Coventry new stadium

[drummerboy]

How the F**K can a small championship club like Coventry built a superb stadium in 18 months and Ireland, the best performing economy in the EU, will take years to get even planning permission. The cost of the Coventry stadium, you can be sure will be a hell of a lot cheaper than the Irish one. Why is this?

[drinkfeckarse]

As far as I know, Coventry first had agreement to build the new stadium while they were in the Premiership. After they got relegated they were up the creek because they were left with an agreement to build it but no finance to do it.

I'm not sure where they've managed to get the finance but I would imagine it's not all that rosy. They now have a 30,000 all seater stadium while their average attendance this season has been about 14,000. Repayments costs alone could see them struggle badly unless they get back into the Premiership very quickly which looks unlikely at the moment.

[drummerboy]

I know they got a £10 million sterling sponsorship from some Japanese company.

[roboyle]

I know they got a £10 million sterling sponsorship from some Japanese company.

I hear the Eircom Park project had got some E14 million from some dodgy Irish company... :rolleyes:

[eirebhoy]

McManus was putting €65m towards the Abbotstown project. He also put a few million towards something in Limerick. Can't remember exactly what that was. Anyway, the government are hundreds of million in surplus already this year so the money isn't a problem.

/edit - €880m to be precise (compared to €272m in the same period last year):
http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10001191.shtml

[Kingdom]

I'm a lazy git , so has any1 got pics of the coventry stadium.

[Donal81]

http://www.stadiumguide.com/coventryarena.htm

[Macy]

I just can't believe that there isn't some sports-mad Irish multi-millionaire with an ego who wouldn't like to have A) a stadium named after him and B) the gratitude of a nation.
Reading FC did it with Madejski, so why can't we? (Or do they prefer buying horses with their money . . . ?)
Isn't Supermacs bloke planning a stadium in the midlands. To be used by all sports?

[noby]

I just can't believe that there isn't some sports-mad Irish multi-millionaire with an ego who wouldn't like to have A) a stadium named after him and B) the gratitude of a nation.



Uhm...Bertie Ahern. ok, so the money isn't technically his, but...

[drummerboy]

Mary won't let him spend it

[Macy]

Mary won't let him spend it
I'm sure her friends from GAMA could do them a good deal....

[Stuttgart88]

Derby Co., Middelsbrough, Leicester and a few others have put together good sized modern arenas at relatively little cost. I read that something like the Riverside only cost about £30 million. But instead Bertie decides on some grandiose ego-project, the type of which nearly bankrupted countries like Malaysia in the late 90s.

Although flawed, Eircom Park was the best idea IMO. As far as I know the debt burden on the FAI would have been manageable, as Deutsche Bank was to have arranged a financing package funded by selling the future revenues generated by the project to banks & pension funds etc..

[Schumi]

http://www.stadiumguide.com/coventryarena.htm
I wouldn't fancy a seat over on the right end. :eek:

[monutdfc]

Derby Co., Middelsbrough, Leicester and a few others have put together good sized modern arenas at relatively little cost. I read that something like the Riverside only cost about £30 million. But instead Bertie decides on some grandiose ego-project, the type of which nearly bankrupted countries like Malaysia in the late 90s.

Those stadiums all use a standard design which costs £1000 stg per seat. Maximum capacity using this design is around 40,000.

[drummerboy]

I'm sure her friends from GAMA could do them a good deal....

Brilliant Macy

[Peadar]

You know the way we consider that we have some of the best supporters in the world, and we'll all agree that we have some of the worst facilities in the world. Are they inversely linked in a way that would mean a new stadium destroying the soul of Irish football support???

Tickets for the FA Cup final in England are available at the following prices.
£90.00
£65.00
£50.00
£25.00

Are we looking at the average family person or low income person being excluded from what has traditionally been a working class sport?

[fosterdollar]

If a lot of the people who complain about ticket prices to events such as that took a couple of weekends off the booze they could get the tickets no bother. Even a pint less every time the go out would do it.

[Stuttgart88]

Those stadiums all use a standard design which costs £1000 stg per seat. Maximum capacity using this design is around 40,000.


Are they inversely linked in a way that would mean a new stadium destroying the soul of Irish football support???

I think a lot of its soul has already been lost. It's hard to pinpoint the resaons but I'd say the "class" of person attending is less of an issue. I just think half (or more) people think they're a mini version of English football fans (singing Thierry Henry, yer 'aving a larf & booing Christiano Ronaldo) these days anyway.:(

I've maintained all along that we have no need for a mega stadium holding 70k+, hence the attractiveness in my mind of the Eircom Park design. It'd only ever sell out on a handful of occasions and would be dead on others. The new stadium is planned to hold what - 50k? This is a fair compromise.

[OwlsFan]

I think a lot of its soul has already been lost. It's hard to pinpoint the resaons but I'd say the "class" of person attending is less of an issue. I just think half (or more) people think they're a mini version of English football fans (singing Thierry Henry, yer 'aving a larf & booing Christiano Ronaldo) these days anyway.:(

The answer is easy. It's the Sky generation who expect entertainment, hype and not to have to get off their fat behinds to achieve it. They also now expect success from the Irish team when prior to 1986 we only dreamed of what we have now.

As for clubs building their own stadia, they have around 25 games a year to finance such grounds. The FAI have about 5/6.

[Macy]

Are we looking at the average family person or low income person being excluded from what has traditionally been a working class sport?
What only now Peader? It's been happening since the early 90's, when clubs using The Taylor Report requirement for all seaters to bump up prices compared to terraces (despite Taylor expressly saying this shouldn't happen). I remember my ticket more than doubled when I had to get a seat after the Stretty was knocked....

[Karlos]

I just think half (or more) people think they're a mini version of English football fans (singing Thierry Henry, yer 'aving a larf & booing Christiano Ronaldo) these days anyway.:(


I think there just simply Irish football fans who sing popular football songs - not mini english, nice stereotyping! This is getting beyond a joke at this stage - I'm sick of hearing about athmosphere and lack of songs and then on the other hand having a go at the fans who are singing, for reconstructing songs other clubs or countries also use. Which is it we want??

(booing & cheering of Ronaldo is another matter, however)

Where we also labelling our fans as english back in 1988 when we nicked 'Que Sera' from the countless number of UK fans who used the song to sing about Wembly and the FA Cup. Where we trying to be mini-spanish when we adopted 'ole ole' back in the day or trying to be scousers who where the first I remember to sing 'c'mon you mighty reds' which we altered. This argument is ridiculous. Get over it - fans the world over alter and adopt songs from other clubs and countries. If It's an option between having new and humourous songs once in a while thanks to fans traveling to or watching football in ANY country or having to sing Ireland's call for 90 minutes then I'll go for the witty and humourous ditty's each time.

Football may have sold it's soul but some of us have bought it back off them.

**Edit** Apologies for the rant Stutt - just had someone question my right to a block booking scheme place thanks to me spending more time in North London than Tolka Park!!! Needless the say, my work colleague will probably never bring that topic up again. Coupled with your post re: englishness in irish fans, I kinda lost it!! :o

[Stuttgart88]

Karlos, what's witty about singing "Thierry Henry, you're 'aving a larf" in a faux English accent? Crap song & was never even funny sung by the English. Correct me if I'm wrong, as I left Ireland 6 years ago, but is the expression "you're having a laugh" used at home in everyday speech these days?

I'm all for adding new songs* but half the time I expect we'll be singing "Irish 'till I die" and some other neo-fascist tripe borrowed from our neighbours.

I'm not being a hypocrite or a killjoy. As you know yourself, it's impossible NOT to sing "Arsenal, Arsenal Arsenal..." in anything but a cockney accent at Highbury. My mate & I laugh at ourselves when we do it :)

Just noticed your edit by the way, no offence taken at all.

* what was that one the Portuguese sang last summer "Por-tu-gal Por-tu-gal Ole"? What about Rob-bie Keane Rob-bie Keane Ole? Just a thought!

[OwlsFan]

The one that used really make me laugh was at Rovers many years ago:

(In strong Dublin accent): I, I, I R A, fcek the Queen and the UDA. (In posh English accent): Ze Roverrrs (clap clap clap). Talk about a contradiction in one chant :D

[tricky_colour]

I wouldn't fancy a seat over on the right end. :eek:


Well the view might not be very good but I expect the tickets are cheap :D