The Commentary Box: Brendan Ogle hoping new owners will lobby for renovated Oriel

The chairman of the 1903 Dundalk FC supporters club Brendan Ogle is to step down at the forthcoming AGM.

Brendan told me at the weekend it is a natural progression. He says the job of establishing the supporters club is done. Committees in his eyes must be vibrant and not static. He says it’s time for a few new people to come on board.

Brendan is a Dundalk supporter through and through and has been attending Oriel since 1977, the year Jim McLoughlin won his first cup with the club.

He is a native of Dundalk and comes from the Marian Park area of the town. He now lives in Swords.
Brendan has had much more important battles to deal with when it comes to his own personal life. He revealed to Newstalk before Christmas that he was a Cancer survivor, having being diagnosed with throat cancer in July 2020.

But showing all the battling qualities that any Dundalk team would have, he thankfully got the all-clear before the end of last year. The Unite the Trade Union official has battled for the causes of many others. Thankfully this son of Dundalk won his greatest battle.

Brendan had 35 sessions of radiotherapy and intravenous chemotherapy. He was knocked for six. But thankfully it looks as if he has knocked the cancer for six as well.

There was more tragedy in Brendan’s life when a sister, who he was very close to, sadly passed away from brain cancer in February 2020. His mum died a month later from Covid. Brendan was diagnosed with throat cancer in July 2020. He lost another sister early in 2022.

Brendan was involved in the planning of the first player of the year night in Oriel since 2014, held at the end of last season. He also completed the Cross Cooley Challenge in aid of the North Louth Hospice after he got the all-clear.

Brendan says he hates cliques and wants change. That is why he wants new people getting involved in the supporters club. He says all in the club want it to be open and vibrant.

Ogle stressed the supporters club is now well established and has its constitution in place. He says they are involved in events such as Player of the Month and Player of the Year awards. They also have the crossbar challenge at half time at every home game and are involved in various charitable activities.

The Dundalk man says his supporters committee are the best people he has ever worked with in any part of his life. He says with the AGM of the supporters club, due to be held shortly, he feels it’s time for him to move on.

Brendan says there will be a number of places available on the committee and that’s the way it should be. He pointed out that as far back as only a couple of years ago, there were few if any people from Dundalk involved in the running of the club.

There seemed to be a purge of people from the community. The Dundalk fan base he says did not like it. Overall there is a view that this was wrong. But he believes the club is now back in local ownership and there has been a strong supporters club for some time.

Ogle exclaimed that Dundalk is a special town, that has a special club. He says there is no other club in Ireland like it when the people from the town and surrounding areas are behind it.

Brendan agreed that the support the club is getting at the moment and the interest in it has never been as good. Long may that continue.

He says the supporters club is not about a person. He says it’s about a committee and the supporters club committee was the best one he ever worked with.

The main body of work within the supporters club in his eyes has been done by others. He says at best, all he has been doing is chairing meetings. He says what’s needed for the committee are any new people to come along where vacancies exist.

He knows these people exist to fill positions in Dundalk, as they love the club. The chairman says the supporters club is going to grow. He is looking forward to seeing this as a member.

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Supporters Woes

Brendan says he has been reading about concerns over the pace of signings at the football club. He says with his fan hat on that of course he would be concerned. Supporters would like to see a full squad returning to pre-season training.

The club did not have that last season, with the manager Stephen O’Donnell only arriving in December. Despite all that, he says the manager put out a fabulous team that went on to qualify for Europe.

Ogle thinks the club are not ahead of the game at this stage of the season. Looking and reading about Shamrock Rovers and

Derry City, he says the advantages they have are not only financial which are important, but also in terms of ground issues.
He says the stability which they have around their clubs sees both playing in grounds technically provided by governments, for relatively nominal rates.

Brendan says Derry and Shamrock Rovers do not have to worry about the concerns that other League of Ireland clubs must deal with, including Dundalk. It is clearly not an even playing pitch at all.

Dundalk is a town forgotten in many ways. He feels the club is ignored in many ways also, by the FAI and also from central government. But he says it’s very hard to ignore Dundalk when they take to the pitch.

New Stadium

The trade unionist stated the challenges the owners of Dundalk face should not be underestimated. Brendan does say he is a bit disappointed that the owners do not have a plan yet for the development of Oriel Park.

He says this as someone who has been going to the Carrick Road venue for a long time. To be clear, Ogle has always said it’s not the job of any owner, either past, present or any future owner, to gift a new football stadium to Dundalk.

But Brendan is emphatic when he stresses that a new plan should be in place by the owners and that a campaign must be mounted with community support. He says this is where the supporters and the supporters' club come into their own.

He does not think there is any other club that could garner support with such a scale and with such a huge passion to deliver a project to give their club the ground they deserve.

Brendan says all of this must start with leadership. He says there was no leadership from Peak6 or from previous owners either. He would like to see the leadership coming from the new owners sooner rather than later.

And that’s not to say the new owners should put their hands in their pockets to fund any campaign. But he says the club must come up with a plan first and then the community and supporters will get behind it.

Brendan feels this then must be put up to central government, to the FAI and to the local authorities. All politicians who are going to run on any ballot paper in the area, be it a general or local elections, must be lobbied to push for a new stadium for Dundalk.

Ogle stressed that if it true that clubs like Sligo Rovers and Bohemians are able to offer more money for players, this is very worrying. But he says he is not aware of any of the details in the reports.

Brendan says Dundalk are trailing behind Derry City and Shamrock Rovers financially. He says Derry also have the advantage with the Sterling. But Dundalk should be competing for players with clubs like Sligo Rovers and Bohemians.

He admitted that north-west Sligo is a well-run family club. Bohemians too are an excellent club. But Dundalk should be able to get players if there is any competition with either of those teams.

The Owners

Ogle revealed that contact between the supporters’ club and Peak6 was quite frequent, but most definitely lacked in deliverance. That contact with the new owners has never been a problem.

He revealed they reached out to the supporters’ club almost immediately after the takeover via Martin Connolly. Brendan was in Spain when he got the call from Martin about what was about to go down.

He says the owners can’t be criticised over lack of contact. They cooperated with the Supporters club on the Crossbar Challenge, the Player of the month and the players Awards Night.

Brendan says he does believe the owners could communicate a bit more at ownership level with the fans themselves. He said he does not just mean at supporters’ club level, but to all fans.

He believes it should be at least two or three times a season that they communicate with fans. It needs to be some sort of contact with the fans on strategic issues. Ironically, he says there was too much of that with Peak6.

Brendan confirmed he has no doubt that Dundalk FC are in very safe hands. He says the owners are forward thinking, logical and rational people who know what they are doing.

He knows this, as he has met the owners. But the fan base might not know that, as they have not met them, and this maybe is a lost opportunity.

Government Funding

Brendan says local politicians are not going to do anything on their own about getting a new stadium. The leadership must come from the Club owners with a plan. The club must then engage the fan base and the community.

When this happens, then the politicians are approached. He says when the politicians see the broad support from the community, they will jump on board and support the project for the redevelopment of Oriel.

The Unite the Union Official is not in favour of the Louth GAA model of getting a stadium. This involved 38 businessmen donating €400,000 each in return for a period of residency in Ireland.

The money raised is being put into the development of the new County grounds near DKIT. Brendan says there should be a municipal stadium developed at Oriel, as there should be at other League of Ireland grounds.

Brendan says a town the size of Dundalk does not need two stadiums. What is needed are municipal stadiums in towns like Dundalk, Sligo, Waterford, Galway, Athlone and other towns. They should be be funded by the government.

These municipal stadiums are then utilised by the football clubs. Brendan says that’s the model that would work and would do so for everybody. The grounds would be a state asset, which would yield revenue by all groups who use them.

He says that this type of stadium is what Derry City and Shamrock Rovers have. Brendan rightly points out it’s no coincidence that Shamrock Rovers and Derry were first and second in the league last season.

He does also wonder if these municipal stadiums will ever happen when there are much bigger national priorities, such as our current health system. With that in mind, maybe it’s unlikely a municipal stadium will happen.

But he adds just because it’s unlikely to happen does not mean it will not happen. No Father Christmas will come along in a town the size of Dundalk to build a ground.

Brendan repeats the football club must come up with a plan. They need to put a time scale on it for it to be realistic, for it to be costed and to get buy in from the supporters club and the fan base. Then the community are brought in.

Brendan says he loves Oriel Park. It’s the closest thing he can call home, as his own family house in Marian Park no longer exists. He says when he walks into Oriel, the feeling he gets is that he is home.

He says his home no longer has a stand at the back of Joe’s field and the shed is also much smaller now than it was in 1977. Brendan says he has not or never will slag off Oriel. He will leave that to supporters of other clubs.

Final Thoughts

Ogle is keeping a lot better since he overcame his battle with cancer. He goes away on holidays more than he did. He took himself off to Argentina in December during the World Cup. It was an experience of a lifetime.

He was in the capital Buenos Aires. When he and his wife arrived, Argentina had just lost against Saudi Arabia.
The atmosphere vastly improved as the country progressed through the competition. He was there when they won the World Cup.

Their flight home was delayed for 24 hours. The bonus was they saw the World Cup holders return home and saw the victory parade through the streets of the Argentinian capital.

Ogle was very aware that he has returned to a country where there is a lot of sickness and where people are struggling.
Having gone through so much I’m delighted for Brendan that he is getting his life back.

To see Dundalk qualify for Europe and Argentina’s World Cup homecoming must have been so up lifting. Take care of yourselves. Remember to please be careful out there.