I'm writing this in the eL section because, even though our own club is currently the financially-troubled headline-grabber, several clubs, not least our neighbours in Cobh, have been experiencing money troubles over the past few months. It's a recurring theme, with clubs being rescued, in a weakened state, by some altruistic investor until he gets fed up/runs out of cash, and the whole cycle starts again.
Currently, there's a lot of bitterness and anger, and quite rightly so. From a supporters perspective, it seems that we were spun a fine yarn. People have questioned what possessed a genuinely decent man like Brian Lennox to sell the club to an investment company. Perhaps he was spun a similar "over-optimistic" story? Just a thought.
I believe, hope, pray that an investor or group of investors will step forward to rescue our fine club, but it must never again be left to a single investor or group of investors. We, as supporters, must take at least part ownership of proceedings.
Firstly, a suporters trust must invest in the club. In this way, at the very least, we might get early warning of betrayal by investors there for "the long haul." Also, our suggestions and concerns are more likely to be listened to if we're in the room rather than standing outside a locked door. This approach certainly stands a better chance of keeping the club afloat, but where do we go from here?
Arkaga's Flying Pig Stadium is clearly off the agenda, but the idea of a stadium development, properly conceived and executed, could present the way forward. Stadium development is not a thing we currently excel at in Cork, but, done properly, it could be the saving of the club, and the ticket to genuine European progress.
Firstly, there must be no single owner of the stadium. We can't afford another Milltown or Bishopstown disaster for Irish soccer. A seperate company, with investment by several interested parties, including supporters, must be established. It should include function room, bar, shops, restaurant, sponsors' areas, retractable solid floor if possible. Maybe even a running track. In short, anything possible to earn cash beyond the gate receipts. Profits from the various rentals/events to be divided according to each groups investment, after a minimum of 30%-40% has been ploughed back in for costs and future development. With the possibility of attracting large numbers of visitors to the city, perhaps the City Council might be persuaded to make an investment?
What I've outlined above could go a long way towards making city viable and strong in the medium to long term, but nobody can work in a vacuum. All clubs in the league need to take a long hard look at themselves and restructure in order to be viable in the long term.
This league and the clubs within it can have a bright new future, but only if the very harsh lessons of this season are learnt very quickly. STARTING NOW!!
Opinions, please?

The clubs have to be more community based and that means the supporters have a substantial shareholding in them.

That would be a useful start.

Yeah, that all sounds great but buying land and building a stadium takes a long time and a lot of money! Sure look at Arsenal even, they're paying for the Emirates over the next 20 years and I bet they had a lot of cash upfront to pay the builders at least.

Yes, get the City Council or some section of the Government interested in investing (or a grant) in it and all sponsors etc., etc. but where are we going with the idea of bars/function rooms/retractable pitch,etc? Yes we'd all love if that happened but how is it going to be viable/feasible? Sure even Landsdowne Road is getting a re-development of the stands and the Arena or any other national stadium has ever worked out never mind getting something on this scale going in Cork.

If we were in the group stages of Europe solidly or a Premier League/Championship team then maybe but for all the proposed developments of Docklands, Live venues and the Bar trade going downhill and heading into a recession who is going to take all this on and how is it going to work?

Apartments and Hotels wouldn't even help it along.

Lotto grants should be available; persuade Council to make land available, or a joint venture on a municipal stadium. As for bars/function rooms; how is a stadium going to be viable without a revenue stream outside of gate receipts? Perhaps arrangements could be made with sponsors? BTW, I'm not talking about a 60,000 seat stadium, more a 20,000 seater. As for the retractable surface, if something big were to be held, like an open-air concert, we wouldn't want to worry about the playing surface being damaged.
Believe me, things must change. We can't depend on gate receipts as the main source of income and doing nothing is certainly not an option.

I'm not saying the idea is wrong, I'd love to see something like this happen in Cork or even in Ireland, but how much of a pipe dream is it? It's not very likely to happen now.

I understand your doubts, and I do appreciate what a difficult job it would be. Certainly, Arkaga's proposed 30,000 seater is a dead duck. I doubt anybody involved with Cork soccer would trust their so-called "expertise" again. Any such project would need significant input from a trusted developer/investor in addition to supporters involvement. FORAS talk about assisting with capital projects; training ground for a start? First, of course, we must get over the current crisis. I've put forward one idea; lets hear a few more.

I think the concept of a government backed 20,000 seater stadium in the city of Cork should be met with the realisation that this is a pretty basic request.

The country in general is short 2 or 3 stadia of that scale, when compared to other European countries.

A 20,000 seater stadium shouldn't cost that much. When you consider all the vast quantities wasted on PPARS and electronic voting systems for example, 8-10 million on a project outlined by compo should represent massive value for money, in comparison.

The time is coming for people to take a strong voice to our leaders in society, we've forgotten how to demand things.

tbh I doubt that we could even fill half of that. maybe if city got into the champions league or uefa cup group stages, then we'd get a massive interest but thats a long way off.

The problem with the league is lack of long term planning. I completely agree with compo here, clubs in this country went full-time without putting any structures in place to increase revenue to pay for it.

We are now reaping the rewards of this short-term planning.

I know I may well get slaughtered for this but I think in the long term a tie up with cobh to create one cork team could be a good idea. With both sides in trouble the increased fan base could lead to more income also the unity factor of getting everyone in cork behind one team could only be a good thing.

I await the slating!!!!

It would add little or nothing to our fan base, and there's no way Cobh would go for it. They have their own pitch remember.

There'll have to be a new sense of realism in the league, the only people making money in this league are the players and the fact we all have to face up to is; that they are being paid far too much.
A full time set up is fine if the clubs are generating enough cash to pay for it. If Cork can't do it what chance have the rest.
Drogheda are spending over three times what they are generating in football activities, they say they have a business plan and maybe it will work out for them, but it will be a first in this league!
Bohs are in a slightly different position, at least they're sitting on a substantial asset, but times have changed and they're football activities are generating not near enough to keep the show on the road.
Pat's have a very generous benefactor and good luck to them, but the rumours up here are that he is very dissilusioned with the lack of interest in the club. Time will tell how committed he is.
Logic tells us this league is REALLY a part time league, is any player really worth over 4 grand a week?
If he is he shouldn't really be playing here.

When you have a full time professional team in a country and in a league that is not structured to support wage equivilants of the bottom end of the Coca Cola Championship or a sport that is not well enough supported compared to Hurling, Fooftball or Rugby and you have a WEEKLY wage bill of over €60,000 what do you expect. Wake up and smell the roses please. Irish professional soccer players just like their counterparts expect to get paid, but when you have about 3,000 people coming through the turnstiles once a fortnight and the wages far exceeds the income you are always going to have problems. Realistically Cork City can only afford to pay at the most 6 to 11 full time players and at that only a realistic wage. The supporters are second to none but if the supporters cannot come up with €60,000 a week plus then this discussion is pointless. The alternative is a reality check!!!

Never has it been so true as to repeat the old saying
"CUT YOUR CLOTH TO YOUR MEASURE"

I wish the supporters would stop whinging about everyone and realise that something had to give and it now it has. The choice is a streamline financial expense on a weekly basis or no team. Simple really isn't it?

Where did that figure of 60k a week come from? I think a club like Cork City could support a weeekly wage bill of approx 25k. 15 players on an average of a grand a week and the other 10k spread over backroom staff. Thats 1.3 million a year. Theres no reason a club like ours couldnt generate that level of income between gates, prizemoney, sponsorship, transfers, TV etc.

I agree that we have to think long term from here on. Long term, i see a future for a professional club in Cork. I see a successful future full of potential if we had a proper multipurpose stadium capable of generating money outside of CCFC. Why the hell not?

I dont think we should abandon our professional ambitions because a gang of cowboys decided to asset strip our club over an 18month period.

I agree with you, Mick. As currently structured, this is a part-time league. The key phrase here is "as currently structured" My point is that we need to change the structure. The league won't make progress if we can't hold onto players of decent quality, and we'll go back to seeing our clubs getting hammered in Europe. We'll hardly get the fans out if it's seen as a feeder league for England's League Two or lower.
Neither can clubs pay big money to players in the vague hope that more fans, and therefore revenue, will show up. The structures for a consistent revenue stream need to be put in place FIRST. In recent years, clubs have gone full-time with little or no idea how they're going to pay the bills. That must stop.
BTW, Mick, you seem unusually negative.

I suppose I am a bit negative at the moment. I love this league, but I have to face the facts that I'm in such a small minority of people who call themselves football fans, that I'm nearly regarded as some sort of eccentric.

We can talk all we like about restructuring etc. but the truth is, very few people want to go to the games.
Then the fans who do go have crazy expectations, I'm not having a go at Cork fans here cos I was the very same for most of the time I've followed Rovers.
Reading threads from a few weeks back and the same attitude that most of us at Rovers had for years is obvious, you know the stuff, 'we need a new striker' or we've got to keep so and so', but nobody knows or more importantly cares where the money is coming from.
When things go tits up it's always the fault of the guys who are actually providing the money for these crazy wages, signing on fees etc.. The fans never shout stop when the spending is happening, cos we're all chasing the glory and enjoying every moment of it.
Maybe what's happening to Cork, Sligo , Galway, and what happened to us and Shels is good in the longer term when clubs and fans will have more realistic expectations.

This idea of a multi-purpose 20,000-30,000 stadium is an ambitious one and one I'd support but having spent the last two and a half-years back in Cork I've had to move back to London last month and it strikes me that Cork is just sadly a pretty unambitious city. Collectively we're happy to play the voyeurs and watch vastly more Premiership football than Eircom League soccer. We seem to consider the Frank and Walters and the Sultans of Ping to be the Rolling Stones or The Beatles. We're too fickle as well. The streets are packed with people walking around in their Munster rugby shirts. How many Munster rugby shirts did you see around twenty years ago?

What events would we attract to the new multi-purpose stadium? Maybe a Feile type festival such as at Pairc Ui Chaoimh in 1995 could be a money spinner. Athletic events seem to be tied up at the Mardyke. There's not enough corporate interest in City to justify a hotel a la Chelsea.

We can't afford to pander to the fantasies of the players who view themselves as being more big time than the really are. The wages are unsustainable. And it's blindingly obvious.
Someone said that if we reduce the wages the better players will leave the league. Where are they gonna go? In reality, 99 times out of a hundred when a British team come in for a player they're gonna go. Wages aren't going to keep them here. It's not just about the money, it's about the perceived increased opportunities that playing in England offers. The players that are here aren't wanted by British clubs. I say call their bluff.