Malahide to get 12,000 seater ground

super_furry

http://www.rte.ie/sport/cricket/2010/1008/cricket_ireland.html

International standard 12,000 seater ground. Massive, massive news for cricket in Ireland and all the more surprising given the current financial situation.

crackit

Forgive me if I'm missing something or being a bit stupid about this but how on earth is €450,000 going to finance a 12,000 seater venue. You'd be lucky to get a 1,200 seater for that.

Great news and all and we'd all love to see such a big venue but it just doesn't seem right.

Corsendonk

crackit wrote: »

Forgive me if I'm missing something or being a bit stupid about this but how on earth is €450,000 going to finance a 12,000 seater venue. You'd be lucky to get a 1,200 seater for that.

Great news and all and we'd all love to see such a big venue but it just doesn't seem right.

There is no such thing as a 100% grant. Aviva stadium had about a 50% grant. The rest will have to be provided by Cricket Ireland or by any backers they may have. The wouldn't have got the grant without a business plan outlining were their additional revenue streams would come from with projected game revenue etc. Hopefully ticket prices will be alot more friendly than at Clontarf to encourage people who never seen a live cricket game before.

Some clever design such as grass banking/picnic area like they have in certain of the southern hemisphere smaller grounds could make it a fairly family friendly venue. Of course they could do something dreadful and get a sponsers name for the ground.

TrueDub

Corsendonk wrote: »

Hopefully ticket prices will be alot more friendly than at Clontarf to encourage people who never seen a live cricket game before.

you're kiddding, aren't you? The prices at Clontarf (and indeed at Stormont) are among the cheapest around for international sport. I'd bet that with a whopping debt to pay off CI will be increasing prices, not dropping them.

Corsendonk wrote: »

Some clever design such as grass banking/picnic area like they have in certain of the southern hemisphere smaller grounds could make it a fairly family friendly venue.

That's the plan, AFAIK.

tim_holsters

How much are the tickets at clontarf?

Corsendonk

Adult ticket price for the Australian game started at 40 euros. Considering you have a captive audience for the day you make a good slice on food and drink, more than Leinster, Dublin supporter average spend.

I can watch Leinster and Dublin for cheaper. I think the real cricket fan will pay the 40 euro but the whole idea of a 12,000 will be to pull in new supporters and 40 euro and upwards isn't ideal pricing for something people might not like so pricing might have to be inventive to encourage newbies.

crackit

Yeah Corsedonk thanks for the heads up on there being no such thing as 100% grants :rolleyes:

€450,000 would represent about 10% of what you'd need for a genuine state of the art cricket ground.

So its a case of
a) it being 12,000 but only on a techinicality (huge grass banks that can 'accomodate 9,000) without facilities. Bascially maximum capcity on a shoestring.

or

b) the ground won't be anywhere near as is being discussed.

Realistically it would be better to build a 3-4-5,000 stadium with all the mod cons than fall between two stools

HonalD

super_furry wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/sport/cricket/2010/1008/cricket_ireland.html

International standard 12,000 seater ground. Massive, massive news for cricket in Ireland and all the more surprising given the current financial situation.

I know this isn't a politics forum but look at the esteemed cricketer launching the news.....ahem :rolleyes:

TrueDub

Corsendonk wrote: »

Adult ticket price for the Australian game started at 40 euros. Considering you have a captive audience for the day you make a good slice on food and drink, more than Leinster, Dublin supporter average spend.

I can watch Leinster and Dublin for cheaper. I think the real cricket fan will pay the 40 euro but the whole idea of a 12,000 will be to pull in new supporters and 40 euro and upwards isn't ideal pricing for something people might not like so pricing might have to be inventive to encourage newbies.

Leinster & Dublin are not international sport, thus irrelevant.

Most games involving Ireland's cricket team will cost less than a tenner to get into, and quite a few of them are actually free. I don't see this changing. In other sports you get 80 or 90 minutes of entertainment for your money, in international cricket you get 7+ hours.

I bet the tickets for last night's game in Landsdowne Rd were more than 40 euros. It's not a question of making money for CI, it's a question of covering costs. You can read their accounts as they're a public body.

Corsendonk

TrueDub wrote: »

Leinster & Dublin are not international sport, thus irrelevant.

.

I sort of knew that you would say that but I can see them using the Leinster model as part of their business plan to make the new arena viable and encourage new supporters as Leinster has done in the last 5 years. I referenced Dublin because GAA would be considered the main summer sport attraction venue. Irish International Soccer and Rugby games would be models too large to compare to.

Thanks for the tip about reviewing their public accounts, I learnt that in business class in school too.

I imagine there will be an option to increase capacity for the headline games such as Australia and England using temperory seating and corporate dining areas.

djimi

So is this ground going to have 12000 permanent seats?

Corsendonk

Further details from the Irish Times 9th Oct 2010.

CRICKET: THE SECOND stage in the creation of a 12,000-capacity international standard cricket ground in Malahide got the green light yesterday with confirmation that the government will provide €450,000 towards the cost of the redevelopment.



Malahide Cricket Club have already relaid the square at their ground at a cost of €70,000, 51 per cent of which came from the club and the balance from Fingal County Council.

The government money is to be used on the development of a new outfield and grass banking that would accommodate the vast majority of the crowd, almost doubling the size of the ground to 17,000 square metres.
The club have been granted council-owned land on the Malahide Castle estate known as the Lady Acre, with the present boundary wall set to be removed to facilitate the ground development.

The club has completed a tender process that has still to be approved by the government before work can commence.

So its going to be cheap enough, plenty of unemployed JCB drivers! I think we are all imaging a brand new stadium with plastic seating but this might be the best course of starting with a grass bank amphitheater and then as funds come online in future years you can build a stand here and there like alot of the older english county grounds which I always thought added charactor.

Renno

We were having a good talk last night trying to come up with an international equivalent to the type of ground being envisaged. The closest we could think of was Queenstown in New Zealand.

One small stand/pavillion, with banks all the way round. Minimal expense, but a great viewing arena. I would have thought it's perfectly suited to Irish needs, especially as the weather is hardly much different here than Queenstown.

TheDrog

scenery is probably better at the ground in Queenstown though

JustinDee

Hopefully the plans by the ICC to reduce the number of teams to entering the CWC 2015 down to 10 doesn't happen.

jj_irl

Corsendonk wrote: »

There is no such thing as a 100% grant. Aviva stadium had about a 50% grant. The rest will have to be provided by Cricket Ireland or by any backers they may have. The wouldn't have got the grant without a business plan outlining were their additional revenue streams would come from with projected game revenue etc. Hopefully ticket prices will be alot more friendly than at Clontarf to encourage people who never seen a live cricket game before.

How can you say they should raise the money themselves and then suggest they lower their ticket prices? You have compared them to the Dubs and Leinster... Cricket Ireland get ONE big game a year (or at least in 2010 and 2011 that looks set to be the case) where they have to make as much money as possible. Look at their accounts using your "business class" expertise and you will see that made f**k all from the Aussie game last year. You're dealing with a sports body on the breadline. Cutting prices on their one big day a year is not an option.

Malahide will never come close to a good day out in Clontarf; last June was fantastic and having room for 12,000 people won't make it any better when only 5,000 turn up

Corsendonk

jj_irl wrote: »

How can you say they should raise the money themselves and then suggest they lower their ticket prices? You have compared them to the Dubs and Leinster... Cricket Ireland get ONE big game a year (or at least in 2010 and 2011 that looks set to be the case) where they have to make as much money as possible. Look at their accounts using your "business class" expertise and you will see that made f**k all from the Aussie game last year. You're dealing with a sports body on the breadline. Cutting prices on their one big day a year is not an option.

Malahide will never come close to a good day out in Clontarf; last June was fantastic and having room for 12,000 people won't make it any better when only 5,000 turn up

I think you missed the point entirely here, the new 12,000 stadium is about growing support for Irish Cricket and getting in new cricket fans. I know some people find this difficult at times because they have supported Irish cricket through thick and thin and would be prepared to turn up and support them at Clontarf and pay any price asked.

But if your going to grow the supporter base and also interest younger fans you got to be competitive with family ticket prices and the extra capacity of Malahide allows this Your stating that "having room for 12,000 won't make it any better when only 5,000 turn up" so why not offer a very competitive family ticket price for the 7000 seats empty seats that your predicting. You give them a good day out and make revenue from any concession stands that Cricket Ireland has on the ground. Thomas Lord or William Clarke successfully displayed this business model when establishing there grounds and raising the popularity of the game in England.

DH2K9

Hopefully this is the first step to one day being a Test nation. However could be a long, long time.

rusty_racer94

Good thing if Ireland would be hosting international cricket!