There are no LOI grounds in the inner city but Dalyer fits the description best and has the best transport links.
There are no LOI grounds in the inner city but Dalyer fits the description best and has the best transport links.
Tolka and Richmond Park are probably my 2 favourite LOI grounds - stands on all 4 sides and right on top of the pitch - proper old school.
But to be fair, neither of them have anything like the history and charactar of Dalyer. The Irish team played there for about 100 years. It's hosted the liked of Pele and Santos back in the day, Zidane, Gullit, Boniek, Van Basten etc. And then there's the music - Thin Lizzy, Bob Marley, Ozzy Osbourne. The graffiti. The murals. Archibald Leitch. Floodlights from Highbury. The list goes on. I think the redevelopment has even planned to include a museum in one of the new stands.
And Bohs are one half of Dublin's main derby, which is often a pull for the tourists. The Cop90 documentary probably hasn't done any harm in drawing football tourists either.
And the most accessible from the city centre as CD mentioned.
And Bohs is just a much more vibrant club these days than either Pats or Shels. Shels have been in the doldrums for the best part of a decade.
http://www.dundalkdemocrat.ie/news/n...n-in-town.htmlWhen approached by The Democrat for comment, Dundalk FC General Manager Martin Connolly neither confirmed nor denied contact from Peak6 or any other potential investor, saying any future decisions would have to fall in line with the best interests of the club.
"We have been approached a number of times in the last 12-18 months about potential investment and we have always maintained that if we feel something will be good for the development of the football club, then we will talk," Connolly said.
Talk of it being done within 2 weeks according to The Times again, solicitors drawing up the documents at the moment. Interesting times ahead, hopefully not of the Arkaga/ Athlone variety!
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0...9-95e3fc05f40f
(Paywalled)
The proposed takeover of Dundalk by a group of American businessmen has reached the legal stage with solicitors acting for the prospective new owners in talks with the existing board.
Peak6, a Chicago-based investment company, which invested in Bournemouth two years ago, wants to take full ownership of the SSE Airtricity League side and invest a substantial amount of money to develop facilities.
The plan is to increase the first-team budget sufficiently to ensure a full-time professional set-up is in place at Oriel Park, with players on 52-week contracts, as opposed to their present situation, where the overwhelming majority of them are paid for 40 weeks each year.
In addition, according to sources privy to the talks, the group also intends to invest money in…
Want to read more?
“plans to invest money in stocks of minerals and crisps” I assume?
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
When this news broke the first thing I thought of was...
peaklyle.jpg
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Appears this is going ahead.
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-36362570.html
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), first Irish club to win points in a group stage in Europe (2016).
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!
Dundalk do not own Oriel Park, and the ground can never be sold, (terms of lease dictates ground can only be used for football) the current owners own the entity, the lease, buildings, and player contracts only, and obviously the revenue that comes from the 2 or 3 bars that currently operate. I was surprised to see 100%, but at the end of the day there is probably only around 2m left from the euro run, the new pitch and securing the lease /YDC would have cost the guts of 1m, and the remaining monies was never going to be enough for a proper ground redevelopment. It would have wiped out all cash flow plus they would have had to borrow /apply for grants to finish the job. As most know the list is a long one in terms of redevelopment.
The current owners are perfectly entitled to make a profit from the sale as they bought the club when in serious debt. The new owners have the funds to properly redevelop at least 3 sides of the ground, and increase the playing budget, as long as the club is on a solid financial footing after this, I would be cautiously happy. There is talk of ensuring that the improvements going in are also a revenue generating source, like better use of the YDC in indoor pitch rentals, re-use of the bar within there, and other corporate facilities to be built to be used for regular non match events, and for bigger matches when required.
There has been very little details so far, so I can only form an opinion on the bits I’ve picked up. There is of course the danger that the new owners will become disinterested in years to come and sell off their project, but I would like to think the current owners are smart enough to have some sort of protection that DFC would not be left liable for any of their debts if this happened, but as with any business the same risks would apply, investments can rise as well as fall……………..these guys are not doing this for nothing though, so it remains to be seen exactly what ground redevelopments they will start, and when, or is this purely an attempt to make money from another few euro runs, and keep all that cash for themselves.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), first Irish club to win points in a group stage in Europe (2016).
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