DERRY CITY CHAIRMAN PHILIP O’DOHERTY has suggested that the Candystripes could groundshare with Finn Harps at the start of the 2016 SSE Airtricity League of Ireland season.
Work began this week on a multi-million pound redevelopment of Brandywell Stadium.
The Glentoran Stand, which housed the press facilities and seating for guests, situated on the Lone Moor Road side of the ground, has been demolished with a new stand to be built in its place.
Work is expected to get underway before Christmas and City chiefs are teasing out their options for next season – one of which is a possible groundshare with Harps.
“We are going to look at all options including the possibility of talking to Finn Harps about using their ground for a short period,” O’Doherty told The Derry Journal.
“If we get the work underway this side of Christmas it will be touch and go for the start of the season and we might need a bit of leeway from the FAI or even use Finn Harps’ stadium if that’s possible.
“We will know later this week but we might have to ask them for that ground-sharing possibility.
“It will be very difficult getting people to the games but it’s such a huge boost for us to get this done and we might have to put up with a bit of disruption to begin with.
“It may not suit Finn Harps at all. And they might tell us they can’t facilitate us. So we might have to look at other options – we don’t know.
“What might have to happen is that we ask the FAI to play our first four games away from home – that’s one of the possibilities.
“We will wait and see what the programme is but ideally we would like work to be finished to coincide with the start of the season. They might still be working around the ground but if they can get the pitch down then that would be something.”
Work on Harps’ own development, at a new site across the River Finn in Stranorlar, has been frustratingly stalled in recent years, although structural work has begun on the site, situated next to the Finn Valley AC complex.
