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Crues unveil £32million joint venture
Features - Author: Administrator (Posted 1 year, 3 months, 1 week, 3 days, 31 minutes ago)

MOVING HOME: Crusaders and Newington hope to share a new £35m all-seater stadium in North Belfast
By Maxie Swain, first published September 2008
We've been here before surely.
A multi-million pound, multi-purpose, cross-community sports stadium designed to alleviate Northern Ireland's entrenched society.
Yes, we have. But unlike the increasingly fractious and cumbersome Maze debate, Crusaders' and Newington's 'shared stadium' proposals, revealed before the world yesterday, makes sound business sense, commands the approval of all involved and may well become a reality.
Yesterday morning, before a packed and expectant conference room, the two clubs unveiled their ambitious new plans to share a base in north Belfast.
Costing in the region of £35million, two sites have been identified for the new development; one a stone's throw from the Crues' Shore Road home they share with tenants Newington; the other a little further afield, a few miles away at the Valley Park on the outskirts of north Belfast.
Underpinning the whole ideal is the concept of a 'shared future'. The project, although specifically spawned to
accommodate both football clubs, is to have much broader appeal.
It is to be an icon of integration, a symbol of cross-community unity in the most divided and demarcated region of Belfast.
And besides, with Crusaders' old and crumbling Seaview home barely fit for purpose alongside emergent Newington's desire for a base of their own, both clubs could do with a new ground.
"This is a fantastic, ambitious, visionary project but it is grounded in sound financial and hard-headed business acumen," said Crusaders manager Stephen Baxter.
"We are unashamedly ambitious, but without this sort of ambition, commitment and faith, the local game can only face terminal decline."
Newington manager Eamonn McCarthy added: "Our involvement in this project points the way to a brighter future – on the field and within our communities.
"Both Newington and Crusaders have deep roots in the communities across north Belfast and Newtownabbey.
"We will use this strength to manage one of the few potential shared spaces in the urban area."
And it's not a utopian ideal either.
At yesterday's highly impressive launch, a vast – sometimes tiresome – array of experts, businessmen, politicians and academics pointed to the reasons why the venture could not fail.
At the heart of their business plan is the admission that 'sport does not pay', and certainly not football in Northern Ireland.
Beside the oil-rich oligarchs and billionaire magnates who dominate the game across the water, the Irish League football landscape pales significantly.
So to sustain such a costly, innovative and visionary stadium, the figures need to add up.
As such, the new stadium is more akin to a football pitch located in the heart of a business complex.
With up to 140,000 sq ft of office space, more than 80 per cent of the new stadium's revenue streams are to come from business, rental and letting opportunities.
The business plan also anticipates accommodating a new Sports Science faculty for a major educational institution in Belfast.
Bars, restaurants, alongside the potential for a cineplex and hotel, will also generate income as will the hosting of other sports, namely rugby and Gaelic, plus non-sporting events such as concerts and conferences.
Beyond the stadium, which can expand to accommodate up to 8,000 seated spectators, the proposals include a 3G training pitch and 10 five-a-side pitches housed inside a futuristic sports dome.
Naturally, the new ground will meet all the relevant criteria in relation to UEFA's European licence, with state-of-the-art floodlighting, press facilities and more than 600 car parking spaces.
In assessing the viability of the new shared stadium, the Crusaders FC and Newington FC Working Group visited examples of similar small but self-sustaining stadia such as Hamilton Academicals home ground and Dartford FC's award-winning stadium and concluded their proposals, although ambitious, not only stood up to scrutiny but made perfect economic sense.