Custom Built Stadium for Cork City

[Fair_play_boy]

Cork City Council is a powerful institution, with previous experience of public private partnerships.
They can get planning for large scale public amenity works, and a soccer stadium would deffo qualify.
City has one big sponsor, plus a number of smaller ones. The club also has a large following, many of whom (me included) would probably support the club to move to its own grounds.
We have already read on these boards how some of the wealthy clubs on the continent did not have to develop their own facilities, but instead lease them from the local authorities who developed them with money from the public purse.
What would people on these boards think of getting a public petition going, asking City Hall to enter discussions with the club on this idea?
Would the club be interested? What are the chances that City Hall would be willing to help?
Remember that 2007 is a General Election year, and the average attendance at the Cross, spread across maybe a dozen constituencies, could swing a lot of seats.
Just a thought.

[pete]

I've said it some time now but IMO CCFC should share Musgrave Park with Munster Rugby. Rugby gets exclusive use from November to March & Football gets exclusive use May to September. Ground is use 12 months of the year which may justify investment in improving the facilities. I think the country is too small for sporting groups to have exclusive use of facilities. Government should encourage ground sharing by giving more funding to jointly used facilities.

[Fair_play_boy]

I've said it some time now but IMO CCFC should share Musgrave Park with Munster Rugby. Rugby gets exclusive use from November to March & Football gets exclusive use May to September. Ground is use 12 months of the year which may justify investment in improving the facilities. I think the country is too small for sporting groups to have exclusive use of facilities. Government should encourage ground sharing by giving more funding to jointly used facilities.Pete, that sounds like a great idea. Do you think the ground people would have enough time to smooth the surface out in time for the season?
I remember years ago the rugby pitch at the Mardyke was used extensively for soccer in the summer months. It had a great groundsman Liam Fahey, sadly now RIP.

[A face]

CCFC should share Musgrave Park with Munster Rugby.

Beat me to it .... meant to be alot of politics going on in IRFU over Munsters future plans. Limerick is the home of rugby in Munster and that what is getting the focus.

A ground share would be ideal for CCFC and the rugby imo !!!

Swansea ground (http://www.stadiumguide.com/whiterockstadium.htm) is now a share with a rugby club !!

[thejollyrodger]

I have always been a fan of the above idea. Sharing such a stadium with rugby and soccer would be an excellent idea. I only concern is the quality of the pitch after a rugby game. Wouldnt it be in bits??

A decent capacity would serve Munster and Ireland well (we could use it for other sporting events )

[patsh]

1. Would the IRFU sell the ground to the City Council/can the council afford it?
2. City need a 10,000 seater stadium - is there room for this at Musgrave Park?

Personally, I would prefer if the City council could be persuaded to build a new stadium, ideally on the CIE/Water street site, with City as the anchor tenants.
You can see many examples of a decent medium sized stadium being built for €20 million down eards around Europe.
AFAIK, it would be entitled to EU grants, but would need some substantial private/taxpayer investment. City would need to employ a full-time funraiser/PRO for a project like this. Lennox has spoken about Musgrave Park before, I think, but has he domne anything about it, does anyone know?

[pete]

I think its unrealistic for City to have any hope at 20m stadium. The IRFU & FAI have always got on well with regards Lansdowne (i can't remember a dispute) & little threat to each other as largely different fans & different attributes needed for each game.

Musgrave Park has lot of space for building although i think they have plans to sell their back pitch to fund some of new development planned.

Ground sharing between rugby & football is very common elsewhere & pitch could hardly be any worse than when junior matches on in our close season.

I would envisage stadium run on similar grounds (no pun intended) to new Lansdowne Road where can be different percentage ownership. I wouldn't have a problem either with IRFU paying for development & we just lease for 20 years or something but still get match day advertising & bar revenue...

[shedite]

Firstly, yes there definately is room for anything at Musgrave Park. There's loads of room behind every stand.

But, I just don't think it's reasonable. City's priorities should be getting the shed sorted and then the floodlights sorted.

We have won absolutely nothing yet. NEVER build on potential success. We've had 2 good years in Europe but what if we don't win the league this year and go out in the first preliminary round next year? Nice stadium won't mean much.

I'd much prefer to live within our means and continue progressing on the pitch

[dahamsta]

I agree, I don't think it's a good idea for the club to get ahead of itself. Yes, it's in growth at the moment, but all it takes is one screwup, one more muppet in the FAI, etc, and City and/or the council and/or the IRFU could find themselves in a whole heap of trouble.

adam

[thejollyrodger]

That does make more sense..

Cork can finish the New Shed and put a roof over the open seats on the other end. Then fix the lighting. That would make it suitable for 3rd round games and maybe a few of the smaller group stages games.

If Cork got into the group stages a couple of years running then there would be pressure to look for a new stadium.

This time last year, Shels looked on the crust of breaking into the group stages of the Champions League. Now we are just trying to push for second and make the UEFA Cup. So its a good point of not jumping ahead of yourselves.

[dahamsta]

Of course staying in Turner's Cross is problematical too, in that they're investing all the time in a ground they don't own. That's just dead money in the long term, since they'll have to move on unless something really does go wrong. Or they could buy the ground, in which case the current owners will have them over a barrel and will try to screw them. It's a tricky situation for the club, I hope they have a long term plan for it.

adam

[Éanna]

Much as I'd love City to own their own ground, the bottom line is that our average attendance is less than half the capacity of the Cross. So until we get to the stage that the cross is too small, there's little point in moving IMO.

I think the way to go is for City to buy their own training ground which has room for development, and build a stadium there over time- say the next 10 years or so. That way we could have training ground and stadium at the same place and own the lot.

[thejollyrodger]

Much as I'd love City to own their own ground, the bottom line is that our average attendance is less than half the capacity of the Cross. So until we get to the stage that the cross is too small, there's little point in moving IMO.

I think the way to go is for City to buy their own training ground which has room for development, and build a stadium there over time- say the next 10 years or so. That way we could have training ground and stadium at the same place and own the lot.

Like copying us ? :D

[Éanna]

Like copying us ? :D
I suggested this a long time ago, can't remember if it was before or after shels announcement or not. Don't care either, if it makes sense, then its worth doing, regardless who's done it before. Maybe ye might copy us and try to play football instead of trying to kick your opponents off the park :p :D