That's not for money, but fame and reputation. Connacht is probably the only team with a trophy in the whole rugby history who never ever played in front of more than 9-10.000 of his own fans. If we don't want to be considered as the poor relation of Irish rugby anymore this has to be the chance for 3 big 25 000 crowds, now we have the occasion, with ChampionsCup and "fans momentum". That does not contradict the Sportsground upgrade for the following season;

I agree. We've turned the Sportsground into a fortress this year. To lose this advantage and move to a neutral venue would be madness. We need to up our capacity for the big games, but moving to Thomond would not help our case with the IRFU when looking for funding for improvements.

Stick to what we've got.

If you buy a season ticket you'll definitely guaranteed to get to see every home game played at the Sportsground. If you don't buy one, for whatever reason, e.g. cost, distance, work/domestic commitments, lack of enthusiasm etc. you might - or might not - get to see the games you are available for.

Don't move games to Limerick chasing a quick buck. It will annoy many regular fans and add loads of expense for the vast majority, it will deprive the city's businesses of three (hopefully more) big paydays, it we will lose our home advantage, it will lessen the need to buy a season ticket - and it might not even make the province any money!

connachta wrote:

kermis wrote: Home advantage is an advantage for a reason. Don't give it up easily!

Not for interpros we agree. But to Welcome Sarries or Toulon, our home advantage with 25000 will be bigger

True. We (Glasgow) are in a similar position.
We were forced to move our home H Cup game against Racing this year to 20miles down the road- we'd already not qualified, last minute change (due to the pitch) and still another 2k people showed up (incidently we beat them out the door). Not many Racing fans there and yet it still didn't feel like a home game.

Our home league game against Edinburgh was moved to Murrayfield and yet not a single extra ticket went onsale to try and keep the % of supporters the same i.e. to keep home advantage. Much good it did us :whistle: (we lost).

I totally get the wanting to capatialise on crowds but need a balance of retaining why it's so difficult for opposition teams to win in Galway. So moving games where there's not likely to be much away support seems like a sensible compromise.

kermis wrote: Home advantage is an advantage for a reason. Don't give it up easily!

Not for interpros we agree. But to Welcome Sarries or Toulon, our home advantage with 25000 will be bigger

It's short-termism. Connacht shops and pubs will be winners with bigger crowds drained even if they're out for a few hours each seasons. People get back home and consume anyway. People staying will gather in Galway anyway

Home advantage is an advantage for a reason. Don't give it up easily!

connachta wrote: That's why I don't think Interpros should be moved.
But going from 8 to 25 K is huge. Not at all for finance, as we're gonna pay Munster for it anyway, but for supporters. We deserve 3 huge games, as Murrayfield one or Leinster in the Aviva.

We deserve nothing if take 8000 people spending money out of galway to bring 25000 into Limerick. What message does this send to those businesses that connacht are looking for sponsorship from.

That's why I don't think Interpros should be moved.
But going on special european occasions from 8 to 25 K is huge. Not at all for finance, as we're gonna pay Munster for it anyway, but for the supporters themselves. We deserve 3 huge games, as Murrayfield one or Leinster in the Aviva. 10-12K improved Stadium won't be enough for that

connachta wrote: Thomond is the wiser solution for the 3 ChampionsCup games. Not far from South-Connacht, I think we could fill the 25 000, and it will flood Munster with extra-cash if they rent us their debt-stadium

I couldn't disagree more strongly. Leaving the Provence for the sake of a quick buck short term gain is nonsense.
The sportsground add so much to our game that moving home games puts us on the back foot straight off.

In what way does it make sense to have 6 away games in Europe (Thomand is never home)

The expense this would add for a lot of people should not be underestimated. I for one couldn't do thomand in a day so would have to stay over. It's something I won't be doing.

I disagree about moving games. Everything we have achieved Pat Lam has based on the backing of the community. Moving the games to Limerick would be short-sighted and a kick in the teeth to the people and businesses within the province. We need the finance undoubtedly but there are some things more important than a quick pay day and I think and hope that's the wave length Pat has us on. We can come up with new temporary stands for those games. In the short term we undoubtedly do need better facilities and quickly. The last times we were in Europe we didn't sell out a number of games. Support is fickle, lets get our facilities improved and sell as much as we can. Makes it easier to look for funding in the future.

Thomond is the wiser solution for the 3 ChampionsCup games. Not far from South-Connacht, I think we could fill the 25 000, and it will flood Munster with extra-cash if they rent us their debt-stadium.
The only point is to ensure from EPRC their home games alternate with ours.
They've stolen our song, we're gents, we'll pay for their facilities!:woohoo:

So if 5k of STs are sold a lot of people will miss out on games, especially the European games.

Is there any plans to expand capacity or have a game in Pearse stadium? Like other people have said, It'd be a shame to lose the momentum of this season by people (even, or especially, casual fans not getting to see a game.

Wasrednowgreen wrote: Heard that over 2500 plus season tickets already sold (way ahead of last year at the same time) & the clan stand will for sure be sold out by month end - if you need to renew then renew now....Lecture over

Thornley said on 2nd Captains today over 4k STs sold at this point with another surge expected at the end of June when The Not The Heineken Cup draw is made.

With a bit of luck we could hit the 5k mark around July and still have a couple of months to go before the first game of the season to build on that.

Anyone know if more Clan Terrace season tickets will be made available?

Evil_g wrote: Looks like Clan tickets are sold out. Anyone know how many were available?

I don't know any exact figures but I did hear last week that they had sold about as many season tickets already for next season as they sold in total for this season.