However, there is a sting in the tale - in quite a typical fashion of how things work in the Irish League. Crusaders of North Belfast, are proposing and taking legal action to block this funding as it will give Linfield, the owners of the stadium, an unfair advantage over the rest of the league.
I've two points to make about this; one is about simple business agreements and one is about the total hypocrisy of the situation;
Firstly there is a business agreement between Linfield & the IFA that for senior international games the Northern Ireland team will use Linfield's Windsor Park as their home ground in exchange for a financial benefit towards Linfield - this is usually referred to as simply, 'the contract.'
Under the terms of the contract it used to be that Linfield would receive a cut of the income on any senior international game played at Windsor Park involving Northern Ireland - the contact had an absurd length of, I think, 90 odd years - I'm not going to bother to check as this contract doesn't actually exist anymore. Now Linfield receives a lump sum regardless of income on matchdays.
As a Glentoran supporter I was never particularly happy with this arrangement but it is a legitimate business agreement and it was open to all clubs during the drafting stage - Linfield won the contract as they had the most suitable stadium and since then they've had a massive financial benefit from it. I say well done them and to hell with the IFA for giving out such a stupid agreement.
Now, I'm not exactly a supporter of state funding but that isn't what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to discuss what has been put in front of us. The IFA has secured funding for the stadium to bring it into the 21st century in terms of being a British & Irish football stadium - whether you agree or disagree with how this has gone about - it what is meant to be happening.
Linfield will still receive a lump sum and Linfield will still bring the low attendances the rest of the league does - albeit they're still the best supported club in Northern Ireland. If anything I can see it being of disadvantage to Linfield on the most part as their empty stadium with no atmosphere becomes even more empty with even more no atmosphere - this will not play well into the hands of those who wish to recreate the days of packed Linfield games with a buzzing crowd behind the team.
Regardless, I really can't see any benefit to Linfield in all of this.
The second argument is the more important one and that is the sheer hypocrisy of Crusaders in all of this. I'm a Glentoran fan as I already mentioned so it takes a huge amount of pride to back the Blues up on this one - however I'm not too fond of our North Belfast neighbors either so it's not so bad.
Crusaders have had 3/4 of their stadium pretty much rebuilt from state funding. The new cage end which is now an all seater and the behind the net terracing which is now two new stands. This has had a serious bearing on the attractiveness of the modern fan to Seaview. They can now sit in what is, by all accounts, not dangerous anymore. While this hasn't exactly sent Crusaders flying in terms of their attendance figures which reach just about 15 instead of 10 now - it still gives them what many could consider a major advantage over other clubs, especially those in the Greater Belfast area.
Of course Crusaders fans in their infinite wisdom have decided to completely dodge this point and instead continue to yap and gurn about how the world is against them - seems they can't do 2nd place syndrome the same way the Glens handled it when we were a decent side.
Time will tell how this all plays out. The Crues want some kind of compromise for other Irish League sides as if they are fighting 'our' corner. I really couldn't give a damn myself if Windsor is being upgraded. I see no benefit to Linfield and no disadvantage to Glentoran or any other side - what I do see is if there is ever another Glentoran vs. Cliftonville Irish Cup Final then we might not have this stupid ticket fiasco again - which would be nice.
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