One of the international consortiums in the running to build Sports Campus Ireland at Abbotstown, Co Dublin, has pulled out because of uncertainty hanging over the project, The Irish Times has confirmed.
The French consortium Vinci-Bouygues has informed Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd (CSID), the State company overseeing the project, that it will not be making an outline bid. No reason was given, according to a CSID spokesman.
The withdrawal of Vinci-Bouygues, which built the Stade de France in Paris, comes as a blow, particularly as it had lined up Mr Richard Rogers to design Stadium Ireland and Mr Nicholas Grimshaw, another noted British architect, for the multipurpose arena.
It is understood that Vinci, one of the biggest contractors in France with 70,000 employees worldwide, withdrew because it saw the Abbotstown project as too risky and was not prepared to invest up to £1 million in progressing an outline bid.
This follows a series of workshops for the bidders in Dublin last week at which CSID provided whatever clarifications they required to submit outline bids by June 21st. These meetings were described as "constructive" by CSID's spokesman.
Just two weeks ago he said it had "no indication that anyone wants to pull out" as a result of the Government's decision to commission an independent review of the project.
Of the five remaining in the race, only four are making bids for the entire project. These include two Australian consortiums, one headed by Bovis Land Lease and the other by Multiplex, which developed Stadium Australia for the Sydney Olympics.
The others are the Walter Group, a leading German construction and concession company, and US-based SFX, one of the world's largest venue operators. The fifth competitor, Dublin International Arena Ltd, is only interested in bidding for the arena.
Several of the bidders already have major construction projects on hand and are well aware that their bids for Abbostown are being made on an "at risk" basis. CSID's proposed contract also stresses that any cost over-runs will fall to the successful bidder.
Mr Paddy Teahon, the company's chairman, said on RTE radio this week that it hoped to secure "a specific Government decision" on Sports Campus Ireland in July, based on the figures contained in the outline bids. But this seems unlikely until the review is completed.
According to one source involved in the process, the bidding "should have been put on hold until the outcome of the review". But it seemed that the Government was relying on the figures that emerged to inform the review by consultants, who have yet to be appointed.
