Plug is pulled on Galway’s Mountain South project

Date Published: {J}

STEPHEN GLENNON

GALWAY Hurling Board and the GAA looks set to take a major financial hit after it was confirmed that the proposed training facility at Mountain South, Athenry – bought for approximately €2.5 less than five years ago – is now to be disposed of, potentially, for a fraction of its purchase price.

Acquired during the boom times, the estimated €8 million complex was to include six pitches, dressing rooms, gymnasiums, meeting rooms, hurling walls and ancillary facilities, and planning permission was subsequently obtained for the project.

Indeed, in December of last year, Hurling Board Chairman Joe Byrne expressed his hope that the first sod could be turned on the eagerly awaited sports complex in the ensuing months, but with other projects within the county and province having been given financial preference, these plans have now been scuppered.

As a result, Galway Hurling Board and the County Board have both conceded that with finance slow in forthcoming, the project has become unviable and a collective decision has been taken to dispose of the 105 acre property.

Already, the development has been handed over by the Galway Hurling to the County Board, who have, in turn, requested Croke Park to assist in the disposal of the land.

However, with agricultural land now estimated between €5,000 to €7,000 an acre, it means a loss of up to €2 million could be incurred.

“Recently, the County Finance and Management Committee has recommended that the development of Mountain South be put on hold and that efforts should be made to dispose of the land,” outlined Hurling Board Secretary Pat Kearney.

“This proposal was subsequently endorsed by the County Board and a proposal in this regard has been submitted to the management in Croke Park requesting assistance. We are waiting on their decision.”

Kearney bemoaned the change in the economic situation but said the reality Galway now faced was that, with the new GAA loan repayment schedule due to kick in next month, they would have to meet repayments of €56,600 per quarter or €226,400 per annum over the next 15 years.

“This is a debt burden that the Hurling Board, hurling clubs and the hurling community in Galway will be unable to finance,” he conceded.

County Board Treasurer Bernie O’Connor outlined that if the Hurling Board continued to take responsibility for the debt, then there would be major ramifications for the clubs. He explained: “Clubs, in some way or the other, would be expected to pay, because the Board is the clubs.

“Every club in Galway would have to pay €85,000 over 15 years to clear the debt on that piece of land. That is €5,666 every year and you don’t have to be a scientist to work out that clubs can’t afford to pay that kind of money.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.