'Time to build our legacy': Finn Harps to cast wide net to fund stadium project

Finn Harps Chairman Ian Harkin has said that the club's new stadium will represent a 'legacy' for future generations of Donegal footballers.

Harkin was speaking at a function in Dublin on Friday with the Donegal Dublin Business Network to drum up financial aid to the long-awaited stadium in Stranorlar.

Harkin has revealed that Harps will look to appoint a chief executive officer 'in the immediate future' as it now seeks to get roots firmly planted for the future.

Harkin said a CEO is vital as a lot of members are 'burned out operationally'.

“The club is about more than the first team and there is an awful lot of resources that can't keep being used on a voluntary basis,” Harkin told the event held in the Clubhouse Bar on the UCD campus.

With time ticking fast on Finn Park's ability to host League of Ireland football, Harps are in something of a race against time on a stadium project that has hit countless roadblocks since first being floated in late 2004.

“It is time to build our legacy,” Harkin said. “We have a chance to give kids in Donegal a future in elite sport.

“In the early press coverage, it was all 'ambitious', 'positive' and 'we deserve to be here. From the 80s on, it was been survival, but now we must be ambitious again. We have to get the foundations right and build from there.

“This really is a legacy project. There won't be many of these in a lifetime that you can contribute to.”

Former Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given, current Republic of Ireland international Tyler Toland and legendary Finn Harps captain Jim Sheridan – the captain of the 1974 FAI Cup-winning team – took part in a panel discussion with Virgin Media anchor and Annagry native Tommy Martin.

The event, essentially, was a plea for financial assistance to aid with the stadium project.

As Garrett Harte from the event sponsor Harte Media said: “There is an ask to put hands into pockets on a long-term basis.”

The new stadium, which will now be a modular build, will have a capacity of between 5,500 and 6,300.

With costs rising to €7.3 million and with funding of €5.8m in place, Harps have to plug the gap in their matched funding.

Harps have been awarded funding of €4.7m from the Large Scale Sporting Infrastructure Fund, €0.5m each from Donegal County Council and the FAI and has €0.1m remaining on a Sports Capital Grant.

A facility has also been secured from the Western Development Commission for €1 million, whereby the money into the project is paid up front and the repayments from the Council and the FAI go directly to them with Harps covering the interest.

Harps first team manager Darren Murphy attended the early part of the event before heading across campus for his team's First Division clash with UCD while Mark Scanlon, the League of Ireland Director, was also among the audience.

“We want the stadium to be debt free before we kick a ball in it,” Harkin said.

“It has to be community based and we also have to be able to make money from it.”

Naming rights will be up for grabs for the new stadium and its stands, the as-yet negotiable prices going from €5,000 to €60,000 per annum with minimum terms of five years.

Sports Body Tax Exemption status for the project means that eligible donations in excess of €250 can benefit from tax relief under the Charitable Donation Scheme.

Harps will, under that scheme, seek 100 patrons to contribute €1500 to help fund the purchase of the actual site in Stranorlar, which will cost in the region of €200,000.

Harps will continue to seek out high net worth individuals from Donegal regarding low interest or interest free loans.

Harkin said: “We have to be ambitious. We have to be bold. We have to be brave.”

The club is currently fielding ten teams, including under-17 and under-19 women's teams and they anticipate that this could – or, rather, should – rise to 20 in the near future.

“We have to plan strategically for that now,” the Chairman said.

The increased number of teams, Harps hope, will include a senior women's team, something Toland says “would really bring the county on a lot.”

Footage was shown of Harps' 3-1 win over St Patrick's Athletic in the '74 Cup final – a day that Sheridan still holds dear.

“The FAI Cup in those days was as big, if not bigger than the League,” he said. “I still look back fondly at that day.”

Sheridan was back at Finn Park for last week's 3-2 win over Longford Town and the Rathmullan native accepts that it's time for Harps to consign the rustic old venue on Navenny Street to memory.

He said: “I have a lot of memories of Finn Park and that will never change, but I want Finn Harps to continue. Finn Harps has to keep going and Finn Park can't be upgraded.”