LOI in Europe 2022

[redobit]

The best Sligo can hope for is that Connaught Rugby get a decent stadium sorted.

Or we build our own. The Showgies masterplan is for a Cat. 3. Some of the money earned in Europe will be earmarked to progress infrastructure. It all won't be put into wages.

[pineapple stu]

Worth noting there's three more draws on Tuesday so. Bit of fun even if Pat's/Sligo don't actually get there. Villarreal, West Ham, Fiorentina and Köln are the only known seeds as yet. There's plenty of teams that could drop into the EL play-off round for Rovers (if they win) and Gent, Hearts, Austria Wien, Omonia Nicosia, Sivasspor, Dnipro and Silkeborg all enter at this stage. If Rovers lose, they'd be seeded in the Conference League play-off round and would play one of the teams knocked out in the first round of the Champions League - looking at the draw, you'd reckon the possible opponents would be Lech Poznan, CFR Cluj (both bad), RFS of Latvia, Ballkani of Kosovo (both reasonable) or Tobol of Kazakhstan/Zrinskij of Bosnia (I really have no idea)

[sidewayspasser]

Kazakhstan would be a nightmare to get to, with Russian and Ukrainian airspace closed. So Tobol would be a bad draw from that point of view.

[D24Saint]

Worth noting there's three more draws on Tuesday so. Bit of fun even if Pat's/Sligo don't actually get there. Villarreal, West Ham, Fiorentina and Köln are the only known seeds as yet. There's plenty of teams that could drop into the EL play-off round for Rovers (if they win) and Gent, Hearts, Austria Wien, Omonia Nicosia, Sivasspor, Dnipro and Silkeborg all enter at this stage. If Rovers lose, they'd be seeded in the Conference League play-off round and would play one of the teams knocked out in the first round of the Champions League - looking at the draw, you'd reckon the possible opponents would be Lech Poznan, CFR Cluj (both bad), RFS of Latvia, Ballkani of Kosovo (both reasonable) or Tobol of Kazakhstan/Zrinskij of Bosnia (I really have no idea)

I’d hate to get West Ham. The media would get whipped into a frenzy and it would take away from the tie ahead.

[pineapple stu]

Kazakhstan would be a nightmare to get to, with Russian and Ukrainian airspace closed. So Tobol would be a bad draw from that point of view.

You'd probably fly via Turkey anyway, so probably not that much of an issue.

[El-Pietro]

Definitely remember reading that Thomond doesn't meet Cat 4 standard.

Lansdowne and Tallaght the only Cat 4 stadia we have.

Do you believe Croke Park wouldn't meet Cat 4 status if required? I'm sure it's just that as they aren't football stadiums they haven't gone through a checklist but they definitely have the requirements.

[sbgawa]

Not being cat 4 is a pain but it's obtainable it just needs expensive temporary work.

[legendz]

Do you believe Croke Park wouldn't meet Cat 4 status if required? I'm sure it's just that as they aren't football stadiums they haven't gone through a checklist but they definitely have the requirements.

Exactly. Thomond Park should have hosted Barcelona and had no problems hosting the Republic of Ireland and a few Premier League teams.

[nigel-harps1954]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_stadium_categories
Where is it falling short of Category 4 status?

Does it have 150 VIP carparking spaces? I've only ever been around the outside of Thomond, but I don't remember there being much in the way of a carpark there? Has to have a pretty significant outside broadcast area too.

They need to have a stupid amount of fixed camera positions, no idea whether Thomond has all of those, or the TV studios. Media area doesn't look massive in it either.

I can't say for sure,

Do you believe Croke Park wouldn't meet Cat 4 status if required? I'm sure it's just that as they aren't football stadiums they haven't gone through a checklist but they definitely have the requirements.

No idea on Croke Park. You'd presume it would meet requirements, but GAA are less likely to put emphasis on anything other than capacity.

Exactly. Thomond Park should have hosted Barcelona and had no problems hosting the Republic of Ireland and a few Premier League teams.

Each of the games you've mentioned are friendlies. Finn Harps has hosted 8,000 people watching Celtic, doesn't make it Cat 4.

[legendz]

Each of the games you've mentioned are friendlies. Finn Harps has hosted 8,000 people watching Celtic, doesn't make it Cat 4.

https://m.independent.ie/sport/rugby...-26498537.html
Thomond Park hosted Inter Milan c Celtic in 2016. Granted another friendly but it would seem Thomond Park management will easily work with UEFA should any wrinkles need to be ironed out. When Treaty United qualify for Europe, they can look forward to big European nights in Thomond Park!

[GUFCghost]

Thomond has no TV studio, as you can see on TV when the commentators are just standing on the side of the pitch. I'm sure one can be built, it's been years since I've been but I think one of the stands is a lot more hollow than the others. If treaty are on the march to European football it could surely be done.

[pateen]

Anyone have any idea of the cost of a temporary stand. Would be nice to see one at the open end of the Showgrounds

[Nesta99]

Anyone have any idea of the cost of a temporary stand. Would be nice to see one at the open end of the Showgrounds

The cost wouldnt be in the ballpark of €15k for 1000 seats. The company below has been used by Cricket Ireland in Stormont and Clontarf. Im not sure if insurance, transport, short timeframe etc are factored in.

https://www.klseating.co.uk/outdoor-grandstand-hire

[paul_oshea]

Kazakhstan would be a nightmare to get to, with Russian and Ukrainian airspace closed. So Tobol would be a bad draw from that point of view.

Fly through Turkey it wouldn't be much of an issue just more expensive

[paul_oshea]

You'd probably fly via Turkey anyway, so probably not that much of an issue.

Ha just catching up now missed this sorry

[sbgawa]

I saw somewhere that charters are mandatory from round 3 , if that's correct it's becoming very expensive even compared to prize money

[Nesta99]

If charter plane is big enough and members could use it it would spread the cost.

[EatYerGreens]

I think it's clear though we've regressed since the peak of the 00s and I still think we've dropped a bit in the intervening decade too (I think the overview of results hints I posted earlier hints at that)

Merely the two group stage qualifications for the LOI in the 2010s, versus one in the 2000s

[Buller]

Merely the two group stage qualifications for the LOI in the 2010s, versus one in the 2000s

Three in the 2010's?

[EatYerGreens]

Is Tallaght the only LOI ground which can host ECLQ3 games? Turners Cross too I'd guess?

Clubs are going to be reaching this round with regularity given that ECLQ1 is going to be between the weakest 20 leagues going forward. It hasn't seemed like too big a deal for Dundalk and Bohs to play games in different stadiums given the proximity but for Sligo to have to travel 2/3 hours to get to a facility good enough to host their game is a scandal. I wonder if them getting permission to go ahead in Sligo will be worse in the long run given the backlash will never arrive like it really should have.

The problem is that Sligo is a small town of 20,000 people, with no larger town within a two hour radius either. Spending a lot doing up their stadium to a standard required just for Europe wouldn't make much sense, and would be a white elephant really. Especially as qualifying for Europe is still a fairly rare event for Sligo. Surely a better option would be a decent stadium in a much larger place like Galway or Derry that Sligo could access on the very rare occasions that they get to a 3rd round stage in Europe ? 4-5,000 seats is about the max that Sligo could feasibly justify, and they just don;t need loads of car parking, high-end media facilities etc.