Stadium Updates (All Clubs)

[John83]

Heaven's above, John, you're not supposed to take milk in your organic RooiBohs.
Fecking gentrification!


Anybody in Phibsboro can tell you that!
Fecking gentrification!

[EatYerGreens]

Surely they're all just soya and coconut milk only at Dalymount these days ?

[EatYerGreens]

I'd be sneaking a naggin of milk into games. :D

#Hipflasksters

[Charlie Darwin]

I wonder will they go down the Forest Green Rovers road. I don't think you can even get milk to put into your tea.

Vegan Food | WE ARE FGR (https://www.fgr.co.uk/vegan-food)
Oat milk in tea is pretty good in tea actually. Most of the other plant milks separate.

[redobit]

Hopefully hybrid pitches like the Aviva become more common; natural grass with artificial fibers interspersed to give it more resilience. Note sure on the ratio. It's much more expensive but gives the good benefits of astro, but with natural bounce and play. Best of both worlds.



Hybrid pitches are 95% grass which doesn't seem much but apparently the plastic strains are an anchor for the real grass and help to keep it in place. They can upgrade grass pitches to hybrid too, its basically a sewing machine and it sews in the strands every couple of centimeters. Which would seem a good option for some LOI clubs instead of re-laying a brand new pitch.

George Mullan, CEO of SIS pitches lay world cups, NFL, La Liga pitches is a big Sligo Rovers fan. Talked to him once before and he said he'd love to do the Showgrounds one day.

[Bucket]

Richmond looks way better with the old stand taken down behind the goals. The rest of the ground looked tidy, amazing what a few tins of paint can do.
I noticed Dundalk literally swept the away end under a carpet!

[D24Saint]

Richmond looks way better with the old stand taken down behind the goals. The rest of the ground looked tidy, amazing what a few tins of paint can do.
I noticed Dundalk literally swept the away end under a carpet!

It’s a tidy enough ground but will hold the club back in the coming years. The Richmond Arena looks dead so we need a plan b. I can’t see improving Richmond as plan B more like plan C. It would be fantastic to stay in the area but the availability of land will hamper that. The facilities in Richmond are past basic at this stage , we need decent toilets , a clubhouse , retail space , corporate facilities etc etc

[Bucket]

And for these reasons it's even more commendable that the place is kept so neat. Compare that to other clubs in your situation who seem to have the attitude that because they can't build they let their home go derelict

[Dalymountrower]

It’s a tidy enough ground but will hold the club back in the coming years. The Richmond Arena looks dead so we need a plan b. I can’t see improving Richmond as plan B more like plan C. It would be fantastic to stay in the area but the availability of land will hamper that. The facilities in Richmond are past basic at this stage , we need decent toilets , a clubhouse , retail space , corporate facilities etc etc

I love going to Richmond but from a practical point of view, ground sharing in Tallaght is inevitable?

[EatYerGreens]

I love going to Richmond but from a practical point of view, ground sharing in Tallaght is inevitable?

Doubt that. It's only happening with Bohs and Shels because it's being forced on them. Good chance that one of the clubs will wither as a result (probably Shels).

Rovers ended up in Tallaght because they had no assets to put towards a ground of their own. Bohs had their own asset, but sold it twice and spurned all the money on moccasins, Bob Marley albums and beard oil. Pats own a valuable site, and its value is likely to accelerate in the coming years given the land and housing issues in Dublin. So Pats are masters of their own future to at least some extent in a way that Rovers, Bohs and Shels weren't.

[EalingGreen]

Hybrid pitches are 95% grass which doesn't seem much but apparently the plastic strains are an anchor for the real grass and help to keep it in place. They can upgrade grass pitches to hybrid too, its basically a sewing machine and it sews in the strands every couple of centimeters. Which would seem a good option for some LOI clubs instead of re-laying a brand new pitch.

George Mullan, CEO of SIS pitches lay world cups, NFL, La Liga pitches is a big Sligo Rovers fan. Talked to him once before and he said he'd love to do the Showgrounds one day.
Good, short video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyM8pH5N6TI

[Bucket]

That's a serious piece of kit. What would that cost to do a pitch?

[Dalymountrower]

Doubt that. It's only happening with Bohs and Shels because it's being forced on them. Good chance that one of the clubs will wither as a result (probably Shels).

Rovers ended up in Tallaght because they had no assets to put towards a ground of their own. Bohs had their own asset, but sold it twice and spurned all the money on moccasins, Bob Marley albums and beard oil. Pats own a valuable site, and its value is likely to accelerate in the coming years given the land and housing issues in Dublin. So Pats are masters of their own future to at least some extent in a way that Rovers, Bohs and Shels weren't.
I thought a property company majority owned by Kelleher owns Richmond.Shelboune investments or such like?Hadn't realised that the site was owned by the football club?

[D24Saint]

I thought a property company majority owned by Kelleher owns Richmond.Shelboune investments or such like?Hadn't realised that the site was owned by the football club?

Afaik Shelbourne developments is gone after his nama episode. I’m not sure if GK main arena is property anymore. I was under the impression that he had his finger in other pies. He seems to be keeping a lower business profile these days compared to years ago, whatever his business portfolio involves.

[nigel-harps1954]

For anyone interested, a full interview with Paul McLoone, the Harps director in charge of the stadium development. Details what the money will do and what we'll need to do going forward for the project.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGnnh7wGelA

[Bucket]

Great interview. I really hope that ye can get the full €8m together and get it done in one go. He sounds like a man that just gets stuff done

[Dalymountrower]

Good man Paul, he has been knocking on every door for years to make this happen.
Will be a brilliant piece of infrastructure for Donegal. Cant wait to get up there again.

[Nesta99]

How well did the car draw do Nigel if you know? People are talking about the Louth GAA house draw but that being a county thing tickets were sold out A car draw is far more feasible for a town club like Dundalk. Would Harps have a county wide appeal that a house type wide fundraiser could work, relatively?

He's a grounded and great advocate to have for Donegal sports never mind Finn Harps listening to that interview. There is certainly a lot of ambition still to fulfill the plans but the obvious concern is the provisional nature of the recent grant and what is needed to draw that down. Maybe its in place, finances there, but not finalised yet. The original builder musnt be the only crowd involved going on what was said and what could be done with this grant. Imo Harps should go for getting this site opened even with a single stand and work from there rather than say eg 2023, with €8m the full plans will have been implemented. There is no doubt that pitch capacity is needed for all Harps sides and so Finn Park is part of the plan. But whatever money is available should be used to draw down this grant and get Stranrolar functional rather than spreading finances thinly by also trying to upgrade Finn Park in tandem, be it pitch or whatever.

[nigel-harps1954]

Think the car draw went well for the club. Not sure we'll get any figures from it, but certainly should be enough to see the training facility up and running for June or July.

I would presume that more draws of that type, or one of the house draws will be required to raise significant money towards the stadium development.

The grant application for Finn Park is separate too. We still need to play there for the next couple of years so there's no point in neglecting it either.

[Nesta99]

Champions League money would arrive just at the right time for Harps and save a whole lot of effort!

So there is a separate application in the pipeline for Finn Park too? Thats a serious amount of work to get the finances together to draw down 2 grants. Yeah Finn Park needs to be kept usable but imo at minimum commitment until things have restarted on the new ground. Risk of ending up falling between 2 stools, and development of the training facility also. unless of course there is money sitting ready to go.

[nigel-harps1954]

I don't know all the ins and outs of it and I'd be doing a disservice to the club trying to explain, but there's a separate application in for Finn Park to upgrade the floodlights (which are pretty f*cked) and to upgrade the playing surface.

[Mr A]

Yeah that is correct- a separate application for Finn Park under Sports Capital Grant this year. These grants can be up to 95% I think so if it was awarded, and we obviously have no idea yet, the commitment from FHFC would not have to be massive- as the max is €300k under this programme. Very different scale to the stadium project.

[Nesta99]

Disgrace that Dundalk (and every LoI club) are not at minimum putting in SCG applications yearly, 300k would cover the remainder of The Shed and build a toilet block that side Town End.

Not at LoI level but I do smile at the different perceptions of what is considered significant for a clubs contribution to draw down a grant. I remember one local club scoffing at a potential hole of €150k as not much to be bothered about and another club's treasurer almost in tears at having to find 20k to draw down their grant.

[Mr A]

That particular grant cannot be used for spectator facilities. Also the limit is €50,000 if your lease is not long enough. The FAI and Walter Holleran in particular put a lot of effort into highlighting the grant to clubs, encouraging them to apply and guiding them through the process with a number of workshops. The number of applications from football went up 96% from the previous round of funding which is great to see.

BTW the list of applicants for this is here: https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/b62b8-sports-capital-and-equipment-programme-2020-applications/

[Nesta99]

That particular grant cannot be used for spectator facilities. Also the limit is €50,000 if your lease is not long enough. The FAI and Walter Holleran in particular put a lot of effort into highlighting the grant to clubs, encouraging them to apply and guiding them through the process with a number of workshops. The number of applications from football went up 96% from the previous round of funding which is great to see.

BTW the list of applicants for this is here: https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/b62b8-sports-capital-and-equipment-programme-2020-applications/

A tractor for brushing the pitch then, I just want to see an effort being made by club owners or admin in applying. Be interesting in due course to see how grants/amount awarded to football correlate with the number of applications. It is great to see such an increase, it was one of the key roles of LSPs to increase awareness and run application workshops well in Louth anyway. Again the baseline from previous years would be an interesting stat (not so much that id go looking for figures though these days). I know it isnt the case but a 96% increase could be from 10 to 19 and a bit. The proportion of those eligible who dont apply could well pique more interest.

[Buller]

Fair play Finn Harps, v interesting interview. Great to see someone like him involved. Its about time League of Ireland started getting its fair share from these sports grants.

Very encouraging to see more football clubs applying this year.

[Bucket]

I've seen a couple of Shels supporters online commenting on saving Tolka. Is there any substance to this?

[EatYerGreens]

I've seen a couple of Shels supporters online commenting on saving Tolka. Is there any substance to this?

Is there any suggestion as to how they'll access the millions needed to actually do that, and whether its current owner is interested in that ? If not, it's presumably just noise.

[Bucket]

https://mobile.twitter.com/RedsIndependent/status/1385596886430662660
This is where I saw it most recently. I haven't read the article.

[Nesta99]

Big plans and serious money, a lot of bucket collections. https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2021/0517/1222148-sligo-rovers-lay-out-plans-for-17m-stadium-and-academy/

Ask for 17m funding and get about 5m would be good effort.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

https://www.sligorovers.com/sligo-rovers-publish-masterplan-detailing-planned-redevelopment/

More details of the plans here. Highly ambitious alright and as you say a lot of fundraising needed. No influential TDs in the area.

[placid casual]

Best of luck to those in sligo with this project. Hopefully it comes to fruition.
LOI ground improvements across the league are central to the increase in standards and an improved "product" for attracting new fans and money into the game here.

[sbgawa]

A general lifting of standards across the league seems to be happening and the Govt seem a bit more inclined to facilitate it.
In my mind there is no question that better facilities will bring bigger crowds.

[Dalymountrower]

Congrats to Sligo on the ambitious plan, nice line in the interview with the chair that all new stadium developments should be multi purpose. I presume that the basket case that is Sligo GAA will look for matching funding to refurbish Markievitz Park, and will probably get double of what Sligo get

[Longfordian]

A general lifting of standards across the league seems to be happening and the Govt seem a bit more inclined to facilitate it.
In my mind there is no question that better facilities will bring bigger crowds.

If they could give us enough to fund new lights and a roof for the section O side of the ground it would be appreciated. We've put a very decent stadium in place without any significant government funding.

[D24Saint]

In my mind there is no question that better facilities will bring bigger crowds.

Id definitely agree with that. I reckon especially to attract families to games. The days are gone were most people will put up with the sub standard facilities in most LOI grounds.

[EatYerGreens]

Experience over the years has taught me to be cynical enough about ambitious stadium development plans in our league. But if there's one club I'd have faith in to deliver it's Sligo Rovers. What they achieve - in terms of fundraising, support etc - with a population smaller than places like Mullingar, Letterkenny and Portlaoise is genuinely impressive. Good luck to them with the plans.

[Bucket]

That looks very impressive, congrats to Sligo and best of luck getting it finished. One thing though, if you're spending that kind of money, surely a category 4 stadium would have been achievable? I'd like to think that the LOI could have more regular appearances in the Europe Conference and just like Europa League a category 4 stadium would be required.

[D24Saint]

That looks very impressive, congrats to Sligo and best of luck getting it finished. One thing though, if you're spending that kind of money, surely a category 4 stadium would have been achievable? I'd like to think that the LOI could have more regular appearances in the Europe Conference and just like Europa League a category 4 stadium would be required.

Isn’t one of the sticking points with a cat 4 stadium the vip and media requirements ?

[redarmyfaction]

That looks very impressive, congrats to Sligo and best of luck getting it finished. One thing though, if you're spending that kind of money, surely a category 4 stadium would have been achievable? I'd like to think that the LOI could have more regular appearances in the Europe Conference and just like Europa League a category 4 stadium would be required.

They are aiming for cat3 from a quick skim of the plan.

[GUFCghost]

Is there any give & take with the UEFA categories? 8,000 seats just seems like too much for a LOI club

[redarmyfaction]

Is there any give & take with the UEFA categories? 8,000 seats just seems like too much for a LOI club

It will be possible to put a second tier on the existing Railway End to bring up the numbers to 8K, that should not affect atmosphere too much at matches,

[EatYerGreens]

Is there any give & take with the UEFA categories? 8,000 seats just seems like too much for a LOI club

Aren't Tallaght and Turners Cross already at/above, or soon to be, that level ?

I would argue that Bohs and Derry could both potentially justify 8,000 seats as well (even though neither have plans to at the moment). You never build a new stadium for your current fanbase - but for an expanded one instead.

[nigel-harps1954]

As long as it has all the rest of the required facilities, a derogation can be made for the capacity issue in regards Cat 4, should the need ever arise. Real Madrid have been playing in Alfredo Di Stefano stadium for the past year while Bernabeu is being renovated, and it's only got a capacity of 6,000.

The Sligo blueprint is superb, and what the majority of LOI clubs should be looking at. It would be perfect for someone like Dundalk too.

[sbgawa]

Aren't Tallaght and Turners Cross already at/above, or soon to be, that level ?

I would argue that Bohs and Derry could both potentially justify 8,000 seats as well (even though neither have plans to at the moment). You never build a new stadium for your current fanbase - but for an expanded one instead.

Its a bit like building a house , the difference in costs if you build a 2000 sq foot house day 1 compared to a 1500sq foot house is always a lot less than if you build the 1500 sq ft house and then come back and build a 500 sq foot extension.

[Nesta99]

Makes sense to build things in a way that make it cheaper for future expansion too, like a loft conversion. Im not sure how UEFA would be with ongoing derogation of a ground for European group games, but to insist on baseline minimum numbers and not consider regular local needs ends up in wasted resources or an overstretch financially which is of no benefit to anyone.

[GUFCghost]

Aren't Tallaght and Turners Cross already at/above, or soon to be, that level ?

I would argue that Bohs and Derry could both potentially justify 8,000 seats as well (even though neither have plans to at the moment). You never build a new stadium for your current fanbase - but for an expanded one instead.

I think Turner's Cross is missing some fairly important media/VIP facilities. There's a rugby ground with similar capacity down the road, in a sensible world you'd have one good UEFA cat 4 stadium for both rugby and soccer.

[Red Star]

Save Tolka Park campaign launched last night. I can't see it going anywhere but good luck to them. Here is their plans.

https://savetolkapark.com/proposal/

[placid casual]

I think it's a noble gesture but too little too late, in my view.
If this was launched soon after the DCC groundshare proposals were laid out, I think it might have got more traction.
As this stage it looks like it could become a nuisance in getting dalymount pk delayed but nothing more. Those poor bees.

[Martinho II]

Save Tolka Park campaign launched last night. I can't see it going anywhere but good luck to them. Here is their plans.

https://savetolkapark.com/proposal/

There was good PR on Johnny Wards and Daniel McDonnells podcast about STP campaign. Your man who used to be on the podcast whose name escapes me spoke well I thought!