Mens Senior International
Grange Road, Dublin
09 March 2005

COME AND SEE THE CHANGING FACE ON IRISH HOCKEY!" URGES VARIAN

IHA Chief Executive Paul Varian has urged all hockey fans to make a special effort to attend Wednesday's Men's International fixture, Ireland vs Belgium, at Three Rock Rovers tomorrow night at 8:30pm.

The fixture is the second of two test matches between the two nations, the first of which Ireland impressively won 4-1 on a cold evening last Wednesday.

"Last week's match was the first home international we've run since my appointment and it was an opportunity to try some of the ideas I've been considering to improve the overall entertainment value at our key fixtures," commented Varian.

Unlike previous fixtures, last Wednesday's match featured music, a pre-match build-up with interviews, a VIP area, half time entertainment and a man-of-the-match award.

"The feedback from the spectators on these introductions was very good," continued Varian. "We intend to continue with these ideas and continue to improve and upgrade these events wherever possible.

The changes are part of an overall drive by the IHA to get regular audiences at high-level hockey fixtures, which Varian sees as the key to raising sponsorship and media profile.

"Media will be interested in covering what people are interested in and sponsors are interested in being where their customers are gathering," says Varian. "So if you can consistently get good crowds at your top games, its more than likely that media and sponsors are going to start showing interest.

"If you can provide good entertainment, people will come to game, I'm convinced of that," he continues. "We want to see another big crowd on Wednesday and are again allowing children U18 in for free and pricing tickets at only €5 to encourage that.

"My goal is to have venues like Three Rock Rovers packed to the rafters. If the hockey community even in the Dublin area alone rallies around games like this, I'm confident we can achieve that. That's why I'm appealing to everyone to make it down on Wednesday night and show the players how much we are behind them!"