That Boreham Wood Stand looks quite nice. Nice roof. Can some billionaire not just buy 40 of them and throw them around the league.
Yeah just not feeling it myself!
Was also handy for getting free programmes back when I was small and skinny enough to be able to climb under the stand and collect the ones that had fallen.
Looks the wheels are slowly starting to turn...
https://mobile.twitter.com/Paschald/...17838460497921
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
The Harps stadium situation is a mess but I don't really see how progress with Dalymount really impacts it. How much would it cost to build something like Sligo's main stand in the showgrounds and something like the 600 seater stand in Larne behind the goal with the grass verge in Finn Park? That would make a beautiful little ground IMO.
The issue is that Dalymount is a new project, only started this past couple of years.
Harps have a half built main stand, on a site that broke ground 13 years ago, and funds owed by the government weren't paid to get it completed.
It stings a bit to see public funding released to get Dalymount project up and running, while the new stadium in Stranorlar continues to rot, to a point where it may need to be knocked before it can continue onwards..
And trust me, there's plenty of Harps fans out there that would happily discard the new stadium project to see Finn Park done up.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
I think Bohs have a different situation in that they are dealing with the City Council primarily while we are dealing with the Department of Sport. Throughout the process we have jumped through every hoop, provided everything asked for in many cases over and over again but the progress is glacial. We now have the ridiculous situation where the work that has been done may become unfit for purpose. Not there yet so if we get moving soon it can be progressed.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
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!
The progress with Dalymount has probably been slower than you think. It was sold to DCC for the specific purpose of redevelopment 6 years ago and there still hasn't been an architectural drawing or planning application of any sort. This money is only to begin that process. Then you can be fairly sure that whenever the drawing is done there will be objections, all that slow process to go through. Then construction goes out to tender, which will probably take an age. The project includes a €15m sale of Tolka Park as far as I can remember. Then the project is supposed to include all manner of community facilities for a heavily populated area, it won't belong to the clubs. Bohs still really need to work towards buying their own base in the long term.
The Finn Harps stadium situation is a mess and it is a scandal, no doubt. It's horrible to see a half built modern stand dilapidating before our eyes. I'd also fear that it could be a bit of a case of "careful what you wish for" too with the new ground. A new magnificent mega stand costing between €6-7m will likely be the only thing ever built at the ground. It seems unlikely that Harps will be able to independently raise the money to build the two terraces and the other stand to run the other side of the pitch. If Harps get grants of around €6-7m, there'll probably be no likelihood of receiving more grants. Plus the likelihood is the capacity and facilities of the one stand will suffice and it will feel very flat as a ground. Apologies if I literally have all of that information wrong, which is very possible as an outsider.
I'd love if clubs here had more realistic aims with ground improvements instead of the pipe dreams of 8k, 10k all seater stadiums that are currently in "phase 1". Too many examples of this to go through and the grand Dalymount project probably fits into that too, although my club bias will make me a bit blind to it.
Dalymount situation is still a mess, with all manner of difficulties from being tied into the shopping centre redevelopment, co-living proposals, tesco owning a plot in the middle of the shopping centre. And that's before you even get into originally selling it to a developer who went bust in a turnkey arrangement 15 years ago. Or selling more of the ground than we thought we did 5 years before that. A lot of this is Bohs own doing no doubt but it's all been an unholy mess and isn't really all that close to being resolved yet.
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