Ian Mallon: Are Waterford set to call time on RSC to achieve goals?
TIME TO SAY GOODBYE? A general view of the RSC in Waterford. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
FOR 30 years the Regional Sports Centre (RSC) has been home to Waterford football – but just seven months into a more professional era of ownership at the club, the ground is no longer fit-for-purpose.
The new administration is frustrated with the lack of access to the venue for commercial and community activations, due to its shared tenancy agreement with Waterford City and County Council.
That has resulted in Chairman and owner Andy Pilley being hindered in replicating many of the successes at Fleetwood Town, where retail, hospitality and community are central to the growth of his EFL League One side.
While Waterford is currently negotiating an extension of the leasehold with the local authority, The Pitch understands that the club’s medium to long-term objective may lie elsewhere.
While nobody internally is talking about it, I understand that a possibility of a new state-of-the-art stadium for Waterford FC is becoming a serious consideration.
Early estimates of approximately €25-30m for such a facility have been mentioned and while the cost is extraordinary in League of Ireland terms, the long-term benefits would represent enormous possibility.
So what are the key issues?
Firstly there is the problem with even the most basic requirement, establishing a fully functioning club shop at the RSC.
For a retail unit to operate successfully it must be accessible to the public at least five days a week, and should also contain a ticket office which is open throughout the week.
Waterford is currently in the final phases of preparing such a unit outside the RSC which would provide these functions, but ideally it needs to be part of the infrastructure of the stadium.
Then there is ‘Fan Experience’, an area where Fleetwood Town has excelled and developed over Andy Pilley’s almost two decades (and six promotions from the lower leagues) in charge on the Lancashire coast.
Matchdays at Fleetwood Town’s Highbury Stadium begin long before kick-off with food and beverages, with entertainment and DJs on hand to provide a sense of atmosphere and occasion to the fans and wider community.
The club also provides restaurant and bistro facilities, coffee shops and other amenities which it cannot operate at the RSC.
Such planning requires total control of the site, which Waterford cannot achieve currently, unless the council sells the land to the club – a most unlikely scenario given its shared use with the Local Sports Partnerships (Athletics and other sports).
Waterford FC is further frustrated by ongoing negotiations with Waterford City and County Council over a new lease for the venue, which it needs in place for its short-term sporting aims, in spite of any long-term objectives.
As far back as last July, before Pilley bought the club for an estimated €1.3m, the council told The Pitch: “Waterford City and County Council values WFC as a primary tenant and welcomes the opportunity to continue the long-standing arrangement with the club.
“We are finalising the lease with a long term expected (50 years is in current draft) and there are no issues to other users such as the Athletic Club.”
While the Chairman and his team have already achieved huge strides in such a short space of time to restore confidence in a once seriously-distressed asset, turning the commercial wheel is almost impossible.
Certainly the audience is there, with up to 1,300 season tickets already sold this year for a team languishing in the second tier of Irish football.
Servicing these valuable fans and the more casual matchday supporters would prove golden, so much so the club has even considered putting in an offer for the nearby vacant Yellow House pub – ultimately it was too small and too unfit for requirements.
Despite the challenges facing Pilley and the CEO of Fleetwood Town Steve Kurwood, a fellow board member at Waterford, there is considerable optimism on the ground.
There have been a series of eye-catching appointments announced in recent weeks, chief amongst them the hiring of a full-time head of operations - Marc O’Donovan-Wyatt - a respected UK-based football business consultant from Cork.
The club is currently recruiting a community development officer, with a support role set to be advertised, and it will introduce other executive positions independent of Fleetwood Town in the short to medium term.
These activities follow the impressive appointment of Jonathan Walters as director of football for Waterford (and Fleetwood), who has been charged with overseeing promotion to the Premier Division.
Team performance is an issue. Despite heavy investment during the close season, they are already eight points off leaders Galway United, in fourth place of Division One.
Across the pond Fleetwood Town continues to progress, last weekend beating Derby County two-nil at Pride Park in front of 27,000 fans.
Pilley owns two other teams in Dubai and one in South Africa, but the purchase of Waterford could yet prove the jewel in the crown if European football is achieved quickly.
Where that jewel sits in the city of Waterford is not clear.
THIS year’s Aer Lingus College Football Classic will see approximately €15m invested in getting Notre Dame and Navy to Dublin, to play in the NCAA season opener next August.
The average compensation payment for an NCAA side is €6m, but when Notre Dame are in town, that fee increases by many millions.
Notre Dame are the second biggest team in the NCAA with 8.21 million fans (NBC Sports survey) and play their games at the 81,000 Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
Tickets for their game in Dublin are sold out and are currently advertised ‘for as low as’ $843 on resale sites.
The match will see an inbound 40,000 football fans from the US (and additional 8,000 supporters from Ireland and Europe) who will converge on the Aviva Stadium in late August.
The tie against Navy is the third of an initial five-year run of college football games here, and by far the most valuable - with an economic impact of €147m in direct cash injection to the Irish economy.
According to Brendan Meehan, Commercial Director of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic through Irish American Events Ltd, those visitors will spend a week in Ireland and will visit an average of three destinations in total during their seven-day stay.
The fixture is the result of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) – a collaboration of the Department of Tourism and Sport, Tourism Ireland and Dublin City Council – who support the initial costs of getting the teams here, but who reap the financial benefits.
Next year, the numbers will be a little more ‘modest’ when Georgia Tech play Florida University, with around 20,000 Americans expected, with an economic value of €69m.
As for the future of the event, Meehan expects the series to continue as a constant annual fixture beyond the current five-year deal – with the venue staying the same.
“We have signed an agreement with the Aviva Stadium and future discussions will take place with Aviva Stadium,” he finished.
UNDOUBTEDLY, the Camogie Association’s decision to end its poorly planned All-Star trip to Canada in May represents an image and PR disaster, not least for Allianz Insurance – the tour sponsor.
Much planning with Tourism Ireland, other commercial partners and local North American camogie clubs - who were due to fly into Calgary for the event - had been far advanced ahead of the May trip.
Associate brands including Electric Ireland, PwC, Very and Glen Dimplex will have had their own activations set around the event, which was cancelled after players refused to participate due to its timing around the start of the Championship season.
While the whole affair is a mess, it is an opportunity for the Camogie Association’s President and CEO to begin a much-needed audit of its own relationship with key stakeholders – grassroots and elite players.
The organisation recently accepted that these relationships are not good, so the bigger question is why is leadership at the Camogie Association so ill-equipped to manage such basic needs?
