sea_point wrote:

Benji wrote: I enjoyed the day and night.

The wait for the toilets in the main stand was poor. I live near the Rds and have been a Leinster season ticket holder for 7-8 years. They have done it very well but they had the cash growing every year. I brought my four year old to the game with the war office and had terrace tickets which we knew were going to be awkward with a four year old. He enjoyed the build up but her good self took him inside for a good bit of the game. Now if they are serious about promoting it to families maybe a seated area either end for families.
We have a group of us that go to the Rds of around 19 and there are 9 kids. The kids love it and wouldn't miss it.

Family days good safe facilities easy access food and toilets are the way to go.
Sitting beside kids isn't every bodys cup of tea but it helps develop the brand and brings in the cash with kids

In fairness Benji, Leinster walked into a ready made arena and we're building pretty from scratch with much less wonga on pipe.

Building the permanent extra space on the Clan Terrace and Bohermore and College Road ends was a great bit of business, getting an extra 2,500 in the ground. Toilets and commercial outlet improvements would be next, but important this year especially that as many people as possible were able to attend...

I personally do not like comparing us to Leinster. I fail to see how they were not such a success. they have the market and always had the players. The difference I always feel is we have to find our market as we were a bit lat arriving. I comend the work being done this year. The sportsground looked amazing on the box at the weekend. I knew of people travelling from Cork to be there for it. If Galway latches onto rugby we are onto a winner. I feel it is up to Connacht to force Galway into wanting rugby.

Sea_point - Is it a case of build it and they will come? I know of plenty of areas that put up portaloo urinals on busy streets at weekends. These take 8 men todo their business. A few of these could be a short term solution? They are not the most attractive place but you get in out and are relieved. It would prevent people from doing it in public view

Benji wrote: I enjoyed the day and night.

The wait for the toilets in the main stand was poor. I live near the Rds and have been a Leinster season ticket holder for 7-8 years. They have done it very well but they had the cash growing every year. I brought my four year old to the game with the war office and had terrace tickets which we knew were going to be awkward with a four year old. He enjoyed the build up but her good self took him inside for a good bit of the game. Now if they are serious about promoting it to families maybe a seated area either end for families.
We have a group of us that go to the Rds of around 19 and there are 9 kids. The kids love it and wouldn't miss it.

Family days good safe facilities easy access food and toilets are the way to go.
Sitting beside kids isn't every bodys cup of tea but it helps develop the brand and brings in the cash with kids

In fairness Benji, Leinster walked into a ready made arena and we're building pretty from scratch with much less wonga on pipe.

Building the permanent extra space on the Clan Terrace and Bohermore and College Road ends was a great bit of business, getting an extra 2,500 in the ground. Toilets and commercial outlet improvements would be next, but important this year especially that as many people as possible were able to attend...

Aye, I didn't have anything to drink (on purpose) before the game because I didn't want to have to deal with the 'facilities'. It may have improved a bit, but not enough.

Not only that, but as was mentioned elsewhere, there are no clear pathways, so getting up and down is a big of a struggle.

swift4prez wrote: i hope i wont come across ass mr. ranty cause i sure am not one.

1. walk way from the ground level to back of the stand
Just to clarify, you're talking about acsess/exit on the Clan Terrace?

2. more toilets, more bar, more from supermacs. it takes all off half time to use one of these
Even in the most modern stadium there will always queuing for loos and refreshments unless people are pepared to miss some action and stagger their visits, just not possible to provide enough toilets/vendors to alleviate queues...


3. i hope the branch makes as much effort into the other two hc matches also as this one was a planned and worked well. same type of pre and half time entertainment and handing out flags.Hopefully so in terms of entertainment, they got a big delivery of flags in last week and they obviously did agood job in terms of distribution as the colour was absolutely great on the box. Wondeful to see the greening of the Sportsground, usually people jerseys are hiddend underneath dark heavy coats or tops.

Hopefully also supporters attending all three home games will retain their flags and bring them along to the next fixtures as there won't be an endless supply of freebie flags I would imagine..


4. very surprised to see few toulouse supporters standing next to me in the clan. (hope this is fixed before leinster comes along)My understanding is that the ERC rules dicate that the visiting teams are entitled to a percentage (15%??) of tickets from all sections of the ground..


all in all it worked out very well apart from the score. well done all.
Twas a great night despite an off colour first half performance from the pack, but absolutely invaluable expoerience for Conancht Rugby both on and off the field

The toilet situation has been in need of drastic improvement for years. They are especially poor at the main stand. The queues are a joke, it's so bad for the big games that I don't bother drinking, my mates are the same, you miss too much of the game, it's not worth it. My mother was in the college road terrace, she went to get a cup of coffee behind the Clan Terrace and she said that there were lads just pissing everywhere at half-time, even on the stall selling Heineken! That does not exactly promote a family-friendly atmosphere!

I enjoyed the day and night.
The wait for the toilets in the main stand was poor. I live near the Rds and have been a Leinster season ticket holder for 7-8 years. They have done it very well but they had the cash growing every year. I brought my four year old to the game with the war office and had terrace tickets which we knew were going to be awkward with a four year old. He enjoyed the build up but her good self took him inside for a good bit of the game. Now if they are serious about promoting it to families maybe a seated area either end for families.
We have a group of us that go to the Rds of around 19 and there are 9 kids. The kids love it and wouldn't miss it.
Family days good safe facilities easy access food and toilets are the way to go.
Sitting beside kids isn't every bodys cup of tea but it helps develop the brand and brings in the cash with kids

I spoke to a neighbour who was at the match and he said that from the Bohermore Terrace, you couldn't see very much. Difficult to see the lines etc. This could be true of the whole ground, I guess I'm just used to it, but he was impressed that he didn't have a better view. So constructively, construction would be the answer...

Great topic ummm.

Unfotunately I didnt make it at the weekend and have been ranting enough about that.

The thng that amazes me is that we can draw 9000 for a big game. Everybody in the place has a great day out and talk about it. Yet half of them wont go next week. I know people want to see winning etc. I know Leinster suffered similar problems a number of years ago and started to target lady supporters. They used to go along with husbands and mee the other ladies for a few drinks. They would then sit together and after a while look forward to gong to the games themselves. Now im not a fan of the atmosphere in RDS but i think the clan terrace has HUGE potential.

it may be easier said then done but we need to fnd ot why people will not be willing to go back to the Rabo games. plenty of teams have big names now and world class players. Maybe we need to make it a better day out to draw the crowds and get the money through the door.

I am new to this site but have been a reader. I understan how importnat Connacht rugby is to many people. I always try to encourage new pwople to come to the games with me. Apologies if this is the incorrect place, or not what this topic is for!!!

i hope i wont come across ass mr. ranty cause i sure am not one.
1. walk way from the ground level to back of the stand
2. more toilets, more bar, more from supermacs. it takes all off half time to use one of these
3. i hope the branch makes as much effort into the other two hc matches also as this one was a planned and worked well. same type of pre and half time entertainment and handing out flags.
4. very surprised to see few toulouse supporters standing next to me in the clan. (hope this is fixed before leinster comes along)

all in all it worked out very well apart from the score. well done all.

As mentioned here www.connachtclan.com/forum/2-connacht-ru...mit=16&start=64#2927 this is a place to discuss your experiences of our first HEC appearance. What went well, what could be improved.

Note: This is not a place for Mr. Ranty. This is a place to add constructive criticisms, ideas and suggestions.

I'll start: There were 9,000 people at the match on Saturday, but there are only a couple of hundred of registered users on this site. It would be nice if the stadium announcements before the match and at half time could plug this site and the clan in general. Outside of the 3000 season ticket supporters you can be sure there were a load of people there just because it was Toulouse, they need some educating!