Sure haven't the Portaloos been upgraded for away fans - thats a stadium development. Dont forget the footpath installed, tarmacing beside the stand and the puddle being sorted!! Embroidered seats!!!
Seriously though since mid 2000's about €2mil has been spent on Oriel most recently a supposed 500k spent fitting out the YDC. The problem with old crumbling grounds is that you can spend a fortune and it hardly be noticed. Nothing was done to Oriel from the 70s through to 2000s well a few things were done; Would you believe that the away terrace was one of the more recent additions to the ground prior to improvements in the 2000s. There used to be 2 rows of RSJs obscuring the view from the stand rather than the 3 that are there now and the fencing around the pitch were removed.
New roof on the stand and side glass replaced, stand brought up to health and safety standards as seating used to be planks with lines painted on them indicating a 'seat', shed terracing replaced and seats installed and new roof, YDC, concourse resurfaced including the lane that away fans use, it used to be a muck track. 2 or 3 versions of the pitch, a proper exterior wall behind the Carrick Road end was built, toilets built behind home terrace, floodlight pylons and lights refurbished, graveled areas on the town side of the stand has been properly surfaced. Due to the nature of how things ended up with Gerry Matthews as owner people have kinda forgotten how much he did when at the club - more than the last owners and the current owners tbh.
A lick of paint would go amiss and about as much improvement as we're likely to get in the foreseable future. We're told that an assessment of options was undertaken by a company eg whether to develop a greenfield site or stay in Oriel and staying in Oriel was the decision. Plans were also said to have been drawn up and meeting held with LCC including Delaney attending though his involvement could have been to do with Drogheda's project also. If we were to reach the group stages in Europe again then maybe there would be pressure on the owners to announce concrete plans if you pardon the pun.
It would be interesting to survey what clubs lose with falling attendances due to the intensity of the fixture list early season against what may be saved by not lengthening the season by a month or so!