If anyone is under any illusions about the amount it will cost to run Sligo Rovers in 2006,take a look at the article below which I copied from a website.
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Cup winners Drogheda pay €1.6m for success
AFTER ending the long wait for a major trophy nobody in Drogheda is complaining about the price of success.
The decision to turn Drogheda United into a full-time professional club was vindicated on Sunday when they captured the FAI Cup for the first time.
But it didn't come cheap.
It has cost €1.6m to run Drogheda in 2005 which works out an average of €30,000 per week and while they will probably finish the financial year with a deficit, they have minimised it with their success in the FAI Cup.
The County Louth club estimate that they will bring in around €250,000 from their presence in the final.
This includes €25,000 for winning the trophy and around €100,000 from merchandising and sponsorship, with their share of the record gate receipts and television rights bringing the figure up to the quarter-of-a-million mark.
More money
And they are poised to make even more money in the weeks ahead as 2006 season tickets and Drogheda United jerseys are the must-have presents on Boyneside this Christmas.
Drogheda also earned €15,000 in prize money for finishing fourth in the Eircom League Premier Division and they are guaranteed a minimum of €20,000 from their qualification for next year's Setanta Cup, but could scoop €150,000 if they win the north-south competition.
Their FAI Cup success has also earned them a place in the UEFA Cup where they will be guaranteed a minimum of €52,000 per round with the possibility of generating extra income from television rights depending on the draw.
For those who have been following Drogheda since their election to the League of Ireland in 1963 the past few days have been the stuff that dreams are made of but the club doesn't intend to rest of their laurels.
Plans are already well advanced for the building of a new state-of-the-art stadium on the north side of Drogheda near the M1 motorway. The club's plan is to have the 10,000-seater stadium ready for the 2007 season and they estimate it can be built in six months for just €7m.
As well as a stadium, the club also intend to include commercial and residential properties on the site and this will generate a constant revenue stream that will help fund the club into the future.
Ambition
Drogheda's clear ambition is to be Ireland's No 1 football club and the planning for next season will be finalised tomorrow when manager Paul Doolin sits down with the Drogheda board.
Seven players are out of contract and an announcement of at least four new signings is expected between now and Christmas as Doolin bids to put the touches to a squad he wants to see challenging for the title next season.
Drogheda are keen to resign Cup final goal heroes Gavin Whelan and Declan O'Brien, plus midfielder Stephen Bradley, but Jerome Sandvliet, Gary Rogers, Mark Rooney and David Sullivan seem set to leave the club.
Doolin is well aware that expectations levels have now been raised higher than ever before in the club's history and accepts that it comes with the territory.
"I hear loads of people talking that we are going to dominate and we are going to do this and we are going to do that. We'll enjoy this, but I think it is another step along the way in what we are trying to do," says Doolin.
"We were fourth last year and got nothing. We have finished in the top four again this year and won our first trophy, so I hope it gives us a stepping stone to challenge for the league on a proper basis."
Reluctant
Doolin admitted last week that he had found Drogheda hard to sell to players who were reluctant to sign for a provincial club, but the balance of power switched to the provinces this season.
Cork won the Premier Division, Sligo captured the First Division, Derry City took the League Cup and Drogheda lifted the FAI Cup and Doolin reckons the future is country.
"It's nice that we can break the Dublin monopoly. Cork won the league, we won the cup, so we hope that it is long term and we can improve next year."
