Boom or Bust

[Jack B]

I wouldn’t totally disagree with you, but bear in mind that he offered the site at Richmond to the Council in return for the switch to St Michaels estate. I think he is probably of the view that Richmond is not the best place to develop a modern stadium, but it appears to be all were left with now. Remember, before he came along we were looking at a forced ground share with Rovers in Tallaght. I don’t think I’m being naive in suggesting that if Garrett Kelleher had any nefarious intentions with regard to the land at Richmond Park they would have become evident well before now. Either that or he’s playing a very long game indeed.

To his and the board's credit they've always been steadfast in their insistence that they'll not move the club from Inchicore, even though a large number of fans have said they'd be accepting of moving to a surrounding area if that was the only viable option. They're extremely limited in what they can do as a result, Michael's Estate was a missed opportunity that the council have pathetically not done anything with anyway, so we're left with the long slog of developing Richmond now. As you say through his actions I think he's earned himself more than enough good credit at this point.

[Neish]

Can you be considered a Fan run club if you're getting regular money from other clubs?

Why not ?

Fans still run the day to day business of the club and said money is coming from FANS of other clubs

[Nesta99]

I wouldn’t totally disagree with you, but bear in mind that he offered the site at Richmond to the Council in return for the switch to St Michaels estate. I think he is probably of the view that Richmond is not the best place to develop a modern stadium, but it appears to be all were left with now. Remember, before he came along we were looking at a forced ground share with Rovers in Tallaght. I don’t think I’m being naive in suggesting that if Garrett Kelleher had any nefarious intentions with regard to the land at Richmond Park they would have become evident well before now. Either that or he’s playing a very long game indeed.

No no I dont see anything nefarious about possile intentions to fix a few things in one go. Richmond is almost undevelopable as a good modern ground, large amenity space etc like Tallaght. It will be a nightmare to get permission to do a whole lot simply on issues with the Camac and very close proximity to housing sandwiched in to what was probably and old infil site between road/housing and river used for a kick about. Buying up housing would help but its still a 1 side access ground (Im no longer just occasional matchnight visitor and passing it every day I both love and wonder at how you could never know there is a national top division 5k league ground and club there unless you knew). Soooo with that in mind it could be developed with (arguably limited) high density apartments like at the Old Choclate Factory area of Kilmainham or a very big hotel etc etc. But this would only happen if there is a good alternative for the club like the former St Michaels no brainer. Even with apartment development planning would still be a total pain so offer a site swap with the people who decide on planning issues thinking that they are not going to hobble their own development. In tandem Kelleher offers an urban renewal project with a new stadium community hub. So his thinking - I develop Richmond in to housing, hostelery, and make money, or I develop an area by giving over Richmond and I make money. Either way at this stage he's unlikely to be making profit on Richmond Park/St Pats. He could easly have run St Pats on cents with hope of cashing in on land asset eventually, scarper to Tallaght, but instead he embraced the club - I think a man like him, with properly deep pockets, took a personal pride in not even having a poorly run and funded LoI club in his name.

The winds changed with the success of SDCC's municpal stadium and other LAs want their own piece but a bunch of similar type facilities will dilute the business side of these facilities and they could become cost burdens and Tallaght has a big headstart. Dalymount could make a play on the 'Home of Irish Football' but really these councils are getting in to pishing matches with each other (no complaints if it delivers sporting infrastructure). Where there is opportuity is with arenas rather than football stadia so you'll see proposals for Hockey Arena/Oddssey Belfast type stuff or fecking white water canoing on the Liffey, anything where one council can wiggle their aras at another council. Kelleher i'd have no doubt would have an eye on this seachange if anything is possible to get a development project movig involving Richmond - which could be just develoing Richmond as best as possible with the council relaxing on some planning issues. I think in this day and age there are interesting engineering solutions to most problems, feck it put a stadium on top of a new supermarket or apartment complex, or hotel.....

In a long winded way, Keleher would and likey still is looking at his opportunities but St Pats got lucky because he isnt a complete and utter greedy ballix.

[Jack B]

The club are being tight-lipped on it but supposedly the plan is to rotate the pitch 90 degrees so the Camac becomes less of an issue, there'd be access points either side of the pitch etc. Hard to be certain though without anything really concrete out there. Ger O'Brien mentioned at a pre-season event that they're hoping to have it all finished for the start of the 2029 season, which I think is fair to be sceptical on at this stage.

[Nesta99]

2029 is doable if not looking for public money. It pretty scary that we used to talk about €1m for a decent new stand and now its €25m for any half decent plan - see Louth GAA's announcement of funding and cost for a single 6k stand and essentially a clubhouse on Monday night.
Its really hard to visualise changing the pitch in Richmond, fitting it all in on a 90deg switch. Not saying the scope isnt there, just its hard to see in such a tight ground. Access to 2 different stands is an improvement obviously but it would still be a general 1 side access in to the ground complex surely, unless the Camac can be piped, bridged and there is the possibility of some access from that side. I know there are many one side access grounds but in terms of the really modern concept of large concourse, fan areas, able to walk the perimiter stuff, adaptable to community hubs non matchdays etc well Richmond will only ever be a pragmatic, functional development compared to what say Sligo are trying.