Michael Moynihan: A plan for the future that puts the customer first
Stephen Molumphy leads Waterford out onto the pitch ahead of a 2010 National League clash with Dublin at Walsh Park. As the venue is to undergo redevelopment, Michael Moynihan says it’s interesting to see a county board decide that it won’t succumb to the traditional edifice complex. Picture: Matt Browne
Last week’s launch of the Waterford GAA strategic plan was notable for quite a few reasons, not least as a diversion from the ongoing misery. It was a tonic to talk (relative) mundanities like games development and fixture scheduling.
And the redevelopment of Walsh Park. During the launch Michael Walsh, one of the members of the strategic plan committee, observed of the upgrade: “It would have been targeted as a 16,000 (capacity) stadium, we think probably 12,000-13,000, but we want it to be a niche stadium that would be best in its class in the country on that scale, in terms of the customer experience and presence as a showcase for Waterford GAA.
“That’s the ambition and we believe that can be made happen.”
This caught my ear - and eye - for all sorts of reasons, not least because Walsh’s day job as chief executive of Waterford City and County Council lends considerable weight to his comments.
It’s interesting to see a county board decide that it won’t succumb to the traditional edifice complex and, instead of building a stadium bigger than it needs, to decide to create something more oriented towards the experience of the person visiting the stadium.
A cold look at the facts of GAA life would suggest that even with a 16,000-seater stadium Waterford would not be staging big occasions like a National Hurling League final so why not be pragmatic? If the facilities can be better in a 13,000-seater because the funding for 3,000 extra seats can be diverted elsewhere within the project, why not do so?
This is not as obvious as it might seem. The traditional knock against such a plan would be that those in charge “lack ambition”, which seems a narrow definition of ambition.
If ambition translates as creating something too big for practical use - a stadium which may not even be filled once a year and which incurs a problematic level of debt as a result, then a few county boards could do with a little less ambition.
What’s interesting about the Waterford approach is that the ambition doesn’t appear - thankfully - to be a numbers game when it comes to capacity, but a focus on the customer experience.
Michael Walsh’s use of that particular phrase at the launch introduces a formulation that might fall harshly on the ears of GAA diehards, but to this observer it’s more of a recognition of reality.
Paying into a GAA venue creates a consumer, not a club member. The fact that most people going to Walsh Park are likely members of Waterford GAA clubs is incidental: once people go through the turnstiles they have expectations, and if those expectations aren’t met then those people won’t come back for more.
As a further twist, providing a minimum level of comfort is now no longer sufficient. We can joke about the muddy banks and al fresco toilets, to be polite about it, of yesteryear but those are no longer acceptable at club level. The supporter experience must now be one where the customer’s comfort is maximised, not one where the discomfort is minimised.
Creating a comfortable, welcoming, inviting, enjoyable environment which encourages people to visit a venue - and then to return to that venue - is a must for sports organisations everywhere. So is the need to cast the net a little wider than the diehards mentioned above: kudos to Waterford for having the ambition to see a gap in the Irish market for the boutique stadium. The venue which has the potential to offer an intimate but still passionate experience, one likely to pull in more than just traditional devotees.
All of this may seem like a distant dream now, but when we emerge from the fog of lockdown it’s a scenario quite a few counties will face.
It looks like Waterford have a head start.
I note that more and more members of the French rugby side are testing positive for covid-19 - at the time of writing wing Gabin Villière and prop Mohamed Heroes have now joined scrum-half Antoine Dupont on the infected list, with head coach Fabien Galthié, forwards coach William Servat and an unnamed member of staff returning positive tests last week as well.
Obviously this column wishes all concerned a swift recovery - everyone’s health is of paramount importance these days, not sports events.
Yet those sports events roll on and on. France are scheduled to play Scotland in the Stade de France on 28 February, despite the positive tests.
If you accept the right of sports to continue, there’s a question which might be raised by these numbers of positive tests. Should competitions now to be weighted with regard to positive tests?
France have been very impressive so far in the Six Nations but at this rate they may be severely weakened by the crucial last weekend.
Is there a level playing field for all teams involved in a competition if one of those teams is affected by positive tests to the extent that it is nowhere near as competitive at the end of that competition as it was at the beginning?
In the case of France the team is a prime contender for top honours in that competition. Will the 2021 version of the Six Nations carry an asterisk because of the disparity in quality between France on the first weekend of the tournament and on the last?
Flying the flag for all of us greybeards this week?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has a terrific 14 goals in 12 games for AC Milan in Italy - at the age of 39.
This Zlatanaissance - sorry - is all the more impressive given he picked up a cruciate ligament injury three years ago with Manchester United, then went to play in Major League Soccer - career milestones you’d associate with someone approaching the exit door.
Instead he is back in Italy, helping AC Milan fight it out at the top of one of the most competitive soccer leagues in the world.
How?
Spanish journalist Guillem Balague explained Ibrahimovic’s secret to the BBC's Euro Leagues podcast recently: "You're talking about fruit and vegetables and only white meat.
"Pizzas are reward. No sugar. He does a little bit of taekwondo too.” I was right there with him - right there - until the ‘no sugar’ rule. In a lockdown?
Funny how your reading material tips into the real world, or a reasonable facsimile of same. I wrote here a couple of weeks ago that I was enjoying Jimmy Breslin’s magnificent memoir, which features an immortal lunch with proprietor Robert Maxwell, who was then planning to expand into the US.
Lo and behold, now you can’t move outside your door with reviews of Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston.
Maxwell was the kind of figure who loomed large in life but vanished pretty quickly from the public consciousness at large after he died, though he now enjoys a posthumous notoriety as the father of Ghislaine Maxwell, who faces trial as an alleged procurer for Jeffrey Epstein.
Many of those reviews touch on Maxwell’s improbable rise from the chaos of post-war Europe to millionaire pillar of the British establishment - a strong selling point to this reader, anyway.
