News of the pending surplus in sporting stadiums serving the city of Dublin merely brings to the point of absurdity a planning deficit which for the longest time made the capital a dowdy backwater of the sporting world.

The thought that Dublin, which plays host to no major professional teams of any kind, is to have three spanking new stadiums represents an extravaganza of wasted resources almost as criminal as the culture of neglect which pertained until recently.

At best, two of the three proposed facilities are viable. The GAA, with its busy calendar and a headstart both in rebuilding Croke Park and selling corporate space therein, can justify their independent stance. Neither the Government or the FAI, who appear to be building facilities with which to slap each other's face, can make the same claim.

The Government plan to build an 80,000-seater stadium sounds excessively grandiose given that Lansdowne Road appears to comfortably house the entire constituency for live rugby and that rare indeed is the international soccer match which would require that amount of space.

From a financing point of view the Government plan makes a good deal of sense, however. The interest of J P McManus and the sale of excess land at Abbotstown will raise £100 million of the project's costs and the stadium will be well served by road and existing rail links. Eircom Park by contrast will require a 1.5 mile extension of the LUAS system.

The large capacity of the Abbotstown project delivers the possibility of Dublin bidding for events like the World Athletics Championships, a European Cup soccer final or a rugby World Cup final and would also make the venue attractive if the city were to acquire a franchise in a future European soccer superleague.

A depressing aspect of all three developments, especially the Government's, is the lack of adventure in the oppressively modern architecture involved. None of the developments catch the mood of the successful wave of retro-styled downtown developments which have become so popular in the US.

Developments such as those in Baltimore, San Fransisco, and Cleveland have represented a decisive move away from the remote, greenfield cookie-cutter style stadium which was popular in the '70s and have become part of urban regeneration schemes drawing visitors to shops and leisure facilities.

Reservations about location notwithstanding, the Government firmly called the FAI's bluff yesterday. There was some astonishment almost two years ago when Bernard O'Byrne strolled into the press tent at an under-21 international match in Athlone and announced to the media that despite his presence on a feasibility committee to investigate the possibility of building a national stadium, the FAI would be proceeding with its own development. Back then the announcement looked like being a bargaining position. Now it looks like a suicide note.

The yearning of the soccer community to have a ground which they can proudly call their own is understandable. The issue of a soccer stadium has transcended the needs of the game and appears to have become the focus of a personality clash between Merrion Square and the Taoiseach's office. Bernard and Bertie will both be building stadiums just to spite each other. Bertie has deeper pockets and more powerful friends, however.

The FAI were pluckily sticking to their guns yesterday, asserting that their own Eircom Park scheme was something completely different to the Government scheme. It differs only in the way that an Airbus differs from a Boeing 707.

Like it or not, the FAI now find themselves in a three-way race for a finite number of corporate boxes and in an even more competitive race for a finite number of commercially viable events. Ominously both sides mention the possibility of bringing Disney on Ice to Dublin in their plans.

The FAI, despite assertions they have commitments from an adequate number of companies to fill their corporate requirements, must realise that they are now in a situation whereby they are playing with quite a weak hand. Eircom Park could be one recession away from the white elephant's graveyard.

Examine for instance the FAI's competitive schedule. The home leg of the failed European championship campaign finished in September at Lansdowne Road. The World Cup campaign doesn't begin until late this year and offers only two decent competitive games in the next two years - against Holland and Portugal.

For the FAI to throw its lot in with the Government and the IRFU would appear to make good sense. There may be some vicarious satisfaction in watching Bertie Ahern build a stadium which will look initially like a gift to the IRFU, but the national stadium represents serious competition to Eircom Park.

For the other sports organisations involved yesterday's Government announcement is less critical. The GAA have perhaps enjoyed the best of all worlds so far, reaping £25 million in lottery funds and being able to provide a schedule which guarantees good-sized events in Croke Park every year. Despite the fact that they have never been asked to host a soccer game in Croke Park the association will be the spared the periodic embarrassment which goes hand in hand with speculation about such a possibility.

The IRFU with £28 million sitting in the bank and with Lansdowne Road resting on some of the best real estate in Dublin are the big winners in the whole affair and can look now at the possibility of developing their greenfield site at Clondalkin. The newly-formed athletics body are adequately catered for most of the time by Morton Stadium.

There is still time of course for the FAI to see sense and bow out gracefully. The Eircom Park project went to the planning application stage in October and a decision is due within South Dublin County Council in late summer. Presumably points of clarification, at least, will have to be dealt with, even if the application is favourably received and then the association reckons on a period of between 21 to 24 months before the stadium is due for completion.

Given that timescale it is difficult to believe the FAI's original cost estimate of £65 million will hold good. A similar development by Coventry City football club is costing twice that amount and current industry wisdom on stadium costings puts the cost at over £2000 per seat. Given rising costs, the existence of a more competitive corporate market and a very competitive events market, the FAI may be committing financial suicide.