Skip to content

Galway Independent

Home arrow News arrow Local News arrow €25m Galwegians grounds expected to generate huge level of interest
€25m Galwegians grounds expected to generate huge level of interest E-mail
Written by Administrator   
Wednesday, 14 February 2007
There is likely to be a huge level of interest in the sale of Galwegians Rugby Football Club's building and the high profile development land of 9.4 acres surrounding it.

The closing date for receipt of tenders with Property Partners Heaslips is tomorrow, Thursday 15 March, at 12noon. The site, which is at Crowley Park fronting on to the main old Dublin Road, is zoned residential and starts at a guide price of €25 million.

It has been a long road for GRFC who has played at Glenina for over 40 years. Club Chairman Mr MacDara Hosty said the club had hoped to begin the process of selling and moving several years ago but that "unforeseen challenges arose".

He said, "When anybody undertakes a project of any size, particularly one of this nature, it is quite a large undertaking. There can be some unforeseen circumstances in the road in relation to preparing the ground properly for that. When you are dealing with land, you have to organise paperwork, contracts and tender documents. You have to make sure all the key stakeholders are properly informed and properly aware of every aspect of the plan.

"With a project of this nature and this size, it takes time to ensure that all of those issues are resolved properly so that you can proceed accordingly," he said.

According to auctioneer James Heaslip, "The time has come to look to horizons new and to implement a plan, which will offer first class facilities to present and future generations of Galwegians."

Mr Hosty said the decision to move is a sad one but that the club must look to the future with a positive approach.

"Without a shadow of a doubt it is sad to be leaving. On a personal basis, I've been going for 25 years, many members much older than me. We have had many good times in Glenina. It will be sad to leave but that sadness is somewhat abated by the knowledge that we're getting much, much closer to providing the type of infrastructure and the type of club a rugby club like Galwegians deserve.

"We now have one of the largest youth academies in the country; we have about 400 kids involved from Under-Sevens to Under-18s. We just don't have the facilities within our current grounds to cater for those people and our purpose is to provide rugby to anyone who is interested, no matter what age the boys or girls are.

"We have a very strong ladies team, who play in the first division of the All-Ireland League and our job is to ensure that anybody who is interested in playing in the sky-blue colours of Galwegians, no matter what race, what age or what gender, can play. In our current facility, we just don't have the space to expand and hence the reason for moving.

Although the future of the club looks bright, there is a strong element of uncertainty attached to it with regard to where the club will move.

"We don't really know at this stage where we will go. We are hopeful we will be able to do a land-cash deal for our current grounds.

"Our Steering Committee, which we established through the offices of our auctioneers, identified approximately 15 parcels of land within the city where we could move to.

"We have completed a feasibility study on each of those land-banks to ascertain which of them would be more suitable for us. We know there is land out there that is suitable, but we don't know if the individuals who own the land would be interested in purchasing our club. We have to wait and see what kind of offers we get through the tender process, once we have those offers then we will be in a position to look very, very seriously at the options there for us in terms of where we would move to."

Mr Hosty stressed that Galwegians is a rugby club and said it was not about property and property development. "Crowley Park will not be sold unless alternative suitable grounds to go to and that's very clear. Our members, our board, our trustees, and everybody else feel very strongly on that point.

"We are running 17 teams off 2 pitches... We are managing but we know we would manage a lot better in different grounds," said the Chairman, adding that now is a very exciting time for the club.


Comments (0) »		 feed
Show/Hide comment formtoggle


Write the displayed characters


busy
 
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]


Custom Search
Volvo Ocean Race Official Updates
How will you vote in Lisbon 2?