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Kerry FC General Manager Sean O’Keeffe with Geraldine Nagle Vice Chairperson of KDL, Sporting Director of Kerry FC Billy Dennehy, Chief Operations Officer Steven Conway and CEO Brian Ainsclough. Photo by Dermot Crean
NOW that Kerry FC’s entry into the Airtricity First Division has been confirmed, it’s now time for fans to look forward to the Friday night football experience in Mounthawk Park, Tralee.
Over the course of the season, there will be 18 home league games to look forward to, as well as friendlies and cup games, so it’s going to create a fantastic buzz and create revenue for local businesses.
While it’s important that the players on the field perform, sustaining the club will also depend on the buy-in from the Kerry public and, of course, sponsorship money.
At a press conference on Friday morning, General Manager of Kerry FC, Sean O’Keeffe, said now that the license has been granted, things are moving fast on all fronts.
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“We expect to have season tickets on sale in time for the Christmas market. We’ll also have merchandise on sale. We are looking at maybe a pop-up shop — going into some retailers in town with a ‘Kerry FC store’ selling scraves, hats, beanies, zip-ups, but maybe not jerseys yet. Plans are advancing rapidly now.”
The prices of the season tickets have not been finalised yet, but they will come in two types — one where ticket holders can sit anywhere and one where you can reserve a particular seat in the ground.
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New seating will be arriving from Spain soon and the capacity of the ground will be 1,150, but they aim to increase this as time goes on. There will also be an area for people with disabilities.
There be food facilities and a Kerry FC shop open for match days. The website is currently being built and this will have a shop facility.
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From a sponsorship point of view, Sean said the club has had many enquiries regarding this type of investment.
“From today we start engaging with people on that. There’s a feelgood factor about the project and a lot of companies want to come in behind us,” he said.
Sean believes League Of Ireland football is going to massively benefit the town of Tralee, with away fans coming into town for Friday nights, many of whom will stay overnight and spend money.
“The goodwill we saw yesterday has been amazing. When you bring a lot of people to an area they bring money — they stay overnight, they spend in shops.
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“It’s good for everybody. We’re getting a huge reaction from clubs like Finn Harps and Waterford looking forward to coming to Kerry, staying overnight and that’s all money going into the local economy.”
Chief Operating Officer, Steven Conway, said Friday nights offer a great opportunity to attract crowds to the games, as they won’t clash with any other local sporting fixtures in GAA or basketball.
Mounthawk Park… new seating is due to be installed in the stand soon.
“The support that we’ve received since yesterday and bumping into people in town suggests people can’t wait for Friday nights. It’s so positive and we want to make sure we’re run in the correct manner with the right people. We want people to come down here and be blown away by the product we have here in Kerry,” he said.
