Brandywell Stadium Development

[Marty]

Thanks for the replies. You all have more optimism in Stormont than I do and I hope to see the stand completed. I take it from the replies that the answer to the actual question I asked though is "yes".

The MF stand is happening. Sub-regional develpment funding window needs to open (happening this year) then we should get confirmation for funds.

why are you so confident?

Pro-active Stormont Sports Minister Gordon Lyons will open the bidding process for £36m of Northern Ireland Football Funding on Thursday night in Belfast, Sunday Life Sport can reveal.

Doesn’t sound too confirmed to me.

[barry]

What was the last estimated costs to complete the MF project

[stevebradley]

The MF stand is happening. Sub-regional develpment funding window needs to open (happening this year) then we should get confirmation for funds.

why are you so confident?

Pro-active Stormont Sports Minister Gordon Lyons will open the bidding process for £36m of Northern Ireland Football Funding on Thursday night in Belfast, Sunday Life Sport can reveal.

Doesn’t sound too confirmed to me.

The money is there, Marty - as you well know. Just over £36m, ring-fenced for a decade or so now.

If I recall correctly, the club was asked to submit info re its application last year (as were other interested parties).

[marcoloco]

why are you so confident?

Pro-active Stormont Sports Minister Gordon Lyons will open the bidding process for £36m of Northern Ireland Football Funding on Thursday night in Belfast, Sunday Life Sport can reveal.

Doesn’t sound too confirmed to me.

The money is there, Marty - as you well know. Just over £36m, ring-fenced for a decade or so now.

If I recall correctly, the club was asked to submit info re its application last year (as were other interested parties).

The issue is build cost inflation.

36m 7 years ago would get you a hell of allot more than in today's world.

Sadly the short sightedness of our politicians didn't see the merit of finishing the job they started at the Brandywell...

[stevebradley]

The starting pistol has been fired

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jg9r6d9klo

[rodgers]

In order to be granted money, clubs must demonstrate that they will contribute at least 5% of the total project costs.

For council-owned grounds, this rises to 40%.

Is the 40% already covered by the existing section of the Mark Farren or is this a new requirement?

[rodgers]

Glancing through the documentation, previous capital investment (which includes council investment) is given separate points so it's a bit unclear whether the existing Mark Farren work can count towards the 40%. Even if it can't, it looks like that partnership funding can be made up of sources of income that aren't from the council. So it may be that we can get 60% of the funding for the Mark Farren with the chairman mostly likely covering the 40% because the council have no money to put in.

I think it would be a good idea to draw up plans now and obtain planning for Showgrounds end. It would get any greyhound objections dealt with early on.

I personally wouldn't be averse to tapping the Shared Island Unit for some funding from the south. They were prepared to give 50 million to Casement.

[IfYouTolerateThis]

I think it's obvious that Lyons cannot be trusted to allocate Derry City FC significant funding from the £36M pot.

His actions, particularly around Casement and more recently, allocating funding to Lisneal College, highlight to most observers that his meetings with "stakeholders" within Loyalism, have been influenced to divert funding away from one side of the community.

It also demonstrates that the last minute deviation the DUP made to nominate Lyons for this post, was calculated so that party could control and influence sports funding and stand on the Casement project.

I know that Steve insists that the money is there, and whilst he is correct, I would not be in any way confident that the promised funding for the completion of the MF Stand will ever make its way to the club.

[stevebradley]

I know that Steve insists that the money is there, and whilst he is correct,

The £36.2m is there - that's just a fact. I dont need to insist on it

I would not be in any way confident that the promised funding for the completion of the MF Stand will ever make its way to the club.

I'm of similar mind here. If there was a lot more money in the pot then I think we'd be a shoe-in. But with so many applications for it, there are a hell of a lot of mouths to feed. So I'd put our chances as 50/50 - with the risk being that they may think we'll finish the stand anyway even without the Stormont money (amd they'd probably be right on that).

[Marty]

3 posts ago ago were defiantly getting the money, and now we’re 50/50.

I put our chances at about minus 40%.

[stevebradley]

3 posts ago ago were defiantly getting the money, and now we’re 50/50.

I put our chances at about minus 40%.

I never said previously we were definitely getting the money though. Just that the money definitely exists. Which it does.

Good to see you're as slow on here as you are on our WhatsApp group, Marty

[dcfc_jp_1989]

I know that Steve insists that the money is there, and whilst he is correct,

The £36.2m is there - that's just a fact. I dont need to insist on it

I would not be in any way confident that the promised funding for the completion of the MF Stand will ever make its way to the club.

I'm of similar mind here. If there was a lot more money in the pot then I think we'd be a shoe-in. But with so many applications for it, there are a hell of a lot of mouths to feed. So I'd put our chances as 50/50 - with the risk being that they may think we'll finish the stand anyway even without the Stormont money (amd they'd probably be right on that).

Having read the various media reports & the documents that have been released by the Dept of Communities it appears that there are three tiers of funding. Tier 1 any projects up to 1.5m, Tier 2 any projects from £1.5m-£6m & Tier 3 any projects over £6m; as part of the application process the applicants have to cost their project & apply to the relevant tier. E.g. the Loughgall chairman (who is an architect) is on record saying their project is estimated to cost £3.5m so they're only allowed to apply to tier 2 & therefore Loughgall will compete with the likes of Institute for the money rather than Derry City or Glentoran.

There is a scoring matrix in place based around footballing need (existing facilities), footballing need (new build), the benefits your project will bring to the community, disability groups, underrespresented groups & finance - basically contributions the applicant are making towards the project.

There is also an extra section for applicants to score extra points which is based on previous investment to improve your facilities - this is where I think the initial redevelopment in 2017 & the ongoing development of the new stand comes into play. I'd assume we'll be competing with Glentoran, Cliftonville, Crusaders & Coleraine in tier 3 & where we might fall down in the scoring matrix in some areas this is an area where we can make up those points especially over Glentoran who have done nowhere near the type of work DCSDC & Derry City FC have done to the Brandywell to improving facilities for players & spectators. Their owner Ali Pour reckons Glentoran deserve the money because he's forked out £500k to keep the ground open & meet licensing requirements yet they had a match abandoned 2 weeks ago because their generator failed causing the floodlights to go out.

I suspect anyone who applies will get something, they just won't get the full amount. The disadvantage Derry City will have as opposed to other clubs like Cliftonville, Glentoran, Crusaders & Coleraine is that they only have to contribute 5% but DCSDC will have to contribute 40%. Applicants are allowed to get help with their contributions but this has to be demonstrated in the application form e.g. Philip O'Doherty could put up the 40% on behalf of the council which is probably what will happen

[Marty]

3 posts ago ago were defiantly getting the money, and now we’re 50/50.

I put our chances at about minus 40%.

I never said previously we were definitely getting the money though. Just that the money definitely exists. Which it does.

Good to see you're as slow on here as you are on our WhatsApp group, Marty

Of course the moneys there, that’s what taxes are for. The issue is whether we are getting it.

Who cares if the money is ‘there, as you well know’ if we aren’t getting it .

[magspat]

I will be surprised if that guy Lyons gives us anything.

[Andy Bernard]

They'll probably end up building a new stand in Lisneal

[TenaciousDee]

If only you knew Andy. Honestly.

[IfYouTolerateThis]

Has anyone got any new pics of the new stand and how it's progressing? I haven't been to any of the pre-season games to see how it's been coming along. Any info would be great. TIA.

[brandyball]

Sean Varrett is confident the club will get £6 million.

[dcfc_jp_1989]

Sean Varrett is confident the club will get £6 million.

He also states that it will cost £10m for the work which includes upgrading the floodlights

[rodgers]

Any indication of where the 4 million (which would equate to the required 40%) is coming from?