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American plan is workable

Of late there has been much debate in relation to the proposed eircom League clash in Boston. People have questioned the plausability of the idea, people have even suggested that it is a disgraceful kick in the face of the fans.

A recent poll on this issue, on this website, illustrates however that there are a huge number in favour of the idea. Perhaps not the majority, but not far off.

All of this may seem rather irrelevant, as the idea looks unlikely to pass the pregnancy stage. The March date has been heavily questioned due to the weather in Boston around that time. This alone seems to trigger the plan's death.

However, the very fact that this plan has surfaced certainly suggests that some form of like event could and perhaps will happen in the future.

James Murtha is a Dundalk fan, currently residing in the United States. James is well known on the internet and is extremely knowledgeable vis a vis the eircom League, despite the difficulties his location inevitably poses.

Apt so, that he recently submitted a detailed article, outlining the reasons why this specific idea of Pat Dolan's was unworkable. However, he gives a detailed plan of his own, which he believes could work.

As James lives in relative proximity to the Boston area, he is obviously well informed to comment about the Boston plan, as well as this notion of bringing the eircom League to America.

Here below, he outlines his own views.

There has been a lot of controversy and discussion regarding the proposal by Pat Dolan that St. Patrick's Athletic and Shelbourne play a March 17th match in Boston. There are many issues regarding this that go beyond the simple discussions regarding the supporters, and ramifications regarding Shelbourne's title aspirations.

I have broken down each of these issues as I see them, with my proposal regarding a North American excursion of the eircom League.

The trip is a good idea, but several factors work against the timing of the trip. They are the weather, time of the event, location of the event, other sporting competition, lack of advertising time, lack of available television revenue, lack of merchandise that can be sold on this trip, lack of complete eL representation.

Weather
From someone who grew up approximately 150 miles from Boston, the weather in March can be brutal at best.

You can receive thunder, lightening, rain, hail, and snow all before morning tea. Should the current weather patterns of the last 5 years hold, the potential for another Northeaster type storm to occur, are great.

Should this be the case, let alone the fact you are asking players to play football in a blizzard, in all reality the roads to Foxborough will be closed preventing the match from going forward.

Time of the Event
While trying to capitalise on the St. Patrick's day Irish theme of two Irish football clubs playing in all honesty, St. Patrick's day is not an "Irish" day here in the States.

It's just an excuse for a bunch of git yanks to pretend that they're Irish to drink green beer and not have a clue. It's rather embarrassing and I would not want to subject our players, supporters from home, and the viewing audience back home to this.

Also March is "March Madness" which is the major college basketball tournament here in the United States which is on all the sports channels from dish and cable systems around the clock. In addition, March in Boston is high school ice hockey tournament time.

These are established sporting events that have become tradition here, and unfortunately this match would be viewed as a minor distraction.

Location
By limiting the event to Boston, we are not tapping into the massive Irish population centres in New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco/San Jose and Vancouver regions, all of which hold major Irish events through the year which draw thousands of visitors, and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Other Sporting Competition
In the United States, March = "March Madness"; this is the major college basketball tournament which runs the entire month, and is the major television sporting event for the month on almost every channel. In the greater Boston area, it is also high school ice hockey tournament time.

In Canada, it's the start of the National Hockey League, playoff run. These are established traditional events; competing against them is just not smart.

These are traditions and as such the match would just be a minor diversion at
best.

Lack of Advertising
This is crucial: without advertising and the money it brings, the financial success of the trip is in doubt.

To finance this venture the television stations need to sell advertising time, and this time has all been sold due to March Madness for the television, radio, and newspapers. Also most of the advertisers have nothing left to sponsor events related to the event. In North America, no cash = no event. Also without advertising we are not reaching all of our market we need to reach: fewer people, fewer dollars spent.

Lack of Quality Television Time
This can be demonstrated by the recent trip to the United States by the Irish Woman's National Team to play the American national team. While almost 60% of the live audience came out to support our national team due to the timing, which was coinciding with the end of the baseball season and start up of the American football season, the match was broadcast at 3 a.m. local time. There was no live broadcast anywhere in America. We need the live broadcast to trigger interest in our product which in this case is not just football, but kit sales, souvenirs, etc.

Lack of Merchandise
How many of us have lamented that we can't purchase a scarf, hat or kit top at the club shop?

When we come to America we need to bring thousands of these items to sell. American's love souvenirs. I have heard from a friend that last summer Americans accounted for a large portion of the sales of the yellow Finn Harps away kit. We must have plenty of our club's products to sell. Everything from key bobs, pens, to jackets.

Complete League Representation
This is not to slight St. Patrick's or Shelbourne, but having just these two clubs is not going to do it. We need to have every club have some form of representation at this event.

Okay, from that list it seems very negative, almost "why should we bother"; well the answer is just one word: CASH.

The purpose of this excursion is to establish the football foothold, and reap the benefit of such a foothold, which is cash flow. Why do you think Manchester United went to China? Over 1 billion potential customers: that's why.

The beauty of North America is this: over 35 million Americans claim Irish descent and this can be tapped into. In addition there is Canada, which is much closer to Ireland than the United States. Look at Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, any novel by Frank McCourt the list goes on; the money is here and it can be had.

And unlike China, we already have an audience receptive to the very nature of our product, which is "Irish football". With the revenue from North America pumped directly back into our league, we can improve stadia, make all our players full time professionals, improve European performances; the list goes on and on.

And best of all, there isn't the bombardment of FA football here. It's virgin territory: untouched, unsoiled by FA hands. If we are serious about this, here is my proposal for our entry into the North American market.

Rather than have two clubs come over and play one another, what is needed is a sponsored North American Irish Cup competition.

Already Guinness, and Bailey's sponsor numerous feises (Irish dances) and GAA events here that make money. I believe with the right presentation, we could have a sponsored event in which all monies to the clubs could be pure profit.

The set-up of the competition would be very much like European cup competition with two legs of the event for each contestant.

I would recommend that St. Patrick's Athletic, Shamrock Rovers, Cork City, Derry City, Finn Harps, and Galway United be the principle Irish clubs. The reason for this is quite simple: St. Patrick's, Shamrock Rovers and Finn Harps all tap into the "Irishness" of their names. There is a reason why the Boston Celtics are called the Celtics. Cork City, Derry City, and Galway United would bring in geographical identities of the population; here we cover all the bases.

The first event must tap into all emotions and support levels that we can. On each successive trip we can then bring other clubs. For the North American clubs, I would have NY/NJ Metro Stars of the MLS, New England Revolution of the MLS, Chicago Fire of the MLS, Toronto, San Jose Clash of the MLS and Vancouver 86's. This would give us 12 teams, which could be broken down into two distinct groups.

In the east:
NY/NJ
New England
Toronto

In the west:
Chicago
San Jose
Vancouver

I would have the finals for the event in Washington DC; the reason for this is that most certainly the American president would attend; in which case our Taoiseach would attend, perhaps then the government would provide some funding as well.

Each of these North American cities has a major Irish population centre that has an Irish consulate or holds a major Irish festival. Vancouver will draw from Seattle, Portland, Calgary, and Edmonton. Toronto would draw from Ontario, Province and Montreal. By doing this we are once again going for maximum audience.

In addition I would ensure that every eL club would send at least one player to this tournament to conduct clinics at the venues etc, which increase awareness of the League at large, which leads to increase merchandise sales.
More sales, more money.

By scheduling this event in the summer we would have no principle competition from other sports. This means that there is advertising money available which means that the television networks will pay to show the event, live. Multiple venues, multiple broadcasts: more exposure, more money.

We also need to target not only the American television networks, but also the Canadian broadcast network as well. I would also sell the rights to pubs ala the scheme the GAA uses to pubs in North America. Let's not forget we can sell the rights to these matches to football mad South America, Australia as well.

Summertime means better weather, spectators are more likely to purchase something more than a scarf; they'll want to wear that great looking kit top they've just spent $50.00 on.

In addition our clubs can use this time to prepare for Europe against competition that has been playing for a few months, and yet that they should beat as well. This will give our clubs confidence as we head into our European matches, and give us from fresh competition, thereby eliminating any grudge type matches where injury may occur.

Better lead time to set up the events, by focusing in on a June/July time frame, we can get our advertising, merchandising, venues, social events associated with matches all in place. Also getting our players on the television for interviews, radio in the newspapers will increase awareness.

This would be my plan for North America. It is important to recognise several factors here.

1. We must not ignore Canada.
2. We must cover all angles; the "Irishness" of our clubs names, plus the
regional clubs.
3. We must get the most out of the television and advertising that we can. Remember it is not run like it is in Ireland.
4. We must hit all the large markets we can.
5. Merchandise, Merchandise, Merchandise.
6. All the clubs must be represented.
7. Schedule the event to give us maximum benefit for Europe.

Note: I, the Editor of this site, would like to thanks James hugely for writing out this detailed piece. To put it mildly, whether or not you agree with all of his proposals, there is an undeniable huge amount of food for thought.

Thanks alot James, for giving up your time to write this piece, which gives an intriguing American view of what can be done.