Eircom park would have been a diaster

thejollyrodger

FAI dodge bullet
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=94&si=1369906&issue_id=12292
THERE are a few people walking around Merrion Square and Government Buildings this week wearing satisfied smiles and saying 'I told you so' following the news that the multi-purpose Stadion Gelredome in Arnhem has bee put up for sale.

The ground, the home of Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem, was the model on which the doomed eircom Park project was based but over the last number of years the Dutch side's ground has become a case study for all the wrong reasons.

In 2003, Vitesse were only saved from bankruptcy when the local council bought the ground from them though now, less than two years later, the council has decided to off-load what has become a financial millstone for around €24 million.

Considering Vitesse play games at the stadium every second weekend and built it for considerably less than it would have cost the FAI to complete eircom Park, it shows how ill-advised attempts to pursue the project were without Government assistance.

Just as well those muppets in the FAI didnt get their way and build the Eircom park, it would have been a diaster if the Stadion Gelredome is anything to go by. They were following the same model.

http://www.stadiumguide.com/gelredome.htm

What i cant understand is, how can such a stadium be built in Holland for only €24 million when it costs about twice that in Ireland. Shels could almost afford something like that (perhaps without the roof) !!

KdjaCL

Ummm how does a club going bankrupt have anything to do with the stadium? has it fallen down or somfin? Is it haunted?


kdjac

thejollyrodger

I think since it would have cost twice as much here to build and had no government backing, the body in charge (FAI) might have ended up bankrupt

Pigman II

thejollyrodger wrote:

They were following the same model.

Just for clarification do you mean 'business model' because Gelredome doesn't look much like and conceptual drawing or scale-model I ever saw of EircomPk? Plus EP was to have around 44,000 seats and a much more sophisticated roof than Gelredome which might explain away SOME of the extra money that was to go into it ... not all mind you.

KdjaCL

That actually makes no sense and has no relation to the FAI and Ep at all , but i suppose media has pages to fill and crap to fill it with.


kdjac

rovingrover

I've been in the stadium. It is a lovely modern well built stadium.

This story is a totyal joke. The stadium is a financial disaster because it obviouslydoesn't generate enough income. It is in the sticks and Vitesse are a small club with small gates. Holland have plenty of other large quality stadia so they don't get many games.

Eircom Park may or may not have been a disaster.

I actually think the incompetence in the F.A.I. was in believing the government on the Bertie Bowl. They should have got guarantees on a national stadium as poart of the deal to drop EP.

KdjaCL

rovingrover wrote:

They should have got guarantees on a national stadium as poart of the deal to drop EP.

They did about 25 million of them


kdjac

thejollyrodger

But EL was going to be a 60,000 seater stadium and cost in the hundreds of millions. It would have but the FAI under massive pressure. Look at the GAA, it needed help from the government.

Still the Stadion Gelredome or something slighty smaller would be great in Cork Dublin or anywhere.