Delaney insists 6,000 tickets will be sold

AVIVA STADIUM FINANCING: FAI CHIEF executive John Delaney remains confident the FAI will meet its financial commitment to the new Aviva Stadium.

The new Lansdowne Road is scheduled for completion in April at a cost of €411 million. The Government has put up €191 million with both the FAI and Irish Rugby Football Union obliged to meet the remainder equally between them. Insurance company Aviva has bought the 10-year naming rights to the new ground for just over €40 million.

The FAI’s chief source of financing their part of the project is to come from the sale of 10,000, 10-year tickets, though suggestions remain that sales have been slow with the association refusing to issues figures.

“I’ve no doubt we will have 6,000 tickets away by the autumn – no question about that,” insisted Delaney yesterday on the figure believed to be their break even point.

“I think we’ll even have more. We’ll have 6,000. I have absolutely no doubt about that. Including the naming rights we have €70 million put into the project and by the end of next month we will have €75 million.”

Insisting the amount the FAI has borrowed is confidential, Delaney urged it was about time people started talking of the positives around the new stadium.

“We have done our stuff and the IRFU have done their stuff. I think it’s time that people start looking at it as a positive project. I was down there yesterday again and that stadium is something fantastic for Irish rugby and soccer – it is spectacular.

“And irrespective of whatever borrowings the IRFU or the FAI have on it – or what the GAA had at Croke Park – over the 40 or 50 years that we sit in that stadium we will make a lot of money.

“And for me it is the most pleasing project that I have ever been associated with off the pitch. It’s an incredible one to be associated with. I think it is time now to move on from the negativity of ‘are tickets sold?’. That will all be unveiled on a certain day and I think we will surprise you. I really do.”

Delaney confirmed there will be no more soccer played at Croke Park for a decade at least following the announcement yesterday of the Republic of Ireland’s friendly fixture with Brazil at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in London on March 2nd.

Croke Park had expressed its disappointment at not getting the fixture, especially so as they’re believed to have reduced their rental fee by almost half.

“Kentaro (sports agency) asked us to play in the match and we were delighted they would ask us to do so. They looked at a number of venues where they could play the game. I think they invited commercial propositions from a number of different entities in the UK and in Dublin, obviously. They rang me (Wednesday) to say they had picked the Emirates on commercial grounds, on the grounds a lot of Brazilians live in London and they hosted a number of games in the past in the Emirates.

“I’d prefer to be in Dublin myself – of course you would. Anybody from Ireland would prefer it to be in Dublin. But Kentaro invited us to play in the game. Croke Park did put in a commercial proposition and Kentaro rang me yesterday to say they had picked the Emirates on the grounds of the three things I have outlined.

“It’s a new world anyway. I know there were figures speculated in the media, but the figures that were given to Kentaro via the FAI – they are private,” said Delaney.

“Croke Park have to have their own stadium to run going forward. Both rugby and soccer playing in Croke Park was a win-win for everybody because we made good money playing in Croke Park as well. They got good rent. I think the whole thing of Croke Park opening for soccer and rugby – that all changed. So it’s been good for everybody. But now of course it’s all about the Aviva Stadium, which is officially being handed over to us in less than three and a half months’ time. That’s our new home and Irish football’s new home.

“As I said before, the conditions of how we went into Croke Park dictated the decisions we had to make. When we went into Croke Park – and we are all grateful for it opening – it was made clear to us that we wouldn’t be there permanently and that we were building our own stadium.

“And therefore we made decisions around naming rights, about box and seat holders and around catering contracts, which we won’t be unwinding.

“Neither the IRFU nor the FAI will do that, nor should we, because the conditions of our entry dictated the decisions we made subsequently. So I certainly don’t see Irish international matches either in rugby or soccer, and I think Philip Browne has been very clear on this as well, being played for at least a 10-year period (at Croke Park).”

Meanwhile, Delaney reiterated Abbotstown’s call on Cork City owner Tom Coughlan to step aside as the club’s company, Cork City Investment FC Limited, was served with a third winding up order.

Having already survived two previous such petitions last year, one from the Revenue Commissioners and the other from former player Gareth Farrelly, the club are now due back in the High Court on February 1st at the revenue’s behest in relation to a tax debt believed to be in the region of €80,000.

“That’s disappointing – it really is,” said Delaney. “I was down in Cork last Friday night doing the Cork Hall of Fame awards and there was a real sense of disappointment in Cork about how the club has been running its affairs – particularly over the last 12 months.

“As I’ve said many times, from buses to non-payment of players’ wages and now to another winding-up order – it’s just not good enough.”