DD wrote:I'm dissappointed in you LS on this one - you're giving that typical look down the end of your nose that Gaels can give towards soccer. Thomas Davis, Marks, Annes etc have always had great competition from soccer in Tallaght, maybe more so than anywhere in Dublin yet these clubs continue to go from strength to strength.
Rovers already have their underage set up based in Tallaght so the fact that their senior team doesn't play there is immaterial in terms of youngsters taking up or sticking with a particular sport. If anything Rovers are more of a threat to other soccer clubs locally then the GAA clubs.
I agree with you on the point of Rovers being fortunate to be given the stadium considering their financial plight but they just happen to be the anchor tenants. The ground will be ideal for U18/U21 soccer internationals, U21/A Rugby Internationals etc (although the D4 lads might find D24 a bit hard to stomach) and we badly need a modern stadium to accomodate these fixtures.
With LOI soccer moved to the summer months, I supopose another factor has to be the limit to the number of games played on the pitch so that will have to managed also
TD & the other Tallaght clubs have excellent facilities and I can't see any benefit in their re-location to the new ground other than getting one over the "soccer boys". If there wasn't a block laid, I'd be all the idea of co-sharing between SR & TD but right now a bit of cop on needs to be applied and get that stadium finished.
Bórd na Móna man has covered the issue of TD's facilities and the "thriving" nature of the clubs down there better than I could, but just to take this point up - this is not about looking down on soccer. This is about having connections in countless GAA clubs around Ireland, each and every one of which had to go to great lengths fundraising in order to provide facilities for their members, many of which still have serious shortfalls in terms of playing pitches and auxiliary facilities, none of which got anything more than 10% or 15% capital assistance from the Government. (In many cases less)
Now here we have a soccer club which has cheated the taxpayers of this state on more than one occasion, which is part of a league which shows a ridiculous sense of entitlement at all times, and who puts forward a business model that quite simply can't work. (Full time soccer in Ireland is unsustainable until more people start paying through the gates - full stop).
Yet for some reason the tax payer is supposed to subsidise this. That does bother me. I see the stunt that Athlone town tried to pull in Athlone, and how much grant aid they got for their new stadium, again numbers that would be unheard of if it was Garrycastle or Athlone looking for that kind of support.
For some reason soccer doesn't have to put in the hard yards in this country, it'll always be bailed out - and yes, I look down on them (by them I mean officials) for that, just as I despise the administrators and parish pump politicians who facilitate that kind of unsustainable carry on.
Explain to me again when we're going to have a revamped Thomond, Ravenhill, Dubarry Park in Athlone, we need pitches for underage international rugby? Ditto soccer - do these games get a greater capacity than can be accomodated in Terryland Park, Turner's Cross, the Brandywell, or that new white elephant in Athlone? No they don't. These stadia are more than capable of accomodating these fixtures.