A member of Dublin City Council has expressed concerns over St Patrick's Athletic's proposals to build a new 12,000-seater state-of-the-art stadium in Inchicore.
The League of Ireland club today revealed their plans for the development of an 'Richmond Arena' as part of a project that would include new houses, community facilities, a shopping complex and an underground car park.
Their proposal is to redevelop the council-owned St Michael's Estate site, just metres across the road from the club's current home Richmond Park.
St Pat's president Tom O'Mahony told RTÉ Sport: "It would be one of the few major stadia that have ever been built in this country that will not be asking for a penny in government grants. The stadium will be financed by the retail development."
However, Paul Hand, an Independent councillor for the area, suggested that the Saints were getting ahead of themselves and said he was wary that both club and community could be left "high and dry" if the plans came to nothing.
"I'm a very big St Patrick's Athletic supporter but when I heard about the plans this morning I was a bit concerned," Hand told RTÉ Sport.
Independent Dublin City Councillor Paul Hand voices his concerns over St Patrick's Athletic's proposals to build a new 12,000-seater stadium in Inchicore with @EvanneNiC pic.twitter.com/vVdoB20ZK4
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) April 11, 2018
"St Patrick's Athletic don't own the land. Dublin City council own the land so I don't understand how they're going to build a stadium on land they don't own.
"(The council) will possibly be putting the land out for tender in the coming months, for a proposal for housing and a new neighbourhood centre for the community in Inchicore.
"Dublin City Council haven't put a timeline on anything. If St Patrick's Athletic want to put something to the council, I'm sure they'll be more than welcome to but there isn't a timeline for any bids. There aren't any other active bids as far as I know.
"I'm very concerned about the plans St Patrick's Athletic are proposing, that the community could be left high and dry, and that the club could be left high and dry as well.
"You only have to look at what happened with Bohemians, when their proposed move to Harristown went under, and also 20 years ago, a similar proposal for St Patrick's Athletic fell through, so I'd be concerned that the exact same thing will happen again."
The proposed building, which would feature stadium facilities on the first floor above the retail space, has been designed by David Mizrahl, the lead architect with Santiago Calatrava on the Samuel Beckett and James Joyce bridges in Dublin.
Club president O’Mahony called the proposal "very strong" and said that he was hopeful they could be playing in the new stadium by 2022.
"Inchicore is crying out for regeneration and we are saying to Dublin City Council that we want to have the opportunity to do that," he said.
"Not only would we provide the housing that they want, and the state-of-the-art retail, parking, community facilities and so on, we would put our new stadium on top of the stadium.
"We think what we could bring to Inchicore would be a game-changer for the whole area.
"I'm sure there will be (other proposals) but we have an extremely strong proposal and it's backed by international architectural expertise, project management expertise and financial expertise. We feel very confident."
