THE COMPARISON WAS easy and the contrast stark.
On Wednesday morning, St Patrick’s Athletic pinned a message to their social media account X informing supporters that tonight’s Dublin derby with Shamrock Rovers was sold out.
Richmond Park will be packed as the champions arrive looking to make it four wins on the spin and stay on the coat-tails of leaders Shelbourne. For Pat’s, four points from two games over Easter means they’re just two points off second place after a disjointed start to the campaign.
As the first round of fixtures nears an end for most in the Premier Division, momentum continues.
It will be the second time this season that more than 5,000 people will be in Inchicore under the Friday night lights.
That milestone was reached back in February when Bohemians snatched a late 1-0 win in front of 5,013, while the subsequent visits of Dundalk, Shelbourne and the 3-0 victory over second-placed Sligo Rovers on Easter Monday have seen a total of 18,337 come through the turnstiles.
It almost feels at the point of lethargy to be once again discussing the positive attendances, especially as we’re fresh off the back of over 10,000 seeing Rovers beat Bohs at Tallaght Stadium even when the fixture was live on RTÉ on Good Friday.
But this startling progress and apparent culture shift should not be taken for granted or ignored.
Nor should the struggles that persist for clubs fighting a different kind of battle.
Later, on the same evening that St Pat’s hung up the sold-out sign, Finn Harps informed supporters that its First Division game with UCD had to be brought forward by almost three hours due to their floodlights not passing a consultation check.
In isolation, this could be an issue easily palmed off or brushed under the carpet.
“It continues to be a huge challenge to ensure the facilities at Finn Park meet licencing criteria and we are very grateful to our volunteers and local tradespeople for their ongoing efforts. This regrettable situation is further evidence that the move to a new stadium is vital for the survival of the club,” the club said in a statement.
In February, commercial officer Aidan Campbell put it in even starker terms at a press conference ahead of the First Divison season getting underway.
“If we don’t get a new stadium, there’ll be no Finn Harps,” he said.
“We’ve looked at various options in the construction of the stadium and as we all know there’s been delays over the past 12 or 13 years and people are starting to get a little bit battle-weary hearing about it. But the future of the club relies on this development.”
Considering that their new stadium in Stranorlar has been in the pipeline since 2007, with work beginning the following year and then suffering from a series of delays for a variety of reasons, it beggars belief that matters have reached this point.
They explained the situation, and the strain, further in that statement.
“There have been several issues with floodlights at Finn Park in recent years and the club has not been in a position to access the grant for an LED system but continue to pursue this avenue. The club ordered and paid for components before the season, but were informed late on that the order could not be fulfilled,” it read.
“Further efforts to source the needed components saw a delivery today (Wednesday), but the wrong type was sent to us meaning the test this evening was failed.”
It was reported locally last September that €700,000 needed to be raised by the club to match grant funding of €3.991 million that was awarded as part of the Large-Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
It has been detailed how the total amount which the Donegal club need to provide for the matching funding share is €1.2m, and that according to Donegal Live, “Harps have secured a facility from a subcontractor for €0.5m allowing repayments on their final installed payment over 10 years.”
And yet, if matters persist as they are it is clear that people at Finn Harps know they will lose their club during that time, especially as part of the reason why the floodlight issue is such a burden now is that Harps – like others you can be sure – are throwing good money at old, antiquated systems in a bid to simply keep the show on the road.
