QuoteHiggins is hardly likely to come cheap is he?Originally Posted by Strongbow10
Surely Higgins would have bigger aspirations than Athlone? It's a hell of a step down from FAI Cup Finals and European football.
Would he not be a contender for the vacant Waterford role?
Higgins is hardly likely to come cheap is he?
I have to say this recent flock of "investors" into First Division clubs in particular puzzles me. It's hard enough to make any kind of profit at the top of the Premier Division let alone in the First Division. Though if Athlone somehow got the crowds to come back they'd have potential.
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
Potential for what though? It's a small town in the grand scheme of things - in the same population ballpark as Sligo and Letterkenny. That's not going to elevate them to the top of Irish football. It's unlikely even to ensure regular European football if they got promoted.
So you have to wonder what the investment play is with a club like Athlone. Unless its laundering overseas players to take advantage of the English market?
Athlone is a place that will grow and grow in the next 10 years. Designated as the key regional growth centre for the midlands, there's definite potential, and most importantly it's not a place consumed by GAA either.
Anything to do with corporate tax ? There has to be something behind the investments. Id be cynical that they are just for the love of the game.
Designated to grow by 40% up to 2040 (from 2018 population). So it is planned to have a population of 28,000 in 15yrs time = still not thta big.
Sligo and Letterkenny are also regional gateway towns too btw, with the same 40% growth target. Yet I wouldn't say either of those offers the kind of potential in Irish football that investors will look for i.e. consistent Europe as a minimum.
Remember that every other urban area in the country is growing quickly too - with Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford on a target of 50% expansion by 2040. So the size gap between all the cities and towns like Athlone will only have widened by then. And with it presumably the gap between them in Irish football.
Last edited by EatYerGreens; 22/04/2025 at 5:45 PM.
Some of them might just like the idea of owning a group of clubs and/or think that's the way for their principal club to grow. You can't write off any football related losses against your corporate tax for another club or business as far as I'm aware. Maybe they think they can grow the club to some degree and sell it on again. The most genuine seems to be the fella that put money into Kerry. Basically he said he couid afford it and he wants to do something good for Kerry. He wasn't expecting much of a return.
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
I'd wonder if it's to do with the lack of any serious supporter base.
Taking over a club that's averaging 3/4k attendances per match there is likely to be a certain level of opposition. With a club who've been struggling and crowds of 3/400 any investment would generally be welcomed.
I phoned the speaking clock to hear a voice speak, it said - "At the tone you will be very much alone"
The key to investment in LoI, whatever you do make sure nobody is watching!
Talk (no more than that) that RH is being lined up to take over at Coleraine in the summer.
They could certainly do with a better manager than Dean Shiels has proven to be; DS was appointed by the previous Board; a new benefactor recently took over and is spending a lot of money, incl f-t football. So if there is any truth in the rumour, I'd have thought they'd be of greater interest to RH than Athlone (certainly) or Waterford (probably), another club who've been linked to him by Dan McD.
I'd take those grow targets as just that; targets.
They're quite ambitious, at current employment and construction trends, likely unachievable.
I take your point though, growth doesn't mean Athlone will become more attractive. As pointed out in another thread, a larger town doesn't necessarily make it more likely to have a higher level football team, let alone a successful one. Take Limerick, Lisburn or Kilkenny as examples.
I'd be very surprised if Higgins took the job there.
Its location does offer potential to grow a soccer club there. It also has history and their women's team has reached the top in recent years. I was at the playoff v Bray and they had a reasonable support their that day. Would require a substantial investment I suppose and people who know the loI well involved, but could something like what Drogheda are doing these days not be achieved there?
Those targets were set in 2017/18, and if you look at the 2022 census results pretty much everywhere is on track to hit them so far. Athlone grew 13% between 2011 and 2022, for example - and that was a period which included a large chunk of the bad years post-crash when there was little or no population growth/negative growth in many places.
Galway up 14% from 2011 to 2022. Your near neighbour Letterkenny grew by 17% in just the 6yrs between the 2016 and 2022 census.
The one exception for growth seems to be Sligo, which somehow just never seems to get much beyond 20,000 people.
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