Extra land to increase Cusack Park capacity

The May Clare County Board meeting was held last Thursday night. Sports Editor Seamus Hayes reports

 

CLARE County Board has spent more than €500,000 on land to increase the capacity of Cusack Park, the May meeting of Clare GAA was told last week.

Delegates at the meeting were given an up-to-date report by secretary Pat Fitzgerald on the stage of development at both the Caherlohan Centre of Excellence project in Tulla and Cusack Park.

At the outset, the secretary told the delegates that the report produced by Slattery and Associates in 2011, as part of their review of all county grounds in the country, reduced the capacity at Cusack Park to 12,500 for one game and 14,000 for two games. “Prior to that report, the capacity was 27,846,” he explained. “We asked our consultant engineer, Niall Fitzgerald, to take it in hand and we had extensive discussions with Slattery and Co and with Croke Park and they agreed that if we were to put a plan in place and follow it, the capacity could be increased to 20,500.”

“We got an opportunity to purchase a bit of ground behind the Cloister, which will help, with the provision of turnstiles, to bring us back up to the 18,000 mark again,” the chairman Michael McDonagh explained, before paying tribute to Ennis-based accountant Michael Curtin for his help.

“At Cusack Park, we own 9.8 acres and 7/8 of this is landlocked. The real problem is if we were to get a big game, it would be filled from one lane and this resulted in safety issues, which led to the suggestion to reduce the capacity,” Pat Fitzgerald added. “In my time we had 13,000 at one particular county final, with 16,000 at a football league game in the middle ’90s.”

“There was a plot of ground at the back of the Cloister, which adjoins the end of Cusack Park. We are all aware that we looked at the possibility of disposing of Cusack Park a few years ago. We had a significant sum of money got. The developers, who had been chosen as the preferred bidders, bought this piece of ground and paid €8.1 million for the piece,” the secretary added.

He went on to outline what it will do for Cusack Park. “ There is 1.8 acres in that property. It gives access to the total back wall of Cusack Park, which will allow us to put in turnstiles. The real problem was ingress and egress. This will allow for a number of turnstiles and exit gates, which will, to a degree, solve the problem. It won’t solve the whole problem but it will certainly ease the issue of capacity.”

According to Fitzgerald, “We also had a major issue with car parking and that’s no secret. The plan would be, notional as it is at this stage, to develop that 1.8 acres as a car park. The idea would also be that for most domestic games, the focus would be on access to the grounds through that area. Without that, we would not be able to look at staging any serious game, which would attract around 20,000 people.”

“The cost to us was in excess of €500,000. If we are to continue to retain Cusack Park going forward, that was an option we could not miss. We had to buy it at any cost. In fairness to the person we bought it from, he was very up front with us, very decent and very straight. He is a well known name in GAA circles and we thank him for his support,” Fitzgerald said.

“As an officer board going forward over the next few weeks and months, we are going to look at what other investment we propose for Cusack Park regarding upgrading stands, field etc,” chairman McDonagh said.

“It had to be kept confidential, as once it got out that the GAA was interested, it was going up by €100,000 each time,” Fitzgerald added.

“Once people hear that the GAA are interested in something, they think we are a cash cow. The people that were involved in this, they did well. It’s a strategic and good investment,” McDonagh said.

“We have spoken to some people about making that car park available to the town of Ennis on the days of the week that we are not using this,” the secretary said.

“We are exploring at the moment a lot of things at the officer board, including the upgrading of Cusack Park but it’s too early yet to say where we are going,” McDonagh added.

Four pitches developed at Caherlohan
TURNING to the Tulla (Caherlohan) project, Fitzgerald said, “We got a grant of €1.8m for Tulla. The conditions with that were that for every €100,000, they would pay €70,000 and we would contribute €30,000. We then became aware that the property at Cusack Park was available and we went back to Croke Park. We spoke to them about the strategic importance of that piece of land and they agreed we could purchase that with the money we would have had to put in with a back-up on the agreement they had set out. The agreement was that we would put the facility there and do as much as we could with the €1.8m.”

He told the gathering, “There are four pitches, the last of which will be developed two years in October. We then commenced the clubhouse, which is costing €1.05m. The pitches cost in or around – these are approximate figures – €700,000. We applied to Croke Park for a loan of €250,000. That would be somewhere around €2m.

“We would hope that the clubhouse will be put up for €1.05m and that will include the lighting on two pitches, driven by generator. We will then have to put up retractable netting, which will cost significant money. At the moment, it would appear that to have those pitches playable it will be in excess of €2m and most of the money we borrowed will be gone into that,” according to Fitzgerald. He continued, “There are three issues that I have concern with”.

The first, he said, is a health and safety issue. “There are 48 acres in that piece of ground. We have developed 26. All the subsoil and top soil in the complete 48 acres had to be skint, which leaves it in a very uneven state and dangerous to a degree. We have got to deal with that before we open it.”

His second concern is security. “It is like buying a new car and being unable to insure it.”

“Thirdly, there are the running costs – the management of those pitches,” he said.

“We have another 20 acres across the road, which will be left there. We have Ballyline, Ryan’s field [Clarecastle], Cusack Park and Clareabbey. It cost us €20,000 to €30,000 last year to train our teams. Hopefully, this will take something off that bill,” McDonagh added.

Doonbeg’s Michael Neenan asked if these had been costed?

“I spent a day a week in the last six to nine months working on this. The cost would be somewhere around €150,000. That’s a notional figure. We haven’t tested the market,” replied Fitzgerald.

Miltown’s Noel Walsh wondered if county teams could train there at present, to which the secretary replied, “We could not get insurance. It is a building site really.”

According to the chairman, “We are alright for training of county teams for the rest of the year. Hopefully, the weather will improve and club fields and our own will open up and we will be able to use them.”

Feakle’s Mike Daly didn’t agree. “I am involved with development squads. During the summer, clubs haven’t enough time for their own teams. It’s awful to be passing out that development every day and it not being available.”

“It’s coming,” said the chairman, to which Daly replied, “So is Christmas”.

Former chairman, Michael O’Neill, paid tribute to board secretary Fitzgerald, along with Michael Curtin, for their work on the Caherlohan project. “I cannot overstress the amount of time Pat Fitzgerald, in particular, and Michael Curtin have put into that project,” he said.

Paying tribute to Croke Park for sanctioning the loan of €250,000 on top of €1.8m, Fitzgerald said, “If we didn’t get that, you would be passing the development for a long time yet”.

“When it was purchased first, it was nearly impossible to get land because once it was heard it was for the GAA, prices went up. We nearly had 27-28 acres bought in another direction for €2m and when they heard it was for the GAA, it went to nearly €4m overnight. We are at this for nearly eight to 10 years and I have no doubt people will be proud of it. Hopefully, it will be finished within six months.”

St Joseph’s delegate Pat Frawley wondered about the 20 acres at the other side of the road. Chairman McDonagh replied, “It should be left there, it is not costing us anything. It should be for the next generation. Prices of everything have gone down. It’s an asset.”

According to Fitzgerald, “We have looked at a concept, which might alleviate some of the financial pressure. We have yet to bring it to fruition. We have had a six-month look at it. I can’t say more at this time. That might be a valuable area. We have to look at some commercial dimension, otherwise I can’t see the association being able to support financially the type of facilities and it would be remiss of us not to put the association in a sound footing going forward.”