FAI pursue ticket sales

SOCCER: Ensuring the Football Association of Ireland can meet its €33-million commitment to the development costs of the new Lansdowne Road stadium will be "the primary target" for the organisation over the next couple of years, its chief executive, John Delaney, said yesterday.

The association hopes to raise all the funds it has committed to the scheme through the advance sale of premium and corporate seats, and Delaney said work on finalising the numbers involved is ongoing.

He estimated, however, that the association would aim to sell around 4,000 premium seats and a further 800 in corporate areas of varying sizes.

These figures are yet to be confirmed but their adoption in the final business plan for the ground would mean the cost of admission to games in these two sectors might be expected to be roughly €100 and €300 per game respectively, based on an average of five home matches over the 10 years for which the seats will be sold.

There is no firm date for the association to begin sales of the seats but it is likely to approach the issue more cautiously than it did in the context of the proposed Eircom Park, where the advance sales of corporate boxes by its then agents, IMG, became a bitterly disputed and, ultimately, deeply embarrassing bone of contention in the organisation.

Speaking at the announcement of new € 2-million, five-year sponsorship deal with the makers of Lucozade Sport, Delaney said the association will not be under any immediate pressure to come up with its contribution to the stadium costs as the Government is committed to putting up its share first, thereby allowing the IRFU and FAI to generate money through advance tickets sales when the project is closer to completion.

He said he expects a range of ticketing products to be offered, with those providing access to rugby as well as soccer matches at the stadium being jointly marketed by the two associations and others sold separately by the two organisations.

The naming rights for the stadium are also expected to bring in substantial revenue, though it is currently envisaged that any money raised in this area would be assigned to help cover the stadium's day-to-day running costs rather than the cost of construction.

Asked about how the project is progressing, Delaney insisted it remained on schedule and should, barring unexpected problems, be complete early in 2009.

At that stage, he admitted, the association might have to dramatically step up its promotion of senior international games in an attempt to fill a substantially larger ground for home matches.

"At the moment we have 36,000 people at home games and almost all of those tickets are distributed through our affiliates," he said.

"All going well, we'll be looking at 14,000 extra seats for each of out games and we may have to set about re-educating the public at that stage that there is the opportunity to go along and see the Irish team play."

In relation to yesterday's announcement, Delaney said that the new Lucozade Sport deal would bring significantly improved benefits to the association over the next five years.

"It's an important sponsorship agreement for the association," he said. "The cash value (over five years) is €1.1 million, which is 50 per cent more than we were receiving under the old arrangement, and the balance will be provided by way of product and support, both to the association and its affiliates."

The company, he said, had already run more than 100 nutritional workshops with affiliates and that this work would continue.

"Crucially," he added, "this agreement will release money both for the implementation of the technical plan and to the Eircom League."

The money will, in fact, be divided, according to a pre-existing agreement, on the basis of 80 per cent going to the technical department's budget and the remainder being allocated to the senior game.

For GlaxoSmithKline, Jocelyn Emerson said that the deal fitted in perfectly with the product's profile.

"We're delighted to be involved with the FAI, especially in light of their track record of supporting sports people when training and competing at all levels," she said.

"And it's fantastic that that association is now going to run until at least the end of the World Cup in 2010."