Invest wisely

Now that the club has a bit of clout regarding financially as we have qualified to setanta and Uefa. I think the main proirity of the club would be to improve facilities. eg. the building of a stand at the shed end, Club shop, club bar. that will help insure a greater long term future.
Now that clubs have realised that spending all they had on players has left the league nowhere after 10years. We are left with the same crumbling facilities rather than when clubs should have been investing in their future rather than short term gain. We have a reletively small budget. Lets keep it that way and invest in new facilities. Lets start the trend for the future of this league.

Agree completely.

The money that we stand to earn should be used to keep the core of players we have, and the rest put into bricks and mortar.

Only way forward...

The Shed End is a disgrace. Wasnt the reason given that it and the terrace beside it were demolished was due to safety reasons. Stood there last night among the gravel, rocks and also some small sized boulders. Definetely an accident waiting to happen there.

Knocking it also has taken away some character of the ground and hid the sheds and mess behind it.

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Originally Posted by red bellied

The Shed End is a disgrace. Wasnt the reason given that it and the terrace beside it were demolished was due to safety reasons. Stood there last night among the gravel, rocks and also some small sized boulders. Definetely an accident waiting to happen there.

Knocking it also has taken away some character of the ground and hid the sheds and mess behind it.

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It was crazy to knock The Shed when there was nothing to replace it.
The Showgrounds has lost some of its character.
i wonder would Kilkenny give us a lend of this
http://www.ifgrounds.com/kilkennycity.html#kilkennypics
What a waste

Would love to see rovers make plans for a bar to be put in. A lot of Gaa clubs have their own and make good money off that alone. It would be expensive i'm sure even getting a license to serve would be costly but if the place was filled each match day before and after the games, the regulars during the week, and then maybe rented out for special occasions they wouldn't be long making the money back.

To put in place a stand behind the goal(Shed end) the equivilant of Cobhs would not be very expensive either, once you take into account grants, etc. Nothing fancy a roof with 4-5 rows of seats.
If that avenue was not open a temporary stand like the one Pats have behing their goal would be perfect for Setanta cup and European football next year.

To be honest, I know its not my say but if the money from the 1000 x2euro yearly drive was put toward a new stand at the shed end it would be the most productive way of using the money. Improving facilities will only increase attendances and create a more stable club rather than directly relying on the 100k from the drive for players wages every year, the club can indirectly get the money back through this.


This should be addressed right away by the board as we all want to gain maximum attendances next year in Setanta(eg. If linfield come to town) and Uefa Cup. It will mean we can play our European football in the Showgrounds and we won't have to pay massive rental fee for Terryland, Flancare Park, etc.
With our current situation an investment like this will be repayed with interest in the long run imo.

It's exciting times ahead but talk of the club investing in facilities is a bit premature.

We've come 4th but that doesn't mean there suddenly alot more money about for us to do anything with. I'd be surprised if any capital expenditure was in the pipeline in the next couple years. Maybe if the club put together a seed capital plan with the help of supporters to build something specific then we could better facilities in 2/3 years time. As INSIDE MAN said using the 1000 x2 euro drive to fund or partially fund this would be wonderful.

I hope the club don't just expand the playing budget with the extra bit they'll get. Hopefully Europe will give financial reward but making money on Europe is dicey enough - depends who you draw, depends how many the Showgrounds can take for a euro game. alot of mitigating factors.

We've done wonderfully well this season but we all must keep the feet on the ground and produce a realistic plan and budget for next season. For now and the immediate future we need to secure our best players, offload some and add a few players that are potentially better than what are let go. Now is our chance to build (carefully) and give ourselves a chance to be top 4 every year.

The MC have done brilliantly to bring success this season.Hopefully more people would get interested in getting involved with the club and building on the clubs good work to date.

a roof and a couple rows of seats at the railway end the foundations there.

For the bulk of people on this forum the position is we really do not know what the financial implications are for developing the club but I am all for people coming up with new ideas here. It would be very wrong for us to ignore what is and has been done for the club by th MC and everyone involved in supporting the club in whatever way but you have to think that a hard core of business heads like that being proposed is the only way forword. Lot of people want to spend money on bringing in new players, others think bricks and mortar should be the priority but we are on a high now and decisions on where we go now have to be based on good financial planning and in the mean time lets just thank all concerned for a great season and spend a little time celebrating before we make any
rash decisions.

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Originally Posted by Inside Man

This should be addressed right away by the board as we all want to gain maximum attendances next year in Setanta(eg. If linfield come to town) and Uefa Cup.

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Have we definitely qualified for the Setanta cup as well? :confused:

I agree that we need a stand at the Shed End. It looks desperate with it all open like that. Especially as it's the end that people enter the ground at - having it all open doesn't make it feel like a proper football ground anymore. Which is a shame because the Main Stand is a really impressive one.

That said, we still need to be careful with the finances...

[QUOTE=Inside Man;1059020] I think the main proirity of the club would be to improve facilities. eg. the building of a stand at the shed end, Club shop, club bar. that will help insure a greater long term future.
QUOTE]

I am all for the idea of developing the showgies but am i the only one who thinks the railway end is the one that should be developed as it is "dead Space" and the space at the shed end could be used for other revenue raising purposes?

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Originally Posted by celticV3

Would love to see rovers make plans for a bar to be put in. A lot of Gaa clubs have their own and make good money off that alone. It would be expensive i'm sure even getting a license to serve would be costly but if the place was filled each match day before and after the games, the regulars during the week, and then maybe rented out for special occasions they wouldn't be long making the money back.

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Would a full time bar be profitable in the showgies? Match day yes but for the rest of the week i am not so sure, mid week patrons would stop at O'Neill's or Mooneys to watch the champs league...how many would go further, remember you need a large turnover to service the debt and contribute to the club, just look at the astro turf for an example, its busy and does contribute something but the debt payments take the vast majority of the revenue and a Bar would need more attention. That aside i would love to see a club house in the showgies.

Also - the showgies is big enuff at the moment to house all attendances so would expanded seating availability just be wasted?

I for one woudl like to see the walkway from the Gates to the stands tarmacced and behind the new stand and the toilet and shop facilities expanded. The PA system is still very poor and itself needs to be addresses and I would also like the TV/Camera gantry put in the Jinks road side - i know there are issues with this (visibility etc) but it would show a full new stand every week(like GUFC) and leave more seats in a good stand and people would then see better facilities on TV and be more inclined to come to games.

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Originally Posted by LondonRover

Have we definitely qualified for the Setanta cup as well? :confused:

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According to John Delaney last night, yes. Games will be played on weekends next season, 1 game every 4 weeks.

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Originally Posted by red away

Would a full time bar be profitable in the showgies? Match day yes but for the rest of the week i am not so sure, mid week patrons would stop at O'Neill's or Mooneys to watch the champs league...how many would go further, remember you need a large turnover to service the debt and contribute to the club, just look at the astro turf for an example, its busy and does contribute something but the debt payments take the vast majority of the revenue and a Bar would need more attention. That aside i would love to see a club house in the showgies.

Also - the showgies is big enuff at the moment to house all attendances so would expanded seating availability just be wasted?

I for one woudl like to see the walkway from the Gates to the stands tarmacced and behind the new stand and the toilet and shop facilities expanded. The PA system is still very poor and itself needs to be addresses and I would also like the TV/Camera gantry put in the Jinks road side - i know there are issues with this (visibility etc) but it would show a full new stand every week(like GUFC) and leave more seats in a good stand and people would then see better facilities on TV and be more inclined to come to games.

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Would agree with above post. I know it would be great to have something at the shed end, but would it cost much to get the jinks stand up to scatch instead? When you look at our attendances do we need a ground capable of holding 6000. While we would probably sell it out for a European night, the money involved in developing this would cost far more than we would make. While it would be great to see an increase in attendances i dont think this will be a realistic reason to plough money into a big project.
Would like to see a clubhouse with a bar and viewing area, like Terryland, bar and catering could be outsourced on match days with the club taking a nominal fee, might be small money but would be guarenteed regardless of how many people use it. I know alot of racecourses use this system.
Dont really see many people going to it during the week.
This could be included in a long term plan for the development of the ground. Is there any point in spending money on a small stand at the shed end, why not wait and build something decent.

Also it looks like there will be no Sports Capital grants next year so would probably have to fund most of what we do ourselves.
In the short term I think the club should look at all the people who have bought season tickets over the last 6 years and write to them in an effort to get a healty bank balance before the season starts. Even an easy payment scheme could be introduced so the ticket could be paid off between now and start of new season, approx 4 months to get this in place.
Need to try and sell the club now with all the enthusiasm around at the moment, striking while the iron is hot and all that.