LIMERICK FC chairman Pat O’Sullivan has said he is “absolutely” confident that the club’s long-awaited return to the Markets Field will happen in the next six months.
The club’s owner was definitive in his belief that the stadium will be ready for the first league game of the 2015 season next March, with the Super Blues having played home games in Thomond Park since returning to the Premier Division last year.
When asked if he was confident that the redevelopment of the club’s former home will be complete by March, Mr O’Sullivan replied: “Absolutely”. He added: “The Markets Field has been bought for senior soccer. The government has made the funding available for it.
“We’re in co-operation and working with the people whose job it is to bring it to a point where it is acceptable for us, so there’s no reason for it not to happen. Frankly, senior soccer needs it, because we all fully accept that [Thomond Park] is very big and it is difficult.”
Mr O’Sullivan is hopeful that a formal announcement can be made prior to Limerick’s last home game of the current campaign against Sligo Rovers on Friday October 17.
He also revealed that, after promotion in 2012 and with the club then based at Jackman Park, which was unsuitable for top division football, Limerick may have been forced to play ‘home’ games outside of the city.
That didn’t come to pass as Thomond Park was made available to the club, although the sparsity of attendances against the costs of using the stadium has led to the move being a loss-maker for Limerick FC’s finances.
The chairman said: “The alternative for us, when we look back on it, was to play our games in Galway or play all of our games away from home. It might have been cheaper to do that, frankly, because you can’t live here and I’ve been carrying that financial cost. It’s not sustainable.
“From an economic perspective for the sustainability of the club, the Markets Field needs to happen and it needs to happen to a commercially satisfactorily structure for Limerick FC.”
Among the requirements for a Premier Division venue in Ireland are a minimum capacity of 1,500 and a specific area for away supporters. Mr O’Sullivan confirmed that representatives from the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) have visited the Markets Field within the last six weeks and have also been in regular contact with the Limerick Enterprise Development Partnership.
