FAI unveil `venue for the future'

After 18 months of work behind the scenes, the FAI confirmed plans yesterday for a new 45,000 capacity stadium in south-west Dublin, with the £65 million project due to start in the spring of next year and scheduled to be finished by the autumn of 2001.

The association's plans - which are subject to the granting of planning permission - for the 50-acre site at the Citywest Business Park off the Naas Road are impressive. In addition to a well-equipped stadium, featuring a removable pitch and retractable roof, there will be a new training and coaching centre, up to 5,000 car-parking spaces and a variety of other ancillary facilities.

"This arena is a venue for the future," said the FAI's chief executive Bernard O'Byrne yesterday. "With this project, the FAI firmly takes hold of its own destiny and with it, we are confident, the financial future of the association will be secured."

In fact, the financial details of the project remain vague. The association is being advised by international consultants Deloitte & Touche and the entire venture is being backed by the world's largest bank, Deutsche Bank, who are arranging the finance.

A great deal will depend, however, on how successful Mark McCormack's international sports agency, IMG, is at marketing the idea to the business community. At yesterday's press conference O'Byrne conceded that, while they are highly optimistic about the results that IMG will achieve, the final figures cannot be worked out until they get a better idea of how much interest there is in the market here.

"The project will be self-financing, though," said O'Byrne who added later that the association's current projections involve the stadium being "profitable in the first year of operation."

O'Byrne's confidence is based on the marketability and flexibility of the facility being proposed. This stadium will have a far smaller capacity than Croke Park but, insists the FAI, it will be suitable for a far wider range of uses.

In addition to the retractable roof, which will help attract major rock concerts to the venue, the fact that the pitch is removable (it slides under one of the stands at the end of the stadium in one piece) should allow the arena's central area to be used for longer periods than would otherwise be possible without serious damage to the playing surface.

The list of possible uses would certainly be long with everything from ice hockey to major trade exhibitions and concerts or other special events being staged. How heavy demand would be for a facility of this type is another question.

Nevertheless it was repeatedly pointed out yesterday that the construction and maintenance of the new arena, which may be named after one of the sponsoring companies, would be self-financing with no need to fall back on Government subsidies.

"We do not need money from the Government for this to go ahead but obviously we wouldn't say no to a cheque if it arrived in the post," said O'Byrne. "We would hope that the Government would come to us now and say `yes, we would like to support you in what you are doing'."

The minimum expected from the Government would probably be the 25 per cent or so of costs, which the GAA has received towards the redevelopment of Croke Park. That is reported to have been offered to the FAI some time ago, however, and the association were said to be disappointed with the figure then.

Since then the Government has announced that it is considering the development of a national stadium, possibly with the help of a £50 million donation from businessman J P McManus, and has established a committee made up of sports administrators and other interested parties to look into its feasibility.

The FAI are represented on this committee by O'Byrne and he said yesterday that all of the other parties, who are due to meet again on February 22nd, would benefit from being entirely clear from this point on as to what the association's plans are.

The backbone of the project would be the provision of a new home for the Irish football team and the establishment of a new National Youth Coaching and Development Centre - for which it is intended to seek grant aid - on the adjoining land.

This aspect of the development was warmly welcomed by Ireland team manager Mick McCarthy who said that the provision of a purpose-built football stadium was "brilliant, great news".

If things go to plan then the Ireland team will play its first game at the new facility in just over two-and-a-half years' time and O'Byrne said that he hopes that, at some point in the future a National League side "or an amalgam of National League sides," will be based at the ground for European competition.

O'Byrne, while declining to mention Wimbledon by name, specifically ruled out any foreign clubs being allowed to base themselves there.

The prospect of the IRFU, currently the FAI's landlords, becoming their tenants by moving out to Citywest was dismissed by a spokesman for the union yesterday who said that while "the IRFU wishes the FAI every success, we have before us quite a number of possibilities including the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road and the construction of a stadium at Newlands Cross where we own a 90-acre site."