Here's a portion of a story Eric Lyman, from the Sentinel, wrote about the impact the Aer LIngus Classic had in Ireland.
Georgia Tech’s gritty victory will solidify the Yellowjackets as a team on the ascent, but the real winner of the game may be Ireland, the host country. It’s the sixth time since 2012 that Ireland has hosted a college football game, and this year’s contest — the middle game in a five-game stretch sponsored by Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national airline — is said to have injected more than $130 million into the Irish economy.
A lot of that came from fans of both teams (local media said FSU fans outnumbered their Georgia Tech compatriots four to one), making vacations out of the game and fanning out across the country in the lead-up to the game. In Dublin, Aviva Stadium ran out of beer during the game, though it was resupplied quickly. Even after the game, disappointed FSU fans were singing and making toasts at pubs along with those wearing Georgia Tech gear and with locals just enjoying the spectacle of it all.
That’s what most coverage of the game in the local media focused on — what one paper called the “Razzmatazz of American football.” Locals say they are already looking forward to next year’s edition of the game, which will pit Big 12 rivals Kansas State and Iowa State.
The series of games on the Emerald Isle are helping to establish American football as a niche sport in the country. A few dozen schools in Ireland now have teams playing American football, and there’s a growing community that meets to watch and discuss college and NFL games. It’s unclear, though, the extent to which the sport will ultimately catch on in a country that already has three popular rough sports in rugby, hurling and Gaelic Football (not to mention soccer, which, when the Irish play, can become a contact sport).
Back in Tallahassee, FSU coach Mike Norvell will face his own set of questions. Norvell has earned a reputation as a coach who artfully used the transfer portal to build teams capable of double-digit win totals, filling roster gaps with a mixture of under-utilized talents and diamonds in the rough. That strategy had never been used to that extent, and it stands in stark contrast to traditional programs like rival Clemson, which won two national championships and seven ACC titles in an eight-year span until FSU snatched the crown away last season.
Now the question is whether a team with so many players who hadn’t played together until this year will pull together a run that’ll get it into the first year of a 12-team playoff. It could happen: FSU’s upcoming four games are not exactly daunting: the Seminoles host Boston College, Memphis and California before going on the road to SMU. But then things get harder, with three games against preseason ranked teams in a five-game stretch starting with Clemson on Oct. 5.
If you recognize the writers by line, Lyman is now a freelance writer based in Italy. He was the sports editor for the Florida Flambeau and helped cover the university’s sports program for the Orlando Sentinel in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Georgia Tech’s gritty victory will solidify the Yellowjackets as a team on the ascent, but the real winner of the game may be Ireland, the host country. It’s the sixth time since 2012 that Ireland has hosted a college football game, and this year’s contest — the middle game in a five-game stretch sponsored by Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national airline — is said to have injected more than $130 million into the Irish economy.
A lot of that came from fans of both teams (local media said FSU fans outnumbered their Georgia Tech compatriots four to one), making vacations out of the game and fanning out across the country in the lead-up to the game. In Dublin, Aviva Stadium ran out of beer during the game, though it was resupplied quickly. Even after the game, disappointed FSU fans were singing and making toasts at pubs along with those wearing Georgia Tech gear and with locals just enjoying the spectacle of it all.
That’s what most coverage of the game in the local media focused on — what one paper called the “Razzmatazz of American football.” Locals say they are already looking forward to next year’s edition of the game, which will pit Big 12 rivals Kansas State and Iowa State.
The series of games on the Emerald Isle are helping to establish American football as a niche sport in the country. A few dozen schools in Ireland now have teams playing American football, and there’s a growing community that meets to watch and discuss college and NFL games. It’s unclear, though, the extent to which the sport will ultimately catch on in a country that already has three popular rough sports in rugby, hurling and Gaelic Football (not to mention soccer, which, when the Irish play, can become a contact sport).
Back in Tallahassee, FSU coach Mike Norvell will face his own set of questions. Norvell has earned a reputation as a coach who artfully used the transfer portal to build teams capable of double-digit win totals, filling roster gaps with a mixture of under-utilized talents and diamonds in the rough. That strategy had never been used to that extent, and it stands in stark contrast to traditional programs like rival Clemson, which won two national championships and seven ACC titles in an eight-year span until FSU snatched the crown away last season.
Now the question is whether a team with so many players who hadn’t played together until this year will pull together a run that’ll get it into the first year of a 12-team playoff. It could happen: FSU’s upcoming four games are not exactly daunting: the Seminoles host Boston College, Memphis and California before going on the road to SMU. But then things get harder, with three games against preseason ranked teams in a five-game stretch starting with Clemson on Oct. 5.
If you recognize the writers by line, Lyman is now a freelance writer based in Italy. He was the sports editor for the Florida Flambeau and helped cover the university’s sports program for the Orlando Sentinel in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
