FAI in 'win-win-win' deal

Like their prospective landlords over on Jones's Road, the FAI could potentially generate a profit of around €10 million from the deal struck yesterday to stage their European Championship qualifiers at Croke Park during 2007.Soccer Correspondent

In a statement released by the GAA, the organisation said it envisaged at least three international football matches being staged at the venue but it is possible the Republic could play twice that number there. Five games appears more likely with the association aiming to take around €2 million in additional revenue on each occasion.

Under the terms of the agreement Croke Park will be available to the association for six (two each in March, October and November) of the 10 dates set aside by Fifa for competitive matches next year. The FAI will not have the option of playing there in either June or September as the All-Ireland championship will be in progress during these months.

Ireland's schedule of qualifiers will not be decided until after the draw for the preliminary competition is made in Switzerland on Friday week but it involves a programme of 12 games unless Steve Staunton's side is drawn in the only one of the eight groups to contain eight nations in which case 14 outings, seven of them at home, will be required.

Half of the games will be midweek fixtures raising the issue of floodlights. The GAA are in the process of seeking to install lights and it is understood the association has given the FAI an undertaking that even if permanent lights are not in place it will be in a position to provide temporary lights as required.

The detail of the fixture list will be worked out at a meeting of the associations within a month of the draw when the FAI's hand will be severely limited by their inability to stage home games during June or September.

There are four dates available to the FAI in September and October of this year but if it is handed the busier schedule it will have no option but to schedule four straight away games in the middle of 2007.

The upside of this deal is considerable, however, with the FAI in a position to capitalise hugely on the increased capacity and other revenue opportunities that Croke Park will provide.

Under the terms of the contract the association will hand over a quarter of ticket revenues to the GAA with the minimum rental figure having been set at €1.25 million. Currently the FAI sell around 35,000 tickets (32,000 of which are pre-sold) for competitive games but the organisation believes it can double attendances to around the 70,000 figure that Croke Park will hold without opening Hill 16. Bucket seats could be installed in Hill 16 but it seems unlikely at this stage.

It aims to boost attendances primarily by bundling tickets (selling packages of more than one game) and improved marketing although officials also believe they will benefit from both a novelty factor and, ironically, the fact the national team's lower seeding will mean more attractive opponents during the next campaign.

With ticket prices set to rise for the new campaign and the more than 6,000 premium and box seats boosting revenues significantly, the upshot, it is reckoned, is that revenues per match could hit the €4.5 million mark, around three times what a sell-out at Lansdowne Road would generate. Average ticket prices, the association estimates, will rise from around €50 to between €60 and €65 per game.

Sales of that order would keep the rental figure to €1.25 million which is, in percentage terms, higher than the roughly 20 per cent the association would have had to pay had they moved games to Britain. The benefits of staying here are obvious, however, and the figure still leaves the FAI with the potential profit on ticket sales of around €3.3 million per game.

The FAI would also benefit from the fact it has been promised a "clean" (advertising free) stadium. Increased space for perimeter advertising will be available and there should be the potential to televise games from both sides of the ground thereby maximising income in this area.

With Lansdowne Road costing the FAI around €250,000 to rent at present the association is facing a five-fold hike in costs but the profit per game could almost treble from roughly €1.2 million, yielding some €10 million in additional profit if five games are staged.

The FAI's chief executive, John Delaney, said yesterday he was "delighted" by the deal and the opportunity it affords to Irish sport. Others within Merrion Square described it as a "win-win-win situation," with all three sporting organisations involved (GAA, FAI and IRFU) standing to benefit substantially.

Newly-installed Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton is expected to visit Croke Park within weeks and is likely to have a say on the issue of where, within the stadium's substantially larger playing surface, a soccer pitch would be best located.

"It is a fantastic arena and the prospect of a full house of passionate Irish soccer fans cheering on our lads really whets the appetite," he said yesterday in a statement issued by the FAI. "Today's news makes next week's Euro 2008 draw all the more exciting."