Revamped Thomond Park hoping to break even as revenue rises by 30%

THE COMPANY that operates the €40 million Thomond Park stadium in Limerick expects to break even on a cash-flow basis this financial year after increasing revenues by 30 per cent to €2.6 million.

Stadium director, John Cantwell also confirmed yesterday that the company, Thomond Park Stadium Co (TPSC) Ltd expects to make a bottom-line profit within five years.

Mr Cantwell was commenting on abridged accounts recently returned to the Companies Office, which show that the company made an after-tax loss of €1.3 million in the first year of its operation to the end of June last.

Mr Cantwell said the €1.3 million loss was due to a depreciation charge of €1 million and bridging interest of €345,000.

“This is in line with our projections for the year. It was a very good performance considering the (revamped) stadium only opened in October 2008 so was only generating income for nine of the 12 months.”

The company recorded revenues of €2 million last year.

The award-winning home of the Munster rugby team has a capacity of 26,000 and Mr Cantwell said TPSC was “happy” with its performance to date.

“Following an intensive initial nine-month opening period to end of June 2009, the company has continued to grow its business base with both match and public events and non-match banqueting and conferencing activities performing strongly,” he said.

Thomond Park is worth €80 million – €90 million per annum in spin-off value to the local community, he said.

Mr Cantwell said that during the first 12 months of operation, the stadium staged four Heineken Cup games, two concerts by Elton John and Rod Stewart, six Magners League games and two international soccer matches.

“This year will deliver further economic benefits to Limerick with events such as Barbarians versus Ireland match and Special Olympics Opening Ceremony adding to the impacts gained from Munster Rugby and concert events.”

The stadium will host concerts by Bob Dylan and Pink this summer, while last night the Cranberries played there as part of the Special Olympics celebrations.

Mr Cantwell said the growth in revenues to € 2.6 million projected to the end of June this year “demonstrates solid performance levels”.

The highlight of the stadium’s first year of operations was its official opening event, when Munster played the All-Blacks.