Finn Harps throw a fresh - maybe final - push for long-awaited new stadium

Finn Harps will step up their efforts to finally get their new stadium plans over the line with a series of vital appointments in the coming weeks.

With time ticking fast on the club's existing Finn Park home, around 50 people attended a public meeting at the Villa Rose Hotel in Ballybofey on Sunday night to hear an update on the plans.

With costs rising to €7.3 million and with funding of €5.8m in place, Harps have a deficit of around €1.5m to stump up.

Harps' Commercial and Marketing officer Aidan Campbell confirmed to the meeting that the club will, in the coming weeks, appointed a paid project manager to oversee the stadium project.

Harps also plan to set up a group of three guarantors in the next month to oversee the funds raised - one of whom will not be associated with the club - while a new wider working group to coordinate the fundraising for the stadium project.

“Good people can make this work,” Campbell said.

“We can leave a legacy for the young people. Can we deliver this thing? Are we capable? The ability in this football club is exceptional. We need to show a united front.”

The club has been awarded funding of €4.7m from the Large Scale Sporting Infrastructure Fund, €0.5m each from Donegal County Council and the FAI and has €0.1m remaining on a Sports Capital Grant.

Harps have also secured a facility from the Western Development Commission for €1 million, whereby the money into the project is paid up front and the repayments from the Council and the FAI go directly to them with Harps covering the interest.

A change to a modular build stadium will necessitate Harps having to submit a new application for planning permission. The stadium will be a hybrid design with three of the stands modular built alongside the concrete main stand – which has already begun.

A rapid rise in construction costs would see a concrete build cost around €12m– a figure that would leave Harps with a mountain too steep to climb.

Harkin said: “Modular stadium builds are a fairly specific task. There were ten or 15 companies who asked to tender and the process has to flow through the government.”

Finn Park is owned by the Finn Park Trust, who would transfer to the new site once the stadium is completed.

Harkin said: “The trustees have very clearly said 'we are not taking this, we are not your partners in this, but we will work with the transfer of the land - as long as it's debt free and we are not taking on any loans'.”

Former Harps Board member Seamus Gallagher spoke from the floor and said Finn Park was previously valued at 5million and referenced a document that was in existence 'which 'not one member of the committee was allowed to see'.

The identity of those trustees has not been revealed, but Harkin has touched on their willingness to engage with the club on the move.

While value of Finn Park has 'dramatically fallen', it is hoped that its potential sale would plug a major hole in the €1.5 shortfall in Harps' contribution to matching funding.

With frontage onto both Navenny Street and Chestnut Road, the site is seen as a potentially lucrative parcel of land in a location designated for high-intensity housing. Some of the major retailers had previously expressed interest.

Harps currently have a 30-year lease from Donegal County Council on the land in Stranorlar, but the club now plans to purchase the land, which has an estimated cost of €200,000.

Notions of retaining the current Finn Park to be used by strands of the club have been essentially extinguished due, simply, to the need to raise sufficient matching finance, even before the decrepit state of the venue is considered.

The new stadium would have a capacity of between 5,500 and 6,300.

Former Finn Harps secretary Joe Doherty pointed out that 'Finn Park hasn't had more than 3,000 more than five times in 20 years' and asked if the club could make a move before the stadium has reached its completion.

Harkin said that a four-sided venue was a term of funding and a during-construction move appeared to be ruled out.

Harkin told the meeting that the Board will also talk to high net worth individuals from Donegal regarding low interest or interest free loans.

The club is also planning a series of events, including one in Dublin in mid-May before Harps' First Division game against UCD featuring former Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given.

Harkin indicated that members will travel to London and the United States for similar events in an attempt to drum up support.

Supporter Liaison Officer Aidan McNelis gave a presentation, which showed the results of a recent survey among various stakeholders in the club with 78 per cent of respondents supporting the introduction of a membership fee and 92 per cent were in favour of the sale of Finn Park to help fund the new stadium.

Trevor Gordon, the coordinator of Harps' 500 Club – a vital fundraising vehicle which currently sits at just over 300 members – told how 67.1 per cent its members are not shareholders with 70.2 stating that they would like to own a share in the club.

“There is a disconnect here,” Gordon said. “Something in the structure is just not right.”

Mr Gordon added that 91.4 per cent of the 500 Club members would support monies from the draw being allocated to the stadium project if required.

McNelis outlined the precarious state of Finn Park – and warned that senior football, never mind promotion to the Premier Division, would be off the cards completely in the absence of a new stadium.

Floodlight failure at Finn Park has resulted in the kick-off times for recent games being altered. The ground also cannot be upgraded due to a serious of drawbacks of its location.

The clubhouse, McNelis said 'leaks precociously' and 'floods on a depressingly regular basis'.

“The time is now,” he said. “We have to be unapologetically ambitious, be brave to embrace the challenges and the opportunities that we have. It is a big challenge, but we can do it.”

While Harps plan to engage with businesses, the diaspora and the 'football family' at home and abroad, 'ultimately, it starts with us'.

He said: “It starts with Finn Harps people and we have to show the world that we will not be denied. We can make it happen and we will make it happen.

“The Department of Sport and the FAI need a win. They need this to happen.”

More pertinently, so too do Finn Harps.

Former Harps Chairmen Joey O'Leary and Sean Quinn spoke passionately in favour of the Board's ambitious plans.

“There is only one show on the road,” Quinn said. “Other towns would grab their chance at the League of Ireland. We have to grab the chance.”