Work starts in richmond
http://www.stpatsfc.com/news.php?id=1592
Real signs of progress in the league. After decades of waffle and spurious plans that had little basis in reality it's great to see construction actually happening at so many grounds. This also means that people will take stadium development announcements a lot more seriously than they would have in the past.
So what's the state of play now for each club? (I'm guessing for a number of these so don't get annoyed if I'm way off )
St Patrick's Athletic - new temp stand underway, plans for complete revamp pending planning permission (seems to be funding in place)
Drogheda United - planning difficulties holding up new stadium
Bohemians - finished with Dalymount
Cork City - all-seater ground - plans for all-covered
Shamrock Rovers - N/A
Derry City - trouble with the council
UCD - building underway
Sligo Rovers - Not sure - plans on hold for now?
Bray Wanderers - Big improvements made in recent seasons, next step?
Waterford United - Funding for new stand in place
Galway United - New stand being built
Longford Town - Already all-seater, applied for planning to build commercial units next to ground
Dundalk - Terrace recently covered
Cobh Ramblers - new stand almost finished
Limerick 37 - New club, new plans to develop Jackman
Athlone Town - new stadium, plans to complete on all sides
Kildare County - Don't know
Finn Harps - New stadium plans at an advanced stage, funding approved
Wexford Youths - Moneybags property developer will probably be able to build whatever he likes, depending on what is needed.
Shelbourne -
Monaghan United - Don't know
Kilkenny City - Don't know, good facilities in place already.
Feel free to set me right.
SIGNATURESCOPE
Good to see at long last work on the mud bank at Richmond Park. Will it really be finished for July? What is the capacity?
The Bowl refers more to the dip in the ground it's in rather than anything else. At least, I think that's why it's called the Bowl.
As far as I know, the rugby players walk from the dressing room, through effectively the turnstiles and either down through the stand or just to one side (i.e. where there's building work now). I think there was talk of putting an underground tunnel for that (can't have Bohs players walking through a stand with loads of Bohs fans obvioulsy), which would run from the dressing rooms to the pitch. Not sure if this was a definite plan or just an idea though - one of the others might be able to correct me on that.
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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It will, but we've lots of time and lots of money (E2.5 million in grants, I think). Phase I - which is all we need for licencing next year - calls for an extra 900 covered seats and a few more facilities (toilets, shops, etc) which are basically concrete cubes. The pitch I think will take the most time, putting in proper drainage. But the slowest thing about new grounds or ground improvements is getting plans, permission and funding together; once that's all sorted, the building work doesn't take too long. Can't see the above taking seven months, for example.
Sligo Rovers are doing a huge revamp of the staduim. Shed end was knocked in february and construction of a state of the art training facility: Gym, indoor soccer arena, pool, Box seates overlooking the pitch. Offices are also being put into the building which will help the running of the club. Also a club shop will be put in seperate to the main training centre/offices. And as far as i know a plans for a small shed (no seating) are to be included in the building of the centre which will be located where the old Rovers shed was.
A new boundry wall is about to be finished by the end of the month with brand new turnstiles (home and away) and a front office included.
Waiting for planning permission for the new building in Oriel
What previous plans? There's three phases. Phase I as always was to add enough seats to bring it to 1,500 seated capacity and do the other licencing bits. Phase II will cover the 700ish uncovered seats and put another 1,500 seater on the opposite side. Phase III will add stands behind both grounds to take us up to 4,500 seats. Phases II and III are only at the drawing board stage and hope to be completed in 5 years. Phase I has planning permission and funding in place and has just began.
Think Pete quoted the wrong bit of my post
I think you're right Pete (of you tlaking about Richmond)
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
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