I believe the naming rights for the stadium are available for purchase but serious companies dont see it as a viable commercial opportunity!!
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If I had the cash BTID I'd name it after one of the Athlone Town greats (probably Turlough O'Connor) or simply call it the New Mels Park and name the stands (I'd have the cash to finish the job) after former greats and 1 after myself of course :D
Interesting thoughts, and if I won the euro-millions I'd definitely buy Waterford - put an initial investment into a ground and enough facilites to keep the club self sustaining - gym, astro-pitches etc..
If you can't buy your own club, then it'd have to be Cork. Captive audience of over 100K (Cobh not really serious competitor in that vein) in the city alone. Milk the inferiority complex and rebel ****e for all it's worth and it'd be a definite contendor to build up a club.
In general I'd tend to pick a club outside of Dublin that didn't have any competition for a fanbase (although there theoretically are enough to go around in Dublin as well.)
As a few others said Dublin is necessary for the potential fanbase but the problem in Dublin is lack of interest in Irish football. You would need to start a new club to attract new fans. Only Cork, Derry & Sligo have enough population combined with track record in football.
The recent takeover of Cork City is interesting as it does seem to be investment & not a hobby for local rich businessmen which is possibly an eL first. The mention of 25-28k stadium was a surprise but apparently this has been investigated for the last 6-12 months already.
Certain :). It was after he mentioned the 35-40 million I stopped being able to hear properly :D
The whole rooms mouths dropped, as he carried on speaking. Til someone called him back to repeat the figure......his response was 'HOw much do you think it woill cost to build a state of the art stadium?'
Firstly I doubt he did offer us any offer, however if its the same as Pats, what is the package. We know we are sitting on land worth €50m, I doubt Kelliher offered us anything like that, so why would we sell to someone who could in 5 years move us out and build on our ground. Our problem is we own an asset worth far more than our club is worth, and anyone interested would be deterred by that.
Donegal churns out quality young players every year but a lot either go to England or if they dont get a starting place in the Harps line up lose interest and dont work at developing their game.I would buy Harps and get the best youth coaches money can buy and concentrate on local talent.
If I had to pick a team outside of Harps it would have to be Shamrock Rovers.
The least the Goverment should be doing for the Eircom League is offering potential investors tax free incentives likethey give their horsey buddies.
56 posts without mentioning Limerick.
So here I go - Limerick 37.
Big potential fan base, with a decent stadium near the station you could get some good crowds. And of course I like them.
If any EL club looked like it was getting its act together I'd buy it using proxy agents. I'd pick the dopiest losers to run the club for me and I'd stop any investment into it so it had to keep scratching a miserable existance in its run down stadium in front of a few hundred fans.
Then, when I finally controlled all the clubs. I'd buy a second hand rain jacket and sleep rough long enough until my hair was all straggly and grey. Then I'd just spend my time visiting my clubs at random games and talking gibberish to the locals and otherwise glorying in my very own personal league. And even though those common fans might look down on me I would own those beatches lock stock and barrel.
pointless investing in the likes of monaghan, kilkenny imo. population would never be enough to support the club long term.
a bit like jack walker at blackburn, when he went, then it had to fend for itself and will at best only ever be a middle of the road EPL club and in all likelyhood drift into the nether regions of 2nd or 3rd tier football over the next decade or two.
personally if i bought a club I would probably be the Irish version of Vladimir Romanov! i would find it very hard to let someone else run it and probably meddle in affairs so much that i'd destroy the club!
but if i were to invest it would obviously be GUFC for me. outside of my own club it would be Rovers or Cork.
the suggestion that someone would donate money through a supporters trust may seem good in theory but would never work.
the people involved in supporters trusts do carry out sterling work but if they were just given a lump of money every month/year then the temptation for resting on their laurels would be massive. I mean why break your neck selling lotto tickets when Mr. X is giving you half a million every year!!!
in fact after a year or two the positions on the supporters trust would become very attractive and you would never know who would fill the roles!!!
A bit like Socialism and the Green party, while talking from a pulpit it is easy to have great theory but when the power comes it is much more difficult.
True. If Shels had beaten Deportivo, it wouldn't have added on a 1,000 fans for their league matches imo.
it would if they beat them 3 years in a row...
That seems to suggest that Irish football is fecked, will never have decent crowds, and we should all give up ? :confused:
The bandwagon obviously rolls out for big games - there isn't a team in the world where this isn't the case. But a conurbation of 20-30,000 people cannot sustain a team at a level where it is competing to a decent level in Europe regularly. A city of 1.5m like Dublin can. And you can be sure that if an Irish team was competing regularly at a high level in Europe it would add to it's ordinary matchday appeal
Just look at Derry City - one good year in Europe and our season ticket sales rocket. That shows you what can be achieved. As I mentioned before, however, it is easier to do it with a team outside Dublin, as those clubs have affinity and a residual appeal within their communities already. Shels didn't add to their gate post-Deportivo, as Shels means nothing to the overwhelming majority of people in Drumcondra, let alone Dublin. The same is not true for provincial clubs. But give Shels a few years of consistently performing at a good level in Europe and they would undouibtedly have picked up some new fans (though again - not at the same rate of conversion as a provincial club).
Hence why I said Dublin clubs offer the greatest potential return on your investment - but also the greatest risk in achieving it.
So population is absoluitely key here - as shown throughout Europe (success and catchment area are very closely linked across all leagues).
if i won billions i would buy tallagh finish the stadia and give it to TD .only joking give it to rovers just to shut them bogballers up
Galway - 75k population, 250k overall in the county - good potential fanbase, with no other eL teams to compete against. A fast-growing population. A popular destination, for the away-fans to 'make a weekend of it' - & a popular place, so the bandwaggoners can hop on easily.
A well-recognised name for promoting world-wide - the Galway 'brand name'.
Most of the above also works for Cork - also larger population & the fact that about 40 million americans think their granny came from cork! - but it looks like someone got there before me:rolleyes:
Id buy Belfast Celtic or whatever is left of them. Get them up and running again, develope a decent stadium. Put them in to the LOI and watch them take off.
it is a pointless thread because everyone will just say their own club!!
Well I am saying my own club now :) I would buy Longford, build a roof over us poor souls opposite the stand!
At least we will be dry ;) Fully licensed bar, strippers at half time... the possibilities are endless.