Soccer: That's the gate receipts sorted!

Wow! What a hectic week Cork City had!

Three matches in four days would tax the stamina of any professional but the City players, including the younger guys who got to perform against Watford and Manchester Utd, certainly didn’t let the side down.

Indeed, City’s youngsters generally outshone United’s 'stars of the future', much to the surprise of those fans who had come along to admire the visitors. Outside the ground selling the programmes on Wednesday night, I was a bit surprised to find many United fans speaking with Cork accents. OK; I lie; I wasn’t at all surprised. I’m all too aware that many Irish soccer fans declare an allegiance, not for their local side, but for a cross-channel side. Reassuringly, however, a handful of the visiting club’s supporters actually spoke with English accents!

It was also quite interesting to meet people who hadn’t been inside the ground for many years. Some people wondered how much of the ground had seating, while one gent expressed the hope that the grass banks wouldn’t be too muddy after all the rain! Reassuringly, those Cork folk among the crowd of 6,059 who came to admire United’s second (or third?) string side weren’t all entirely blinkered. A couple of gents sitting near me concluded that the visitors looked unimpressive. “There’s nothing there anyway,” one of them concluded midway through the first half. Shortly afterwards they were both cheering the home side loudly and enthusiastically, as were many supporters wearing United’s colours.

The match versus Watford on the Tuesday night wasn’t such an attention-grabber and attracted a much more modest attendance of 1,182 with City using a lot of their younger players, who generally showed enough to be deemed worthy of further consideration. All told, City showed enough, both on and off the field, to prompt the casual fan to consider a few repeat trips for normal league matches. The only real downside was Friday’s frustrating scoreless draw v. Shelbourne in the league match. Such a shame the week ended on a bit of a downer, football-wise.

As for the real object of the exercise? The Watford match attracted an attendance not far removed from what could have been expected for the aborted Monaghan United fixture, with the added bonus of increased programme sales. Wednesday night’s fixture was the big one, though. Media reports claim that City made €50,000 on the match, though I suspect that this is an estimate, albeit an educated one. I know for certain that programme sales were excellent, and that sales of merchandise were also very high. After my programme-selling stint outside, I dropped into the office with my takings, which were substantial. Inside the door, money was being sorted and counted; lots of it!!

Without doubt, the club has more than made up for losing the income from the Monaghan Utd fixture, but equally important was the goodwill and favourable media coverage generated from the week’s activities. It’s all vital.