I CAN’T REMEMBER the last time 30,000 people came out to watch a League of Ireland team.

Yes, Shamrock Rovers fans, you did play Liverpool at the Aviva Stadium but that crowd wasn’t there to see you.

That League of Ireland XI’s that played Manchester United? Most of the crowd were United supporters.

Those games don’t count. Those crowds were there to watch British rather than Irish sides.

FAI Cup finals don’t attract 30,000. I can’t remember the last time that a crowd of that magnitude came to watch an Irish side rather than watch the opposition.

On Wednesday, besides a small, flare-wielding contingent from Poland, everyone was there to see Dundalk.

It was brilliant — though while most expressed the hope that we’ll see some of this crowd at LOI games in the future, the crowd left a bitter taste in the mouths of some.

The attendance at the Aviva on Wednesday would eclipse the average attendance at a round of domestic fixtures across both divisions on any weekend.

The combined attendance across FAI Cup weekend will be miniscule by comparison as season ticket holders stay away from unattractive ties.

Some grumbled about the bandwagon. Of course, this week of all weeks, that grumbling has never sounded as empty.

Folks, the Olympics are on. We’re glued to sailing, rowing, badminton, diving and a host of other sports that we know nothing about. We’re grumbling about curious observers at the Dundalk game while we’re holding court on sports we won’t think about for four years, never mind attend and support financially.

All Irish sport is bandwagon, and we’d be best served to embrace it.

We all dream of great nights and we know full well that those great nights need to be financed. We know all too well that the finance needs to come from our own pockets through ticket purchases, merchandising purchases and support of fundraisers.

Even the third of League of Ireland income that comes from sponsorship is related entirely to the supporters and how many of them can be ‘activated’ to support a particular sponsor.

We know that the FAI won’t invest at any worthwhile level given the Aviva debt.

We know we need more bums on seats. Yet when those bums try to get comfortable, so many of us get nervous.

I’m not sure if it’s a trait of the Irish fan or one that’s more widely-shared but there seems to be something ingrained in us that we fear the growth of the club we support.

We fear growth to a level that means our individual contribution to it is no longer vital. We’ve invested so much time, we’ve done the hard yards, we were there when we lost on penalties in the Munster Senior Cup. We fear being marginalised.

I’m as guilty as anyone else. I grew up a Manchester United supporter in Kerry. When I try to explain why any interest in that club has been replaced by Cork City FC, I most often talk about the separation I’d feel from United and how a match ticket or jersey I would have bought in the past wouldn’t contribute meaningfully to even the weekly wage of one of the players.

I’d contrast this with the tenner I’d pay into Turner’s Cross and talk – naively – about how I knew that I was making a contribution to the club and the players wages.

Of course, while there’s a grain of truth in it, it’s mostly nonsense. My allegiance to Cork City stems entirely from the relationships formed, friendships made, emotions experiences and time and money invested in supporting the team. I go because I enjoy it, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve enjoyed it for different reasons.

I’ve moved on from enjoying it for the few beers around the game and the chat with friends, through the craic and humour of the shed on a dark winter’s evening, through the shared sense of outrage and then the sense of achievement as supporters witnessed the club fall into darkness before they resurrected it.

Now, I bring my kids in the hope they’ll grow to enjoy it as I did, their own motivations for going are a giant cheetah and my bribes of chips and sweets.

At no stage were my own motives, or those of my kids, as pure as those we all pretend to possess when we criticise the bandwagon. We all have our individual reasons for going, some of us just want to get out of the house.

While you complain about the LOI bandwagon, there’s a rowing club somewhere doing bag packs to survive, laughing at your sudden interest in their sport.

Get over yourselves and let’s embrace the bandwagon, because we need their bums on our seats.

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