The League of Ireland is expanding at a pace not seen in decades. Attendances exceeded the one million mark in 2024, clubs are selling out weeks in advance and domestic football has finally re-established itself in Irish sporting culture.
Yet while the league grows, the stadiums around it continue to decay. Across the country, major redevelopment plans are stuck in planning or funding cycles and many clubs rely on short-term upgrades rather than long-term investment.
The ambition exists, but the structures that govern planning and public funding move too slowly for the modern game.
Dalymount Park remains the clearest example of stalled delivery. Dublin City Council bought the ground in 2015 for €3.8 million with a €20 million redevelopment planned. By 2022 the estimate had risen to €40 million. In 2025 councillors were told the total had climbed to €63.75 million.
Government, UEFA and council contributions total about €29 million, leaving a €34 million gap. The council has approved borrowing the shortfall over 30 years from 2027.
Key milestones show the delay:
2015 - Ground purchased
2016 - €20m plan announced
2022 - €40m estimate
2024 - Planning approved
2025 - Costs reach €63.75m
2026 to 2027 - Construction expected to begin
2028 to 2029 - Stadium projected to open
More than a decade will have passed before a redeveloped Dalymount is delivered. Councillors were also told that reaching UEFA group-stage standards would require further redesign and extra cost.
Similar patterns appear across the island.
At Oriel Park, ownership is split between the Casey Family Trust, which owns the land, and Dundalk Town FC Ltd, which owns the stadium buildings. This prevents Dundalk from borrowing against the ground or accessing major state funding programmes that favour publicly-owned facilities.
Urgent works can move quickly, such as the 2025 pitch and floodlight upgrades that followed the raising of €100,000 by the Dundalk FC Supporters Trust, but a full rebuild remains unrealistic without unified ownership or council involvement.
In Derry, the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium added a North Stand and secured a long lease, yet phase two stalled when the club missed out on the first round of Northern Ireland Football Fund allocations in 2025.
Finn Harps have faced one of the longest stadium delays in Irish football. Their proposed new stadium in Stranorlar has been redesigned repeatedly. Updated modular plans and increased funding support have kept the project alive, but construction has not resumed. Harps remain at Finn Park awaiting the next phase.
These cases highlight a national issue. Stadiums remain stuck between ownership structures, planning requirements and funding systems that rarely align.
The Financial Cost of Outdated Grounds
The consequences are financial as well as structural. Modern European stadiums generate significant non-matchday income through hospitality, conferencing and premium seating. Scandinavian clubs often earn between a quarter and two-fifths of their revenue from their grounds.
Most League of Ireland clubs are far below that level because their stadiums cannot support commercial activity. Tallaght Stadium shows what is possible. Its redevelopment has allowed South Dublin County Council and Shamrock Rovers to host international fixtures, major events and concerts, creating meaningful non-football income. Few other LOI venues have the facilities to replicate this.
Why European Nights Move Elsewhere
UEFA's standards for Champions League, Europa League and Conference League fixtures remain strict. Requirements cover seating, lighting, pitch dimensions, media facilities, broadcast infrastructure, VAR space and dressing rooms. Only Tallaght Stadium comfortably meets these criteria among regular League of Ireland grounds.
Even a redeveloped Dalymount will fall short of the highest UEFA thresholds due to terracing and cost-driven design choices. As a result, Irish clubs often move European matches to Tallaght or the Aviva Stadium, losing home advantage and valuable revenue.
Why Irish Stadiums Stall and How Others Build Faster
Stadium projects in Ireland pass through separate regulatory layers such as planning, environmental and heritage assessments, consultations, procurement rules and capital-funding applications. These processes rarely run together. Projects often pause for months while waiting for one stage to end before another can begin. When designs change or costs rise, planning amendments can restart large parts of the cycle.
Other countries offer clearer pathways. In Scotland, club ownership allows redevelopment to proceed within set timelines. Denmark uses predictable multi-year funding cycles and aligned planning decisions. Norway combines streamlined planning rules with long-term leases that encourage private investment. Twelve top-flight grounds there have been rebuilt or redeveloped since 2000. Ireland has not matched this pace.
What Must Change for Irish Football to Grow
The need for three key reforms recur across Government, FAI and local authority reports on stadium projects: a predictable multi-year stadium fund, a defined planning pathway for sports infrastructure and long-term tenure or ownership that allows clubs to raise capital and invest.
Without these changes, the league’s infrastructure challenges will persist.
The League of Ireland has the crowds, momentum and talent to grow significantly. But its progress will remain limited by outdated stadiums and slow delivery systems.
Modern football cannot grow without modern grounds. Until Ireland builds at the pace the league now requires, the ceiling will be set not by sporting ambition but by concrete, planning paperwork and a system that cannot keep up.
