NEWS OF Galway United's financial travail is depressing. A nice club, trying hard to improve their facilities against huge odds, they fight the good fight in one of the remotest outposts of the European game, never mind the Irish one. Which makes their survival all the more imperative.
Tonight's League Cup final first leg in Terryland Park, therefore, offers Galway a temporary, but invaluable lifeline. It is an unexpected bonus, one of the few that has come their way this season, which ought to yield their biggest crowd of the season.
Relegation has hit the club hard, First Division fare barely generating one-third the level of local interest which existed during their unsuccessful Premier Division relegation fight last season.
Average gate receipts have dipped from around £2,000 to £600.
Having generated half their annual costs of £150,000 through local businesses and sponsorship, the club had anticipated that the other half would come from gate receipts. It was, as their commercial manager and National League management committee representative, Phonsie Nagle, admitted, a ted, a "calculated risk", based upon the premise that a winning side would generate more interest to justify the estimated attendance. He also accepts "it has really backfired".
It's not the first time a National League club has seen such a gamble backfire, and it probably won't be the last.
Given the recent announcement of their serious financial difficulties - they are servicing a club debt of about £70,000 and money is due for the development of Terryland Park - some will also question the club's decision to strengthen their squad in the close-season with the addition of the prodigal Noel Mernagh and Peter Carpenter from St Patrick's Athletic, as well as Martin Lawlor Brian Irwin and Eddie Van Boxtel.
Added to which was the relatively small, yet questionable decision to go public about their problems prior to an away game, rather than a home one.
Yet it's hard to be too critical of well-meaning administrators at clubs where the odds are more heavily stacked against them than elsewhere, for in every case the commitment involved invariably costs them time and money.
Nagle defends the director's policy, maintaining they are one of the more prudent boards around.
It's very easy to be analytical about what way a club should be run from the outside, but the actual nuts and bolts of running a club on a week-to-week basis are something else. The game lacks money. At Terryland we've a good pavilion and dressing-rooms, a fabulous pitch, but we can't provide covered seating for the fans.
"You know what it's like here in the depths of winter, but to provide the kind of proper facilities that are required is a major development. We're on the edge of Europe, as well as Ireland, mentally and philosophically. We need help from everyone. It's a lonely battle.
Indeed, the commitment to upgrading Terryland Park has been a significant factor in the club's difficulties, which Nagle points outs have been there behind the scenes for the last year to 15 months. "It's a delicate and difficult balancing act, developing a team, developing a ground and developing a club."
The players have agreed to some reduction in their wages to help ease some of the club's severe cash-flow problems. Supplementing the regular attendance and support the Minister for the Gaeltacht, Michael D Higgins, has given for some years, there have been emotive appeals for support, relayed free of charge by Galway Bay FM, from the Mayor of Galway, John Mulholland, international rugby player Eric Elwood and Olympic oarsman Neville Maxwell.
There is clearly a well of goodwill towards one of the league's most popular clubs, but it needs to be tangible and needs more than a begging-bowl mentality.
Worryingly, last Saturday's gate receipts of £1,700 did not meet the club's minimum target. To do that, they'd need almost double the attendance of 800. If they don't get that, and more, tonight then Galway would seem to be in trouble.
Tonight, then, is more than a game for United.
