GAA: Start spreading the news

THINKING big and talking bigger is a prerequisite in a city like the Big Apple but it is an art that has not come naturally to the GAA in New York.

Former president Monty Moloney, however, says his county board is finally learning how to do it.

And with $45 million to raise this year in order to turn the pipe dream of owning and operating its own grounds into a reality, they really have no other choice.

Moloney, who left his native Co Galway for the US in the 1960s, is spearheading the New York GAA's scheme to build a Gaelic sports complex and Irish cultural centre.

After years of looking for the right location and a couple more spent trying to acquire it, the project received the perfect kick-start in October when the city of New York handed over 25 acres of upper Manhattan real estate free of charge.

It is to here that the New York GAA will relocate from its long-standing but rented home of Gaelic Park in the Bronx to the state of the art Randall's Island Gaelic Stadium, complete with two arenas, one holding 10,000 spectators and will boast full bar, restaurant and banqueting facilities.

"It's just a brilliant project and if all goes well, it will be the best thing that has happened to the Irish community since I came to this city 40 years ago," Moloney said.

"I've been around this city and there's a buzz about this project at the moment. I think people are starting to believe this is a reality, that this is finally about to come to fruition."

Location, as all good auctioneers will tell you, is paramount and Randall's Island certainly fits the remit of being accessible to those throughout the metropolitan area and beyond.

"We'll be right in the middle of the five boroughs," Moloney said, "only minutes away for some people."

There are around 500 acres to play with at the new location and play is the central theme of city's plans for its future, particularly with New York bidding against London and Paris to stage the Olympic Games in 2012.

The island was the home to Downing Stadium, where Kerry played Cavan in a National League fixture in 1997. That has been knocked down and replaced with a track and field complex with capacity for 10,000 spectators and is due to open in mid-2004.

"There's a lot going on there," Moloney added. "There's a 17-acre water park going in, there's an amphitheatre that can hold 21,000, they have a golf range, there's 28 soccer fields, 30 baseball fields and the Fire Department have just opened a $50m state of the art training facility down there."

Add on the base for the New York Police Department's scuba team and facilities for many more city departments and there are probably about 30 projects outside of the GAA complex on Randall's Island.

"And that's great for us because we're the only (project with a) high-end restaurant and bar down there for 400 people and we'll have a catering set-up that will hold 1000 people for banqueting, weddings, conventions or anything of that nature.

"So there's quite a bit to the project, you know, meeting rooms, conference rooms, pro shops, medical rooms; a big play area for kids and plans to fully cater for them down there, monitor and maybe even teach them on any given Sunday."

The centrepiece, on an island nestling under the Triborough Bridge which links Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, will be the two stadiums the main 10,000-seater arena and a second one holding 3,000 which would be used for other games and training.

"We'll have lights on the fields, weight rooms and people have approached us about bubbling the fields in winter so we can play through the worst of the weather, which is something we're looking at and would be good in terms of extra signage there was one company which came up with quite a figure to cover it with advertising.

"That would be great for Railway Cup games, international games and so on. If you want to stage an overseas game, New York is the place to get a crowd.

"And if you play it at a time of year when nothing else is going on and the field is covered then the place will be packed. So you've a lot of possibilities but there's a lot of work to be done to make it happen."

Moloney says the plan is to open at least the first phase of the complex by late 2005. Given that it will take at least 12 months to build, that gives him and his committee, who have formed into a corporation the Randall's Island Gaelic Sports Complex Inc. just under a year to raise the cash to turn this dream into reality.

"Even though the GAA will be playing there seven days a week we had to set up a separate corporation to run it because when the project is costing about $45m we would not be able to get the investors in on a not-for-profit basis.

"The GAA is not really geared towards that. So we have to set up a for-profit corporation to attract the investors and that's going very well.

"We're meeting with a lot of people and talking about everything from sponsorships, signage, naming rights. There's a lot of interested people and once the holidays are out of the way we'll be meeting with them all again in the New Year.

"We've spoken to many already General Electric, Kodak, Nike, beer companies and Nestle, just to name but a few.

"We have letters of commitment from five companies, and not any of the ones I've mentioned, and we have to negotiate the figures going forward. So I'm not at liberty to name them. But that's no guarantee those companies will commit and I suppose you could say we're playing the field at the moment.

"We have spoken to Croke Park and we've kept them informed of what's going on at all times. We even took our attorneys over there to show them the business plan and explain how the GAA would operate in there and have the freedom that they never had in any other park here in New York.

"They were quite satisfied with it. However, financially, they haven't committed anything; but maybe down the road."

What is an absolute, though, as far as Moloney is concerned, is that the project will be a viable going concern.

"Absolutely. We have gone over the business plan and we have very good professional people involved. We have the investment bank involved, we have two good Fifth Avenue lawyers and good marketing people on board who are also involved in the New York Olympic bid.

"And our architect, Rick Zurita, is the one who did the masterplan for the city for Randall's Island as a whole. So it's a good professional team we have on board and well be adding more as we go forward.

"Of course, our project will be a central piece on the island because there are certain amenities others wouldn't have and when you have 21,000 people in that amphitheatre, we would have things set-up for those people which no-one else has."

AND aside from selling them hot dogs, one of the cornerstones of the project is to reach out in a more meaningful way to other ethnic communities in the city.

"We want to market the GAA and try and reach out to another level of people in the community," Moloney said. "We've spoken to neighbouring communities and they all love the project and they'd like to see their kids go there. So we've arranged for kids to train there every afternoon from 3pm till 6pm Monday through Friday.

"That's a major part of the marketing exercise, to get as many kids here in the States playing our games, especially football. That will be a real boost to the project, to involve all communities, not just the Irish.

"It's just a little different here than it is in Ireland; you have to cater and spread your wings a little further because the GAA on its own just wouldn't survive.

"I believe the GAA will grow here with this project. It will grow. We have failed to do that in the past, to market our sport, and we're going to do our best to do it here."