A newspaper has claimed that the Football Association of Ireland is facing a financial crisis because of weak sales of premium tickets at the Aviva Stadium. The Irish Independent has reported that figures it has seen indicate that just 4,077 of the seats had been sold by the International Stadia Group, the third party tasked with selling the seats, before its relationship with the FAI ended last month. That contradicts the recent statement of FAI Chief Executive John Delaney, who claimed 6,300 of the seats had been sold at the Association's AGM. The Independent also claims that 1,000 of those 4,077 seats have been allocated to 10-year ticket holders, among which are many financial institutions who have not paid any money since the 'Vantage Club' project began.
Ticket fiasco leaves soccer association millions in red Thursday September 09 2010 IRISH soccer's governing body is facing a crisis over the disastrous sale of premium tickets for the new Aviva Stadium, an Irish Independent investigation reveals. The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) is millions of euro in the red after it failed to sell half of the 10-year tickets it planned to use to cover its massive borrowings. Thousands of empty premium seats were clearly visible in both of Ireland's first two home internationals in the €411m stadium. And today's revelations will heap further pressure on chief executive John Delaney, who has continually denied the extent of the ticketing fiasco. Mr Delaney and his board gave the green light for the association to take out massive loans to fund its €74m commitment towards the renovation of Lansdowne Road. It intended to cover the repayment from the sale of 10,400 premium-level 'Vantage Club' seats. At the launch of the Vantage project in September 2008, Mr Delaney said the association needed to sell 60pc of the seats to reach break-even point. However, figures seen by the Irish Independent reveal that International Stadia Group (ISG), a third-party company commissioned by the FAI to sell the seats over two years, had allocated just 4,077 seats when they wound down their association at the end of last month. And the actual number and value of the premium ticket sales is far lower, our investigation reveals. Some 939 of the 4,077 Vantage seats have been allocated to existing 10-year ticket holders, many of whom are from financial institutions who haven't paid a cent since the Vantage Club project was launched in 2008. They will not decide whether or not to renew their tickets until 2014 or 2016. Orders The figure of 4,077 seats also contains scores of cancelled orders that remain in the system. These include people who were sent out direct-debit forms more than a year ago and have chosen not to return them and clients and fans who informed the ticket sales team they would not be making further payments. The extent of the poor ticket sales has raised serious questions over decisions taken by the Abbotstown hierarchy. At the beginning of the project, ISG were prepared to pay the FAI €75m for all of the premium seats and bear the risk if sales were poor. The FAI believed it could earn more by remaining the backbone of the operation and paying ISG commission. Last night, an FAI spokesman denied it turned down an offer for all of the seats. But in May, then FAI president David Blood stated the board had made the decision to press ahead with their own business plan, rather than accept an offer from a third party. Now the association, which has taken control of the sales from ISG, must manage the huge debt. Ireland played their first competitive match at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, with thousands of empty seats in the venue for the Euro 2012 qualifier with Andorra. Last month, they failed to sell out a glamour friendly with Argentina. ISG struggled to sell the tickets because of the exorbitant prices, which ranged from €12,000 to €32,000 depending on the quality of view, to cover all soccer international games over the next decade. The IRFU, who were partners with the FAI and the Government in funding the Lansdowne revamp, had sold all their premium seats at a flat price of €15,000 before the Rugby World Cup in 2007. Many of those who bought the FAI's tickets have also secured them at significantly discounted prices, with a common reduction of 33pc for the cheapest seats. At the FAI's recent AGM in Wexford, Mr Delaney, who is paid €430,000 a year by the association and was recently awarded a new contract, insisted 6,300 of the premium seats had been allocated, including 'sponsorship commitments'. Yet he failed to reveal how many had actually been sold, either at discount or full price. The Irish Independent sent a list of questions to the FAI yesterday with respect to the sale of Vantage Club seats. In response to our queries, FAI communications director Peter Sherrard would only reply: "All of these questions were asked at the AGM and were answered by John Delaney in your presence. We do not have anything to add." The Irish Independent understands the FAI has agreed a deal with 3 Mobile, the new shirt sponsors, which will see the telecommunications company taking up to 2,000 of the premium-level seats. But it is not clear if the FAI will receive any extra profit from that arrangement. Mr Delaney has said the FAI's four-year deal with the mobile company is worth €7.5m to the association. A 3 spokesman would only confirm that "ticketing and supporter initiatives" were part of the sponsorship. http://www.independent.ie/national-...ccer-association-millions-in-red-2331014.html - Daniel McDonnell Irish Independent
why the fai thought people would pay between 15000 and 30000 for a bigger padded seat is a joke and the corporate box sales arent going too well either most were empty the other night and yet Delaney still gets paid €430,000 a year after this disaster
ireland had the second highest attendance in the whole of the european qualifiers only beaten by germany with 45000 I imagine the prices will stay the same while they struggle to flog the vantage and corporate box seats
If they even knocked 15e of each ticket price they would sell every games and clean up on food and drinks too... It is too dear now, i'm expecting an invoice for €180 any day now for 2 tickets (block booking) to Russia and Norway, just can't pay it, so if don't find a buyer i'll lose it, but since no game is gonna sell out anyway i'll prob get it back somewhere down the track
Given he was one of the main drivers behind Stan ...if the Aviva doesn't pay off he could be on the way out...if the tickets weren't selling don't understand why they don't give out more of them out to schools at a reduced rate...... Agreed, saw the same lower attendances during the GAA Championship too...
I was in Jurys Croke Park for Italy match last year and there were these English Geezers there trying to sell the vantage club seats with Ray Houghton on behalf of the FAI (I presume they were International Stadia Group). I was sitting in the lobby all day and not one person seemed interested that was talking to them. I went over to see what the deal was and to say it was astronomical would be an understatetement. For the price of the tickets, even if you got all rugby matches and concerts, it would still not be worth it. Whoever came up with their strategy for selling them was off their head.
yeah my dad's business got approached about it, worked out at a few hundred per game per seat(cant remember exact figure but it was 250+) crazy stuff. I think the FAI's biggest problem was they took too long to organise how they would sell the tickets and missed the boat, the IRFU were selling theirs off the plans(2 years before the FAI started selling) and got most sold before the economy went tits up. Croke park has the same problem as their premium seats are sold in 10 year lots and alot of the companies are not reniewing them now due to the downturn.
If you knock €15 off the price your knocking approx 25% off the price of a ticket (spread out between Cat A and Cat B seats) with only an extra 20% of the ground being filled up (based on attendance at the Andorra game). My guess is the FAI will continue to concentrate on shifting the remaining seats at the current prices and hope for the best as reducing the ticket prices by that much would simply have an even more negative effect on their already battered finances.
They did ya but that was back in the day when 110% mortgages were still being handed out by the banks and the good times were a calling!
at the andorra match the other night they were advertising season tickets on the screen for 270 euro,that's for 7 games including russia. can't really argue with that,that's less than 40 euro a game.
I got my season ticket for €350 for nine games, €38.88 per game Not bad as would be €50 per game on game by game basis
Wouldn't be €50 mate, cos friendlies are €40 i got that letter too they dressed it up nice but not a whole lot of saving at all.. Think there are 6 friendlies and 3 competitive.
Food and drinks is nothing to do with the fai - thats for the people who have bought to sell inside the stadium, they rent their space there - they dont pay a % of what they get to tthe fai and the fai dont run their own restuarant type things in the stadium - itrs external caterers!
Didn't know that, but surely if the ground they would pay more rent if the ground is full os opposed to the last 2 games.. And can't see Russia game being any different if they are selling the Norway game with it,
I can see the fai reneging on their next installment and the rugger buggers offering them x amount for their stake in the ground and they'll accept it. Once again having to rent a ground for internationals on a long term lease.