SOCCER NEWS:THE FAI'S leadership has acknowledged the organisation's hopes of covering its share of the costs of redeveloping Lansdowne Road through the sale of Vantage Club tickets have evaporated due to the economic downturn and has said it is aiming to pay off the costs involved over the next 10 years instead.

Addressing delegates at the association’s agm in Wexford on Saturday, chief executive John Delaney and director of finance Mark O’Leary said that the term over which the money borrowed from banks to cover its contribution had already been extended once and would be again so as to target complete repayment by 2020.

The precise level of the organisation’s debt relating to the Aviva Stadium was not revealed but at the end of 2009, it was confirmed, a net figure of €38 million was owed since which a further €21 million has been paid over towards the construction costs.

Asked if this meant some €60 million is now due to the banks, Delaney said it did not; pointing out this would assume no Vantage Club tickets had been sold since the start of the year. He went on to claim that about 6,300 of the highly-priced tickets are now sold or “committed” to commercial partners leaving around 3,700 still to sell which, he insisted, will go.

The terms on which those sold so far remain far from clear, however, and Delaney declined to provide any detail.

Given that 6,000 was supposed to be the magic number in terms of paying for the stadium, however, and the association spent most of its agm putting a collective brave face on the fact that it will instead be making substantial repayments for the next 10 years, it is fairly clear nothing like that number have been sold on the original terms offered.

Some (about 900) are accounted for by supporters who bought into the original 10-year ticket scheme back in 2004 at a fraction of the cost of the Vantage Club.

Delaney refused to confirm or deny a substantial number have also been offered at very significant discounts to companies as part of financial deals.

The dramatically-altered repayments schedule would also have been influenced by the fact many of those who have purchased seats have availed of the soft credit terms offered when the focus of the sales campaign was shifted way from the corporate sector and towards clubs and members of the “football family”.

In any case, the accounts for 2009 suggest sales up until the end of that year fall well short of the 6,300 figure now being mentioned with the number of seats unoccupied for the Argentina game tending to lend weight to the suspicion that the scheme, criticised at the time it was unveiled in late 2008 for its high prices and delayed launch, has not gone especially well.

Having fallen far short of what its ISG CEO, Andrew Hampel, insisted was its target of between 80 and 100 per cent sales prior to the first match at the Aviva Stadium, the company has now departed the scene and future sales will, it seems, be handled by an in-house team at Abbotstown, Co Dublin.

The FAI’s ability to meet its new target of being debt free within 10 years will now depend on the success of those sales and the organisation’s wider ability to match the projections contained in a new business plan that O’Leary insists is conservative in its nature.

O’Leary told delegates the association’s need to pay part of the cost of the stadium from its operating profits would mean “we have to live within our means”, suggesting some lean times ahead.

The organisation, he confirmed however, had achieved a record turnover of €50 million during 2009, retained profits of around €3.6 million, a dramatic improvement on the previous 12 months during which losses of €16 million were sustained.

Some of the improvement was attributable to the revenues generated late in the year by the home games against France and Italy but O’Leary insisted the business plan did not depend on either big home matches against attractive opposition or qualification for major championships.

The opening of the stadium would, he said, allow for costs to be cut and new revenues to be generated, in part through new sponsorship deals. Delaney subsequently revealed a new commercial backer would be unveiled during the coming weeks.

The association does appear to have done well on this front over the last few years given the scale of the difficulties in the market but it appears its grassroots will have to be very patient indeed as they wait for the new stadium to start generating substantial cash instead of absorbing it.

Whether the 2010 target can really be achieved remains to be seen but to judge by the tributes paid from the floor to Delaney on Saturday, the nation’s blazers are happy to wait as long as it takes for the good times they have been promised.