On Friday the Royal Dublin Society and Leinster Rugby announced plans for their redevelopment of the RDS as a sporting venue capable of hosting 25,000 spectators.
The budget for the project is €20 million and the RIAI is overseeing an international architectural competition to design a replacement for the Anglesea Stand. Aura, led by Gar Holohan designed the upgrade that allowed Leinster to move from Donnybroook and establish their home bas over the past seven years.
It is a major development which will position Dublin strategically as a sporting hub with stadia of 82,000, 50,000 and 25,000 capacity within a 5 kilometre radius taking into account Croke Park, the Aviva Stadium and the RDS.
This expansion of the facilities is being undertaken by the RDS as landlord with the support of Leinster as a long term 20 year lease tenant.
Funding
The primary income will come through their rental but it is the RDS that will have ‘responsibility for the funding’ according to CEO Michael Duffy.
“The new development will lift us from a a capacity of 18,500 to 25,000 and that will benefit Leinster, the Horse Show and Dublin as a sporting city.”
“We are a Members’ Society but the decision making power is vested in the Executive and we will be managing the project and it’s funding.”
“We availed of €1.6 Million in a previous Sports Capital Grant from the Government and it may be that we will submit for further funding from that source.”
Naming Rights
“There is a plan to secure naming rights sponsorship which could be worth €15 Million over a ten year period.”
“We also have the long term tenancy of Leinster Rugby, which has been a great success and a real partnership since we first came together in 2005, and which gives us a stable income stream on which to base the next stage of our development.”
Private Sporting Bond
One area of funding which may prove attractive, if it were to be considered, is a private sporting bond, similar to that which raised £24.7 Million (€31 Million) from sports fans and private investors around the construction of new facilities at Cheltenham Racecourse in 2013.
Investors could put in a minimum of £2,000 and a maximum of £100,000 into the bond and gain a 4.75% yield together with an additional 3% value in sporting rewards. The value of the bond would be repaid in full over a fixed term period and provided a cheaper source of funding than provided by financial institutions.
The real attraction though is in the emotional ‘lock in’ it delivers for fans that will themselves benefit from a greater return than in a straight deposit account and who are invested in the development like never before.
The average investment for the Cheltenham project was just under £12,000 from a total of 2,100 private investors.
It is not too much of a stretch to imagine that within the membership of the RDS and the support base of Leinster Rugby alone, there would be sufficient demand to make this a genuine live funding option.
