Fans dig deep for Tuam Stadium revamp

Galway ex-pats across the globe – from New York, San Francisco and Australia – are digging deep to help the redevelopment of one of the county’s iconic sporting venues.

They’ve been quick to purchase tickets for a draw that will aid the much needed development of new dressing rooms at Tuam Stadium – and fans closer to home haven’t been slow off the mark either

The new dressing rooms will be built on the stand side of the ground and will be designed in such a way to so as to accommodate any future development.

It is estimated that around €130,000 will be raised in the draw which will take place within the next three weeks. The large committee involved in the project expressed surprise as the nature in which the €50 tickets were mopped up.

Tuam Stadium is still a hugely important venue as far as the GAA are concerned. There are 200 games played on the pitch on an annual basis – this involves 12,000 players. Figures show that 100,000 GAA fans watch matches at the Stadium every year and this highlights the need for facilities to be improved.

Kevin O’Dwyer is part of the committee involved in this development committee and he said that ticket sales were going phenomenally well and there would be a major push over the coming weeks.

He said that the committee that was formed were determined to revamp Tuam Stadium and this was the first step on the way to this ambition.

Kevin said that the committee had worked extremely hard to sell the tickets simply because they wanted something done with Tuam Stadium. He added that the existing dressing rooms were not acceptable in this day and age.

In its heyday, Tuam Stadium used to accommodate around 30,000 supporters – Connacht championship games involving Galway and Mayo used to fill the venue.

The capacity at Tuam Stadium has been dramatically reduced since then for health and safety reasons – but the committee behind this venture want the ground to again host provincial championship games.

Legendary GAA supporter in Galway Tommy Varden is the Chairman of the committee while Ronan Glynn and Ian Doyle are development advocates. They are hoping that development works will commence next year.

The committee have also received support from Pat McDonagh of Supermacs as well as the County Board GAA.