I thought of this article when I read your post
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soc...medium=twitter
His players, [Stephen Kenny] thought, had looked different in Alkmaar’s modern stadium – then a decade old – and perhaps looked at themselves differently too.
He was talking about environment and perception and, ruefully, he would revisit the theme a few months later.
Following Dundalk’s summer elimination from the Champions League by Rosenborg – 3-2 on aggregate after extra time in the second leg – Kenny observed his players and the 21,000-capacity modern stadium Rosenborg inhabit and said: “There is nothing between the teams and yet we are playing in bloody Oriel Park, very limited facilities, and we are coming to grounds like this.
“The players deserve to playing on stages like this.”
At Windsor Park in Belfast, Shamrock Rovers walked into the 18,500-capacity redeveloped stadium and looked like they owned it. Graham Burke, Daniel Cleary and company strode around Windsor with a sense of belonging.
The point here, however, is Kenny’s – presentation. Part of the reason why Rovers were so persuasive – and impressive to an audience who see them rarely – was the setting.
Windsor is the best soccer-specific (as they say in the US) stadium on the island. The second-best is Tallaght. Rovers play consistently in Europe on the sort of stages Kenny mentioned. There’s a trip to Stamford Bridge next month.
This not only makes the players and management of Stephen Bradley more comfortable when entering these surroundings, it also enhances external perception of them.
Go back to Alkmaar-Dundalk and Dutch infrastructure has material benefits plural – commercial income is one, obviously, but there is also the added value in the transfer market of players being seen in a Dutch situation, as opposed to being seen in Irish domestic football at, say, Oriel Park.
Put simply, better facilities, better stadiums increase the value of the players inside them. Supermarkets call it packaging.
There's more of note in that article other than the extracts I have copied above.
And somewhat related, I was in a rugby school and I think it's fair to say two of old pals, Leinster season ticket and IRFU debenture holders, know diddly-squat about the LOI and quite frankly assume it's rubbish. I'm in a WhatsApp chat with them. One did agree to come out to Tallaght with me last season but the opportunity never arose. The other, quite out of the blue, posted in the chat on Friday that he had just seen a presentation by Kevin Doherty about Drogs' US investment and their plans and he was really impressed. He and his wife went to the match yesterday and loved it. Both recognised that the "FAI run-in" (as they called it) was getting a lot of attention.
