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ROCK LEGENDS AC/DC and a host of large sports events helped the company behind the Aviva Stadium make an operating profit of almost €4 million last year.
According to accounts filed by New Stadium, which officially ‘owns’ the venue, the company made an operating profit of €3.6 million for the financial year ended 31 December 2015.
New Stadium, a special purpose vehicle created to manage the arena, is jointly owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The venture has a 60-year lease on the stadium.
The company’s directors report stated that 2015 “saw a programme of 16 events which attracted almost 600,000 customers to the Aviva Stadium”.
Events
It noted that several football events were held at the 52,000 capacity stadium including the FAI cup final and the FAI women’s senior cup final.
Perhaps most memorably the Aviva hosted Ireland’s home Euro 2016 qualifying matches during the year, which included a famous 1-0 win over world champions Germany.
The venue was also graced by Australian rock legends AC/DC, who played to a sell-out crowd in July of last year.
The stadium’s €3.6 million operating profit was down slightly on the €4.6 million recorded in 2014, when the venue played host to 20 events which attracted a total of almost 650,000 customers.
The director’s report stated that the “increased cost base is due to the increase in our commercial rates liability”.
A spokesman for the Aviva said that the stadium “usually has 19 (or) 20 major events, in 2015 we had 16″.
“We saw an increase in conferences and non-match day events and hope to see continued growth in that area,” he said.
The company also received €4.1m in government grants, the same as in 2014 and 2013.
The company also saw its wage bill drop slightly, from €1.33 million to €1.26 million as the average number of full and part time staff employed by the company during the year dropped from 27 to 24.
Flexibility
Despite this, New Stadium incurred a full-year loss of €3.3 million, up slightly from the €2.7 million recorded in 2014.
However, this paper loss was almost entirely due to the depreciation in value of the stadium itself, which is now valued at €351 million compared to €361 million in 2014.
The director’s report said that the company traded in line with expectations, and said that it is aiming to ensure that its conferencing and events business “is as successful as possible”.
It added: “The stadium has demonstrated great flexibility in coping with a busy event schedule in 2015. The stadium company is committed to attracting high quality sporting and non-sporting events”.
In 2009, the Aviva insurance group signed a 10-year deal for naming rights of the stadium, which replaced the old Lansdowne Road and was officially opened in 2010.
Written by Paul O’Donoghue and posted on Fora.ie
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PA, WI and MI all still need to be counted correctly also…
@Eddie: They are.
@Tricia G: oh they are not counted “Correctly”
@Eddie: Evidence? Not some randomer YouTube or twitter or partisan news outlet, but actual independently verifiable evidence
oh and don’t forget Nevada also…
Recount them with an “independently verifiable” source and then we can all go back to worrying about the China flu.
@Eddie: well said
@Eddie: “Correctly” means showing a win for Trump despite him having fewer votes, right?
@Eddie: sure why not recount all 50 states just to be extra sure. How do we even know for certain Florida is correct.
@Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa: Correctly mean counting the legal votes and destroying illegal/invalid votes. If that means Trump getting more Electoral College votes then so be it…
@ED209: ah it’s only the states with Democratic Governors that appear to have “irregularities”.
It Biden was/is concened about the count in other states then he is quite rightly allowed to go through that states process to get a recount.
@Eddie: you’re gonna miss trump but you’ll get over it…. I hope.
@Eddie: Lol! this is awesome. Get ‘em Eddie
@Eddie: You know he’s lost. This isn’t a few hundred votes that you need to scam. This is thousands in multiple states and with the added democratic mandate of a huge victory in the popular vote. Nobody is arguing against a recount in a close call but the game of pretending that postal votes don’t count or are fraudulant is going nowhere and you know it. Your boy told us this was his plan – attack mail in votes before the election and then claim it is a scam afterwards. No one is buying it, not even Fox News.
@thesaltyurchin: :)
@Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa: Electoral College is there to stop elections been won by the “popular” vote… so no need to keep referring to it… it’s irrelevant.
Actually – wonder what’s going on with Fox News lately – they must be all on the piss with Alex Jones…
Anyways – only hanging around today to see what the craic is with our own
dodgy crew… has #Count5Leo resigned yet?
@Eddie: But by that reconning couldn’t the same logic be said about those states that have Republican Governors. How can you trust them that they have no irregularities and aren’t trying to swing the election?
Arizona and Georgia are gone blue this year, Alaska will stay red, North Carolina should have been called for Trump already.
Georgia will go to a recount either way, it’s within the margin of being a legit recount
There is no excuse for Arizona it should have been called long before now. Not good seeing people still standing around with guns it’s very intimidating for people living and working there.
@Joe Johnson: ‘mercaw. Land of the free… just like Iran. Lol
@Joe Johnson: Fox called it very early for biden.
We could be in for a few eye openers yet
@WreckDefier: not really. Biden is 45k ahead in Penn. He has over 270 with that. No recount will change 45k votes, nor will all the cries of voter fraud with evidence change it. Trump could win all the other states but he’d still lose
@Ger: The problem is trump and his supporters are getting a dose of reality. The actual courts of law in real life require verifiable proof. It’s not their little fox news bubble where you can just shout voter fraud and judge jeanine will nod and agree with you.
@WreckDefier: red car or blue car… either way the milky bar gets eaten.
Whether its Biden or Trump, the fact the winner has already been declared, as mentioned in the article, ‘by several media outlets’ should be worrying. As unlikeable Trump is, the fact is he and his team are entitled to challenge various aspects and counts of the election. Just as Al Gore did in 2000, and Jill Stein did in 2016. Allowing the media or anyone else just declare the winner without going through the proper procedure is not a practice I think will serve the US public in the long run. Fine, now its to the benefit of a popular left-leaning candidate who’s victory will end the presidency of someone many dislike but next time it might be the opposite. Or maybe next time the media will not be as friendly to a candidate preferred by progressive voters. Come December, after Trump (or Biden in other contested states) have their say in court, the institutions that have allowed the one of world’s oldest and most powerful democracies to continue its smooth transfer of power will continue and as long as people have faith in these institutions it will continue for generation to come.
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