Seriously, what is the point in having the Airtricity League in the game? Its not even the most popular league in its own country given the amount of people living in Ireland who support English teams. In fact, given Celtics large Irish following, its probably not even the second most popular league in Ireland either. So why include it in the game? When was the last time anyone opened a bronze pack on Ultimate Team and were thrilled to find Dundulks star centre-back Andy Boyle hidden inside? Or when was the last time anyone was playing career mode and decided to see which University College Dublin players might want to quit their studies and come play for their team? Exactly. You might argue however that whilst the Airtricity League isnt popular compared to some of the other leagues included in the game, its still the top tier of a major footballing nation. However you have to consider just how low their attendances are to see why it doesn't serve much purpose being in the game, with a league average attendance of 1,774 being reported in 2015. Proportionally speaking this is even a good bit below the attendances of the lowest tier of English football included in the game, League Two (average attendance of 4,679 for the 2014/15 season). So lets do the math then. Given that the average attendance in the Airtricity League is 1,774 and there are 12 teams in the league, this therefore accounts for about 21,288 fans. By January 3, 2015, FIFA 15 had sold roughly 15.65 million copies worldwide. Even if we assume that all 21,288 of these fans bought a copy of FIFA 15 solely on the reason that their team was in it then that only makes up 0.1% of the total sales of FIFA 15. Therefore if youre including something in your video game that caters to (a very optimistic estimate of) 0.1% of your games players then I think its fair to say that its inclusion in the game is pointless. And besides, if this 0.1% are desperate enough to play as their team in the game, thats what mods are for.
Sports betting enthusiast whose main interests are rugby, football and MMA. Also a huge WWE fan and a self diagnosed TV & movies addict, with a particular love of anything Marvel or Dan Harmon related.
