Agreed, last time we went we stayed over, lovely walk back* into the city after the game, friendly folk too in the bars, and the rezzie bar of course in the hotel, forget what was it was called, but it was close to the closed down? Alfie Hale bar and overlooked the river.Originally Posted by DCSIL
*Of course no time to walk to the game, that is always last pint and a taxi job !
Sligo is next on our stay over list, we did Derry twice last year - excellent spot also.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), only Irish club to win a game / points in Europa League Group Stage (2016).
Was thinking exact same thing myself when I read this.
And for the record, I think P6 / DFC should have only paid out 80% wages, it would have sent out a better message, hash tag we are all in this together etc, definitely up until today, first day back training.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), only Irish club to win a game / points in Europa League Group Stage (2016).
Always have a great time down there , a few pints and a bla for breakfast fantastic.
Viking Hotel?
Had to look it up - Not that one - it was the Marina Hotel - lovely spot.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), only Irish club to win a game / points in Europa League Group Stage (2016).
It got skimmed over here a bit but Harps and Drogs have both posted profits for last year. Small profits granted but profits none the less. Surely the business model they're following could be applied elsewhere. In the likes of Waterford, Cobh, Limerick, Athlone and eventually in areas that could really be helpful to the league to have a team. If they're generating profits sure why don't the FAI set up and run teams in areas like Kerry, Mayo, Monaghan, etc
Maybe Shamrock and Dundalk could have a look at the model too. Yes, some teams are making profits or breaking close to even for years now, but these teams are in a battle with clubs who are over spending on player wages and are accumulating debt year on year. Just to compete costs more and more and pushes teams to increase budgets which they get ridiculed for, yet others are adding up every season with little consequences. The licensing system needs overhauling.
Manager: Fergal, have you your boots with ya?
Fergal: Ya, I have them here.
Manager: Ah good stuff, well give them to this man so, he forgot his!
As ye mention Drogheda, I was dropping someone off at OLOL and there looks to have been a few changes to United Park with some machinery in the ground. The obvious change from the outside was that the steel frame for adverstiment hoarding behind the nothern goal has been removed. It currently wouldnt be too hard to hop that wall now and in to the ground albeit ye'd be on the pitch. Any drogs know what the story is or what other work could be happening?
How did they make profits?
Is the income and expenditure broken down anywhere?
I'm not being combative genuinely curious.
Because there's no way under the sun they made them doing the oul running an Irish football club.
If they're getting extra charitable donations (sorry "sponsorship") that's fair enough.
But I don't really think there's anything really to be learned from harps or especially drogheda.
You can't apply a one size fits all model which is why I name checked smaller regional clubs similar to the two making profits. Rovers and Dundalk are just at different stages as clubs to other clubs around, its not a good or a bad thing it's just the truth. Them doing what they're doing isn't damaging to the league, it's teams doing too much to try catch up that's damaging. The likes of Bohs for example didn't push themselves to catch up, it happened naturally because they set solid foundations and slowly added to them. Same with Sligo a couple years back and Cork until they over extended. Clubs in Ireland just seem to have this mentality that they must keep up with those at the top when they don't have to, if you build slowly but surely you'll get to your natural level. LOI clubs are just impatient and want it all now on shakey foundations rather than 5 years from now on solid ones.
I certainly haven't heard anything about any special "sponsorships" being involved in either club.
Ive not been Drogs biggest fan over the whole Rovers 2 stuff but there's no denying that they've increased community relations in recent years and got a good solid young first team on the park playing nice football without spending silly money. They're also covered in sponsors so there's that too.
Harps make a profit largely due to fundraising operations from supporters through the year. It's not a long term model to be copied by any stretch of the imagination. It's a struggle each year.
We made a profit just under €20,000 in 2019, on top of a profit of almost €17,000 from 2018.
There's no large donations, nothing huge to speak home about in terms of a single sponsorship either that I'm aware of. The good will of a lot of local businesses and great work by people within the club have us where we are.
People would also be well aware that Ollie Horgan works off a very small, very tight budget, so that's a help, and crowds were obviously up in 2019 due to Premier Division football, so every penny counts in that regard.
The whole structure of the club that enables that good will from people to participate in fundraising or contribute and local businesses, that's what should be emulated by other clubs.
It's a good model to show to potential new clubs interested in joining the league just to show that it is sustainable to be one of the smaller clubs (no offence intended) in the league if done right.
Obviously Donegal is a bit sparse but punches above its weight in sports while Drogs get a good few from north Dublin so this would be possible to happen at these clubs and is probably what they're aiming for but if you're looking at the likes of Waterford if they followed that model and then happened upon a few gems in their quite large catchment area that could be the catalyst to grow from there, its basically the same model as sligo and they have their bursts of success and are relatively stable and you can't ask for much more really given the conditions of the LOI
The Sligo Rovers treasurer seems to have plenty to say. He's in the media every few days. Where did he come out of?
He's been around for a while. He was one of the club consultants for the E5k 5-year-plans a few years back for example. Maybe he's just an easy contact for journalists?
Had forgotten about them. They were at the start of 2017. Where did they ever end up? What a waste of time they were, which we all knew at the time!
Mid 2016 (though most were for the period 2017-2021).
It was a tokenistic crumb from Delaney, and I'm sure some were more realistic than others, but strategic plans are very important for businesses in general in fairness. I wouldn't be all that dismissive of the idea. It'd be no harm for clubs to be starting to look at their 2022-2026 plans now.
Some clubs didn't have theirs completed until mid 2017, which probably says something about how serious they took it.
Agree on the idea, absolutely, you should have a long term plan, but that kind of forward thinking goes out the window in the LOI!
Looks like Kelleher isn’t the only one unhappy with the ‘new’ FAI.
https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football...n-figures/amp/
Sligo seem happy with the FAI.
"Gary Owens and Niall Quinn are doing great work trying to bring along a very dispirit group, all with their own interests. They are doing Trojan work trying to get us all there."
A quote from the Sligo treasurer on RTE.
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