Lilywhites Prepare For European Glory
Credit:
Behind the glitz and the glamour of hosting European football lies a
mountain of work that the football club administrators have to deal
with. To get an insight into this side of the encounter ExtraTime
spoke exclusively to Colm Crosson Communications Manager for Dundalk
FC.
Some would say that Dundalk are lucky to find themselves in the qualifying stages of the Europa League this season after profiting from the misfortunes of both Cork City and Derry City. However, the club have grasped this opportunity with eager hands and firstly had to face up to the decision of whether to hold the tie at Oriel Park or and face a major upgrade to the ground or to move the tie to another ground and pocket the cash. A measure of the growing confidence within the club was demonstrated when they decided to try to host the tie at home and launched the BETOP (Bring Europe to Oriel Park, merit award to the acronym department at Oriel for that one) campaign. Br/>
This required getting the Lilywhites fans to purchase their match tickets in advance for a game against unknown opposition. They responded in good numbers and the club met their initial target of ticket sales to go ahead with the ground upgrade to bring it in line with the standard required for the qualifying rounds of the Europa League. Subsequent UEFA inspections were passed and the green light given for the first European game at Oriel Park since 1991.
Colm Crosson spelt out some of the work that has gone on behind the scenes to bring the club to the verge of the match against CS Grevenmacher “The seats are the most obvious thing but there is a whole host of stuff that is required under UEFA regulations. The main regulations document in itself runs to 99 pages and there is a second document for stadium regulations and a couple of other subsidiary documents relating to other areas. Even at that, there was an additional complication in that we were working off of the 2006 regulations which were in vogue right up until May of this year. In May there sprang, apparently from nowhere, regulations 2010 version which seemed to have caught everyone on the hop including the FAI. So not only did we have to assimilate the 100 pages of the 2006 stuff we also had to then spot the difference with the 2010 regs.”
The club see the upgrade as part of a larger and ongoing development of the club “Well that’s the hope, if you just take the economics of it for a minute, there are good rewards in Europe. We’re looking at €90,000 per round so if we do get through on Thursday that’s obviously a guarantee of another 90 grand plus another home gate. There are downsides in the heavy travel costs but if you put that to one side it clearly is lucrative economically. Having said that the money spent on the ground upgrade has eaten hugely into that money. There is nothing negative about that in that the upgrade of the ground is not just about one game and hopefully at this year at least two games. There is the ambition to play regularly in Europe so that should pay for itself and give a return over a period of time. The extra seating also gives us possibilities with trying to market ourselves even more towards families with the potential to allocate family areas etc. At the end of the day, whilst Europe is important, the overall strategy is about trying to get more of the community to identify with the club and come to games on a regular basis. There is probably no silver bullet in terms of doubling and trebling your attendance’s it is bit by bit. Next Thursday for the CSG game we shall have in the stadium entrance and concourse area face painters, jugglers and various giveaways to help build the atmosphere, craic and the experience of it.”
Oriel will be full or very near to it for the European encounter and Colm hopes dearly that the ground full signs will be hanging outside come 7pm on Thursday “I hope so, leaving the financial aspect to one side. It will be fantastic to have a full house here, it’s a very, very special occasion and we would like to see as many people as possible sharing in that experience. Personally it will be a very emotional occasion because there has been so much work done by so many people to make this happen and to make it happen at Oriel Park. There has been a yearning for a repeat of the European experiences of the past, God knows we’ve lived on some barren times in the last 10-15 years.”
Dundalk have made good use of their artificial pitch which of course gives rise to revenue streams that would not be available to them with a grass pitch. If you add in the newly built youth development centre behind the shed side which is also available for hire you can see that the North Louth club have a keen eye on being regarded as much more than just a football club. Colm went on to talk about this side of the business, “The underground car parking will be used on Thurs and then the next watershed is September when we will host the European badminton championships. When that has finished it will then get its final fit out to get it ready for coaching. There are a few different aspects to that, the elite coaching, the mixed ability community stuff both of those aspects are distinct and very important to the club. The badminton championships will allow us to showcase the facility to other sports, there is a possibility of us hosting the world senior badminton championships which will follow on from the Europeans. There are also opportunities related to the London Olympics where many nations and sports will require pre games training facilities. Obviously there is scope for it to provide revenue from other sources such as concerts and exhibitions so it is very much multi purpose.”
If the Lilywhites do manage to get past CS Grevemacher they will of course be fronting up to veritable European royalty in the form of Levski Sofia and with luck many more to come.
Some would say that Dundalk are lucky to find themselves in the qualifying stages of the Europa League this season after profiting from the misfortunes of both Cork City and Derry City. However, the club have grasped this opportunity with eager hands and firstly had to face up to the decision of whether to hold the tie at Oriel Park or and face a major upgrade to the ground or to move the tie to another ground and pocket the cash. A measure of the growing confidence within the club was demonstrated when they decided to try to host the tie at home and launched the BETOP (Bring Europe to Oriel Park, merit award to the acronym department at Oriel for that one) campaign. Br/>
This required getting the Lilywhites fans to purchase their match tickets in advance for a game against unknown opposition. They responded in good numbers and the club met their initial target of ticket sales to go ahead with the ground upgrade to bring it in line with the standard required for the qualifying rounds of the Europa League. Subsequent UEFA inspections were passed and the green light given for the first European game at Oriel Park since 1991.
Colm Crosson spelt out some of the work that has gone on behind the scenes to bring the club to the verge of the match against CS Grevenmacher “The seats are the most obvious thing but there is a whole host of stuff that is required under UEFA regulations. The main regulations document in itself runs to 99 pages and there is a second document for stadium regulations and a couple of other subsidiary documents relating to other areas. Even at that, there was an additional complication in that we were working off of the 2006 regulations which were in vogue right up until May of this year. In May there sprang, apparently from nowhere, regulations 2010 version which seemed to have caught everyone on the hop including the FAI. So not only did we have to assimilate the 100 pages of the 2006 stuff we also had to then spot the difference with the 2010 regs.”
The club see the upgrade as part of a larger and ongoing development of the club “Well that’s the hope, if you just take the economics of it for a minute, there are good rewards in Europe. We’re looking at €90,000 per round so if we do get through on Thursday that’s obviously a guarantee of another 90 grand plus another home gate. There are downsides in the heavy travel costs but if you put that to one side it clearly is lucrative economically. Having said that the money spent on the ground upgrade has eaten hugely into that money. There is nothing negative about that in that the upgrade of the ground is not just about one game and hopefully at this year at least two games. There is the ambition to play regularly in Europe so that should pay for itself and give a return over a period of time. The extra seating also gives us possibilities with trying to market ourselves even more towards families with the potential to allocate family areas etc. At the end of the day, whilst Europe is important, the overall strategy is about trying to get more of the community to identify with the club and come to games on a regular basis. There is probably no silver bullet in terms of doubling and trebling your attendance’s it is bit by bit. Next Thursday for the CSG game we shall have in the stadium entrance and concourse area face painters, jugglers and various giveaways to help build the atmosphere, craic and the experience of it.”
Oriel will be full or very near to it for the European encounter and Colm hopes dearly that the ground full signs will be hanging outside come 7pm on Thursday “I hope so, leaving the financial aspect to one side. It will be fantastic to have a full house here, it’s a very, very special occasion and we would like to see as many people as possible sharing in that experience. Personally it will be a very emotional occasion because there has been so much work done by so many people to make this happen and to make it happen at Oriel Park. There has been a yearning for a repeat of the European experiences of the past, God knows we’ve lived on some barren times in the last 10-15 years.”
Dundalk have made good use of their artificial pitch which of course gives rise to revenue streams that would not be available to them with a grass pitch. If you add in the newly built youth development centre behind the shed side which is also available for hire you can see that the North Louth club have a keen eye on being regarded as much more than just a football club. Colm went on to talk about this side of the business, “The underground car parking will be used on Thurs and then the next watershed is September when we will host the European badminton championships. When that has finished it will then get its final fit out to get it ready for coaching. There are a few different aspects to that, the elite coaching, the mixed ability community stuff both of those aspects are distinct and very important to the club. The badminton championships will allow us to showcase the facility to other sports, there is a possibility of us hosting the world senior badminton championships which will follow on from the Europeans. There are also opportunities related to the London Olympics where many nations and sports will require pre games training facilities. Obviously there is scope for it to provide revenue from other sources such as concerts and exhibitions so it is very much multi purpose.”
If the Lilywhites do manage to get past CS Grevemacher they will of course be fronting up to veritable European royalty in the form of Levski Sofia and with luck many more to come.
