Bohemians get Dalymount Park offer: A dramatically improved proposal for the purchase of Dalymount Park will be presented to the members of Bohemians at a meeting in Glasnevin this evening with the committee set to unveil a package now said to be worth in the region of over €65 million for the Phibsboro stadium.

The deal, which is with the property developer Liam Carroll, whose group of companies includes the likes of Zoe Developments and Daninger Developments, is made up two elements with the club set to receive around €45 million in cash plus a 10,000-seat stadium on a site at Harristown, close to Dublin Airport.

The terms involved represent a huge improvement on those negotiated with Andorey Developments and approved at a meeting of the membership in May.

At that stage the club was set to receive some €26 million in cash plus a stadium in Castleknock similar in size to the one now envisaged off the M50 motorway.

Under the terms of the deal agreed at that stage, Andorey had 30 days in which to tie up the contract or Bohemians would be allowed to talk to other parties again. As it turned out the matter took longer than expected to conclude and Carroll, who had made a last-minute cash-only bid at the end of April, returned to the table with a new offer.

The price is believed to have risen substantially further during the talks that followed between the various parties until the current terms were finally agreed at some point over the last week or so.

Aside from the greatly increased amount of money on offer the deal is believed to provide a good deal more certainty for Bohemians than its predecessor.

Although Andorey had committed itself to making substantial payments to the club while it sought to have the 5.17-acre site rezoned, the final purchase was contingent upon the local authorities agreeing to the change of use.

There were also planning issues in relation to the proposed site at Diswellstown with a number of public representatives, notably Joan Burton of the Labour Party, making clear their opposition to the scheme and questioning whether the access to the site was of the required quality to allow it to proceed.

It is understood, on the other hand, that Carroll required only that Bohemians prove it owned the ground and that once this was done, which it has, he will take on all further risk relating to rezoning and planning.

Similarly the planning process at Harristown may prove more straightforward than had been anticipated at Diswellstown as there are no homes in the immediate vicinity of the site which is adjacent to a Dublin Bus depot.

However, this very remoteness - the proposed site, which is believed to belong to another property company with which Carroll is associated, Dunloe Ewart, is close to the Ballymun end of the airport and Sillogue public golf course - would appear to be a significant downside of the deal.

The new site itself is, at around seven acres, believed to be similar in size to the one Andorey was to provide although its precise proportions may depend on the car-parking requirements laid down by the planners.

It is envisaged the club could be playing football at its new home within five years but the financial benefits will kick in almost immediately with Bohemians due to receive around €3.2 million as soon as contracts are signed, which could well happen over the coming weeks.

The club would then be paid a similar sum each year for four years or until the new stadium is complete. Carroll has also agreed a substantial separate sponsorship deal with the club said to be worth the best part of €1 million over four years.

In addition Bohemians are on the verge of concluding another, much smaller deal for a parcel of land at the shopping centre end of Dalymount which should bring in roughly €1 million during the coming weeks.

All told, the money should provide Bohemians with an opportunity to take a huge leap forward in terms of its development. When contacted yesterday leading officials at the club declined to comment on the sale of the ground, saying that it was their intention to discuss the matter with the membership first.

When they talked about the original, smaller Andorey deal back in May, however, the club's honorary secretary Gerry Conway and president Gerry Cuffe suggested that the new ground would provide substantial opportunities to generate income from outside the game while the lump sum would allow Bohemians to build a more successful team, build an academy for the development of young players and invest money with a view to ensuring the availability of significant revenues long into the future.

It remains to be seen whether they can pull off such an ambitious balancing act but in a league where the largest turnover is currently only about €3 million (Shelbourne) it would certainly appear to be a remarkable opportunity.

This is all likely to be a major consideration for the club as it weighs up its options in the search for a replacement for former manager Gareth Farrelly who departed in the aftermath of the defeat by Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup last week.

While the bookmakers have stopped taking money on Pat Fenlon moving from Shelbourne it remains far from certain he is the only man under consideration and the possibility that the club might make an approach to Brian Kerr has also been floated.

It is apparently hoped an appointment might be made by the weekend.