Harps Park

[GalwayFrancis]

New Harps stadium still in pipeline


August 6, 2004

Finn Harps chairman Peter Toner has denied rumours that the club had abandoned plans to move to a new 10,000-seater stadium, and stressed that the project is top of their agenda.

Speculation was rife that the club had pulled the plug on the idea of moving from their Ballybofey location to a new stadium adjacent to the Finn Valley Centre.

Toner believes the club need to build the new stadium in order to keep them up to date with other clubs as on the field the team strive to reach their holy grail of the Premier Division.

"The move is certainly not off. In fact it remains top of the agenda as we believe that a move is certainly the most effective way of dragging this club into the new Millennium," said Toner.

"The new Stadium would be a benefit to the team as it would provide, new facilities, a warm up pitch and a training pitch. The move is very much alive."

Harps are currently in third place in the First Division, although a win against Athlone Town tonight (Friday) would see them move back to the top of the table.

[Eamon Derby Ram]

AS MUCH AS I WANT TO SEE FINN HARPS MOVE TO A NEW STADIUM I THINK THAT A 10,000 ALL SEATER STADIUM IS THE WRONG IDEA TOTALLY. WHAT EIRCOM LEAGUE TEAM GETS THAT MANY AT EVERY HOME GAME? NONE. CORK CITY BEING THE BIGGEST GATE ACCORDING TO : EUROPEAN FOOTBALL STATISTICS WEBSITE: URL:
http://www.european-football-statist...004/aveire.htm

THEIR BIGGEST LEAGUE GATE BEING 6,500 THIS SEASON ALTHOUGH WITH THE EUROPEAN GATES BEING AS HIGH AS 8 TO 8,500 THAT WILL NOT BE BETTERED BY ANY OTHER TEAM ONLY SHELBOURNE WHO WILL PLAY AGAINST DEPORTIVO LA CORONA AT LANSDOWNE ROAD.

A NEW GROUND FOR HARPS IS A DEFO RIGHT MOVE BUT 10,000 SEATS NO WAY. I LIVE NEAR BURTON UPON TRENT NEAR DERBY AND BURTON'S TEAM RUN BY NIGEL CLOUGH ARE IN THE ENGLISH CONFERENCE LEAGUE WITH AN AVERAGE ATTENDANCE OF 1,750 AT HOME GAMES. THEY ARE MOVING TO A NEW 6,000 CAPACITY STADIUM WHICH WILL HAVE 2,000 SEATS AND 4,000 STANDING. HARPS SHOULD BE LOOKING AT SOMETHING ON A SIMILAR MODEL ALTHOUGH MAYBE 3,000 SEATS WOULD BE BETTER FOR THEM.

ABOVE ALL IT WOULD COST THE CLUB LESS MONEY AND IT COULD BE USED TOWARDS THE UPKEEP OF A RELATIVELY FULL STADIUM BUT TRYING TO GET 10,000 AT AN EIRCOM LEAGUE GAME REGULARLY IS .... WELL VERY HARD. 4,000 IS HARD ENOUGH SO HARPS TRY AND PUT IT INTO PERSPECTIVE AND FORGET ABOUT 10,000 SEATS. A NEW STADIUM IS A YES FROM ME AND NOT ONLY OTHER HARPS FANS BUT THE MAJORITY OF EIRCOM LEAGUE FANS AS IT WILL HELP TO BENEFIT IRISH SOCCER.

DERBY COUNTY/CELTIC/BURTON ALBION/MICKLEOVER SPORTS/BORROWASH VISTORIA/ WEST END CELTIC FROM DERBY

[Neish]

AS MUCH AS I WANT TO SEE FINN HARPS MOVE TO A NEW STADIUM I THINK THAT A 10,000 ALL SEATER STADIUM IS THE WRONG IDEA TOTALLY.
A NEW GROUND FOR HARPS IS A DEFO RIGHT MOVE BUT 10,000 SEATS NO WAY.
ABOVE ALL IT WOULD COST THE CLUB LESS MONEY AND IT COULD BE USED TOWARDS THE UPKEEP OF A RELATIVELY FULL STADIUM

Although i wouldn't like to see Harps move away from Naveeny Street if it is at all avoidable, in the end if we have to move then so be it.

Agree here, I think spening vast amounts of money on such a capicity stadium is daft yo say the least. If we had mayb 2,000-4,000 seats with another 3,000-4,000 terraced standing area it would cost less and as you say this money could go towards the up keep of a smaller stadium.

[Terry]

Although i wouldn't like to see Harps move away from Naveeny Street if it is at all avoidable, in the end if we have to move then so be it.

Agree here, I think spening vast amounts of money on such a capicity stadium is daft yo say the least. If we had mayb 2,000-4,000 seats with another 3,000-4,000 terraced standing area it would cost less and as you say this money could go towards the up keep of a smaller stadium.

So say ye go on to win the cup or somthing and ye qualify for europe. Will you be happy with crowds of 2-3000 or would ye be able to fill the 10,000 seater? with such a small seating area a lot of FH supporters would not get to see the match. Terryland has 2,000 at the mo and that is prodominately just one side of the grounds (not much seatiing when you think of it!)