This is like GAA was twenty years ago.Inter county hurlers now train every day of the week and work full time.Shinty is organised on a club basis,but club hurlers train alot more than twice a week and the same for the sister sport of gaelic football .They are all amateur sports ,but in ireland it has gone out of control .Players are training like professionals,but they have no recovery time ,because they have to work.Twice a week makes more sense for amateurs.
stoney71 3000 people isn't terrible considering the demographics of the highlands. Taking the population of highland council(210000), .015 percent of the highlands is there, not great, but not bad considering the difficulty of traveling and the village where Kyle's are from has a population of 660, and the the village where lovat are from has a population of under a thousand. Hurling, for comparison, has an attendance rate of .07. This number does not include non hurling fans, it only includes 23% of the population, which is the percentage of the total attendance of sport that was for hurling. I wasn't able to find any number like that for the highlands, but if i could, i bet you that number would go much closer to that .07 mark. But i do understand the sentiment that you wish the sport would be more widely played around the world.
Hurling is played in areas of ireland that are the exact opposite of the highlands mainly rich agricultural land of the deep southern counties with the exception of antrim in the far north.Gaelic football is the game of the wilder mountain areas,but its also big in midland counties which are also rich agricultural lands and of course dublin.I accept that shinty is probably as big in its area as hurling is in its area,but its a pity nonetheless i prefer hurling ,but still it deserves to be more widespread . The pop of munster where the game is strongest is 1.2 million and the top level is based on counties rather than club thus maximising attendance though there is an all ireland club competition as well.When st thomas club of galway won the all ireland few years ago all the village went to the match they had to hire a security firm to keep an eye on their houses they also informed the police who hardly needed to be informed.Like shinty its an amateur sport players play for love of the game and community pride.Its not just hurling gaelic football is the same,if a county is in an all ireland the whole county gets exited it really does not matter if they are not hurling or gaelic fans its a sense of community that really drives these sports
This is like GAA was twenty years ago.Inter county hurlers now train every day of the week and work full time.Shinty is organised on a club basis,but club hurlers train alot more than twice a week and the same for the sister sport of gaelic football .They are all amateur sports ,but in ireland it has gone out of control .Players are training like professionals,but they have no recovery time ,because they have to work.Twice a week makes more sense for amateurs.
I asked a guy from Edinburgh if he had ever played Shinty, and he didn't even know what Shinty was...
This is the biggest game in the calendar and its watched by just 3000 sad because its a great game.
stoney71 3000 people isn't terrible considering the demographics of the highlands. Taking the population of highland council(210000), .015 percent of the highlands is there, not great, but not bad considering the difficulty of traveling and the village where Kyle's are from has a population of 660, and the the village where lovat are from has a population of under a thousand. Hurling, for comparison, has an attendance rate of .07. This number does not include non hurling fans, it only includes 23% of the population, which is the percentage of the total attendance of sport that was for hurling. I wasn't able to find any number like that for the highlands, but if i could, i bet you that number would go much closer to that .07 mark. But i do understand the sentiment that you wish the sport would be more widely played around the world.
Hurling is played in areas of ireland that are the exact opposite of the highlands mainly rich agricultural land of the deep southern counties with the exception of antrim in the far north.Gaelic football is the game of the wilder mountain areas,but its also big in midland counties which are also rich agricultural lands and of course dublin.I accept that shinty is probably as big in its area as hurling is in its area,but its a pity nonetheless i prefer hurling ,but still it deserves to be more widespread .
The pop of munster where the game is strongest is 1.2 million and the top level is based on counties rather than club thus maximising attendance though there is an all ireland club competition as well.When st thomas club of galway won the all ireland few years ago all the village went to the match they had to hire a security firm to keep an eye on their houses they also informed the police who hardly needed to be informed.Like shinty its an amateur sport players play for love of the game and community pride.Its not just hurling gaelic football is the same,if a county is in an all ireland the whole county gets exited it really does not matter if they are not hurling or gaelic fans its a sense of community that really drives these sports
So