Which League of Ireland Ground is Best For a Pre-Game Pint?

Article By Marc Sibbons

For many football supporters, the match day experience is about far more than the game itself. 

Most fans have their own pre-match ritual, whether that be placing a wager through football betting sites, heading for a few drinks at the local pub or grabbing a bite to eat at their favourite restaurant. 

Or, maybe it’s all or none of those things, the possibilities really are endless - the end goal for most is to have a good time and hopefully see your team come out on top on match day. 

On the Emerald Isle, the League of Ireland is very popular and well known for its great atmosphere at games. 

However, without the resources and riches of the English Premier League for example, LOI teams do not have the same level of options for food and beverages on offer inside the stadium. 

Therefore, it makes sense for fans to explore alternative options to enjoy the pre-game experience, which inevitably attracts them to nearby pubs/bars in the vicinity of the stadium depending on who you support. 

With the second half of the LOI Premier Division season now under way the research team at Gambling.com decided to find out which LOI stadium has the best pre-match local drinks experience. 

For this study, we’ve worked out how many pubs and bars are within a 0.5 mile walk of each LOI ground, as well as the average Google rating for each pub/bar, before producing a final ‘pre game pint score’ for each ground. So, which ground came out on top?

Our findings discovered Dalymount Park, home of 11-time champions Bohemians came top with a Pre-Game Pint Score of 7.8. 

Dalymount Park had by far the most number of bars/pubs within 0.5 miles with 11 in total and an equally impressive average google rating of 4.5 for the establishments listed on Google. 

Richmond Park, the home of nine-times champions St Patrick’s Athletic, came in second place while Shelbourne's Tolka Park came in third.

Admittedly, supporters with local knowledge may know of establishments which don’t immediately appear in search engines, and they may also be aware of shorter walking routes than those offered online. 

However, it does go a long way to tell us what information people have access to when it comes to options and if someone is new to the LOI then this new study gives a great idea of where is a safe shout for a pint of stout before KO.

We have also excluded bars inside stadiums as very few of them have been reviewed, and we’d rather steer you in the direction of the best the area has to offer.

We also decided to find out just how much alcoholic beer has been consumed in Ireland in the past 5-10 years, and the answer is, a lot. In fact a total of three billion, six hundred forty-three million (3,643,000,000) were consumed between 2014-2022! 

There are no signs of this slowing down either as this year, Ireland is expected to consume 334million litres of alcoholic beer this year, a steep rise of 7.7% (the highest + volume change from 2014 - present), from last year’s figures (311m litres) - that’s one thirsty nation!

In 2023, going for a pint in Ireland is certainly not cheap. 

It is common knowledge by now that Dublin (and in particular the famous Temple Bar in the heart of the city) is one of the most expensive cities in Europe for having a tipple and the average price for a pint across Ireland continues to rise as punters desperately try and juggle the ongoing cost of living crisis with a recent 12% rise in alcoholic drink wholesale prices.

The average price of a pint in Ireland this year is expected to be €6.66, a rise of 36% from 2014. By 2027 the average price of a pint is expected to rise to €7.18. 

However, it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom, if you do your homework when it comes to pub/bar options in your team's area the chances are you will still grab a reasonably priced beverage somewhere on match day and have an all round fantastic experience - let’s just cheers to that.

Two different data points per League of Ireland stadium were measured in an index; each stadium was then awarded an overall score. The data points which were analysed were:

• Number of pubs/bars (within 0.5 miles of stadium - according to Google Maps)
• Average Rating per pub/bar (according to Google)

All data was collected on May 31, 2023.

Data sources: Google Maps and Statista (most recent update May 2023).

Article By Marc Sibbons

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