools.

Hurling is probably a minority sport but it is a very healthy one, as is rugby by the way but rugby's popularity is skewed slightly imo.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 29/05/2015 15:05:43    1730023

no. By that reckoning, all sports are "minority" except the most played one, and even that wouyld be played by a minority of people in the country. Its streets ahead of rugby in participation, even in southeast dublin, the rugger b*ggers came begging cap in hand to Cuala. Id agree with Zulu, I wouldnt call rugby a minority sport either, I think peopla say that when referring to the exorbitant amount of media coverage it gets. (This isnt directed at you oromndo, so please dont copy ant paste it a hundred times)

flack (Dublin) - Posts: 1054 - 29/05/2015 15:15:44    1730031

I just think hurling has poor media coverage in counties that haven't won an All-Ireland. For example, as far as I can tell there are 58 adult rugby clubs in Ulster, and 78 hurling clubs. Yet rugby probably gets 10x the media coverage even at club level. i.e schools cup is televised. Is the media biased? Or is are hurling people and the GAA in general not doing enough PR work? If some County boards dont even have hurling fixtures and results mentioned on their websites, why would they expect newspapers etc to do so.
In my opinion its a mixture of both. Obviously the fact that rugby has an international dimension means that it will always have an advantage when it comes not just to media attention but sponsership as well.
It's frustrating that hurling is considered weak in ulster even though its argubaly the 3rd biggest sport after gaelic and soccer. Maybe we need to put forward a more positive marketing campaign for hurling. Some kids growing up in these areas and other parts of the country, belive that the sport is unpopular.

PucABoutYe (Down) - Posts: 5 - 29/05/2015 15:33:34    1730047

I'd hazard a guess at Antrim and Tyrone, after that, I really am not so sure. Rugby would have been bigger than hurling in Dublin 10-12 years ago but not sure it is any more.

Id equally hazard a guess that hurling is bigger than rugby in Antrim.

bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts: 1852 - 29/05/2015 15:42:31    1730051

Another very silly thread from you Liam.

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6031 - 29/05/2015 15:59:21    1730062

arock
County: Dublin
Posts: 2585

1729999
A Minority sport !!
No is the short answer no matter how you try to measure it. By attendance in order:
1.) Gaelic Football
2.) Soccer
3.) Hurling
4.) Rugby
*2013

Where did you get these figures. As per link the hurling Championship had bigger revenue than Gaelic in 2013 and again last year?

http://hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=208889

ZUL10 (Clare) - Posts: 693 - 29/05/2015 16:02:37    1730065

id agree mesamis...outside of the soccer national team when its going well..who has a bigger media presence than rugby?...this gives off the false impression thats its bigger than it actually is....at grassroots level hurling blows rugby out of the water

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 29/05/2015 16:10:19    1730069

it certainly is in Cavan.

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 29/05/2015 16:26:30    1730072

Hurling has come on a lot in Cavan recently where there are now 8 underage clubs.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 29/05/2015 17:34:41    1730093

To my mind, in Wexford, the breakdown is something like...
Gaa -approx. 50 clubs
Soccer. -approx 50 clubs (or maybe a bit less)
Rugby. -4 clubs.
I might be slightly off on the numbers, what about other counties?

extranjero (Wexford) - Posts: 375 - 29/05/2015 17:42:34    1730096

Dunno is soccer that big, its not really taken seriously by that many players, I know its very subjective, but the amount who train and tog out regularly isnt as much as were led to believe. As to supporting soccer in Ireland, its a bit of a joke the crowds they get (obviously excluding those who watch the pl in the pub). If your going to count all the jokers "involved" in soccer, you may as wwell count walkers and joggers, and then everything else would be a minority sport. ;-)

flack (Dublin) - Posts: 1054 - 29/05/2015 18:55:42    1730117

@ZUL10 - Interesting stat on hurling crowds/revenue. It was the first year of the hurling round robin. Is the streamlined league and elite group in the Liam McCarthy Cup attracting bigger crowds? The qualifiers was streamlined to two qualifier rounds.

It might suggest football should consider something similar? I've suggested already that the football championship could bring back the Tommy Murphy Cup for the 8 provincial round 1 losers with the winner earning a route back into the championship. Some standard needs to be set. There could be 8 different round 1 losers every year so no team is being discriminated against and they are not being ring-fenced away from the rest.

Tommy Murphy Cup: 8 teams - 2 losing Munster quarter-finalists, 2 losing Connaught quarter-finalists, 1 losing Ulster prelimnary round team and 3 losing Leinster preliminary round teams.

Football championship with Tommy Murphy Cup winner joining:
Munster: 2 semi-finals and a final. (4 teams)
Connaught: 2 semi-finals and a final. (4 teams)
Ulster: 4 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals and a final. (8 teams)
Leinster: 4 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals and a final. (8 teams)

My suggestion is to bring in a Round of 16. The 4 provincial championships above would be split into 3 groups of 8 providing 5 teams each for the Round of 16:
Munster & Connaught (5 from 8 teams into the last 16): 4 provincial finalists and 1 qualifier from the 4 non-finalists making the last 16.
Ulster (5 from 8 teams into the last 16): 2 provincial finalists and 3 qualifiers from the 6 non-finalists making the last 16.
Leinster (5 from 8 teams into the last 16): 2 provincial finalists and 3 qualifiers from the 6 non-finalists making the last 16.
Tommy Murphy Cup: TMC winner being the 16th team in the Round of 16.

It's important to have a meaningful reward for winning a province, especially if provincial finalists are entering at the same stage. My suggestion here is that the 8 qualifiers are seeded based on league placing:
Provincial winner drawn at home against the lower 4 league placed qualifier counties.
Provincial runners-up drawn against the higher 4 league placed qualifier counties with a separate draw to determine the home team.

It's debatable but I think qualifiers should take place within their respective provinces. Having 3 groups of 8 teams with 5 teams from each group making the last 16 seems fair. The introduction of a Round of 16 would provide a truly All-Ireland round with games being played all around the country in provincial grounds before the Croke Park series of quarter-finals onwards.

Hurling similarly could have 8 quarter-finalists with the Munster and Leinster champions being drawn at home against the 2 lowest league qualifiers and the 2 provincial runners-up being drawn against the 2 higher league qualifiers with a separate draw for home tie.

Provincial grounds are deserving of more big games, especially in the All-Ireland stage of the competition. The introduction of a Round of 16 in football ad the introduction of 8 team quarter-finals in hurling can provide the stage for top class All-Ireland action across provincial grounds.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7842 - 29/05/2015 19:17:02    1730123