SportsGround Developments

In town, 10-12k capacity, with a roof! I know the roof would add hugely to cost but I'd say it would also be a big vendor to attendance's as well as allowing other uses concerts etc which would generate a lot of revenue.

Full house on Saturday night great to see. However it really shows the dreadful facilities we have. The queues to get to a portaloo says it all. Quite frankly it's embarrassing. Thankfully we had no rain as I think people would have left rather than put up with it.

I can't believe it can be that difficult or expensive to put right.

PS: I was on clan side of ground.

The wait to use the toilets was a disgrace with kids its a disaster. There was a great crowd at the weekend and Connacht are not making the most of it with the way things are set up at the moment. I was at the game with kids and they were able to sit pitch side on the mains stand which was nice for them.
But I wasnt able to get the seated stand area as I left it too late which is also ideal for kids. Even if its very far down in the corner.
An hour before kickoff all the prime standing spots were taken. Great to see so many for Muldoons 300th game.
A Stadium with a roof with 15000 seats would be very expensive to build but would be great. The uses a city like Galway could make of a facility like that would be endless and over time it would pay for itself.
It was nice walking back into the city with the kids after the game but I'd hate to think what it would have been like on a rainy day in Galway.

Harold's Cross Stadium sold to Dept. Education for 23 million:
www.independent.ie/business/irish/harold...or-23m-35720681.html

Debt was (as of February last) 20.3 million:
www.igb.ie/top-nav-corporate/news/igb-co...s-greyhound-stadium/

So they're now debt free. Major win for the dogs, but it probably brings Connacht closer to leaving the Sportsground.

They won't be long going back into debt if Connacht leave the SG.
Municipal stadium in the docks looks the best option now.

FACECUTTR wrote: They won't be long going back into debt if Connacht leave the SG.
Municipal stadium in the docks looks the best option now.

It would be great but I just can't see where the money would come from. The IRFU aren't going to touch it with a barge pole after the ongoin disaster with Thomond and I seriously doubt the government will have any interest in assisting with funding either.

FACECUTTR wrote: They won't be long going back into debt if Connacht leave the SG.
Municipal stadium in the docks looks the best option now.

Yup, they'd go under in a fortnight without the matchday income Connacht brings into the Main Stand. But equally Connacht can't develop a proper stadium at the Sportsground without them leaving. So if I were betting I'd say the Sportsground will be a Connacht training facility and/or a public park in 10 years time.

As for a municipal stadium in the docks, I don't see it. The only empty(ish) land - the Irish Rail railyards and adjoining ex-oil tank area - is likely to end up as residential & commercial development, while the harbour extension project is pie-in-the-sky stuff that may never happen, or if it does, is years away & therefore of no use to us: it's over three years since a plan was submitted to An Bord Pleanala but as late as last month they had no timeline for approval. I note the people pushing the Docks option are Councillor Crowe and his FF amigo Councillor Keane, which does not give me the warm feels, to put it mildly.

There really don't seem to be any options outside of Eamon Deacy park at the moment - muddling along at the Sportsground or an out-of-town stadium probably aren't financially viable.

Muddling along in the SG is far preferable to moving into Eamon Deacy park which barely has to capacity to host an average match day (wikipedia says 5,000, not sure I'd believe that) from an attendance point of view, we would be losing money hand over fist for even mid-level games like Glasgow or Scarlets and for big interpros you'd be turning away 2-3000 spectators just on current attendances and completely restricting any growth in fan numbers. Aside from that it's a pain to get to and would be a tiny pitch when you put in the try zones and dead ball area.

Of all the options out there ED Park is the worst

Accidentally Onside wrote: Muddling along in the SG is far preferable to moving into Eamon Deacy park which barely has to capacity to host an average match day (wikipedia says 5,000, not sure I'd believe that) from an attendance point of view, we would be losing money hand over fist for even mid-level games like Glasgow or Scarlets and for big interpros you'd be turning away 2-3000 spectators just on current attendances and completely restricting any growth in fan numbers. Aside from that it's a pain to get to and would be a tiny pitch when you put in the try zones and dead ball area.

Of all the options out there ED Park is the worst

The new (Comer) and old stands in Eamon Deacy Park have 1500 and 1800 seated capacity respectively. Allegedly you can have 1700 standing at either end and in front of the Comer stand, this may be a bit optimistic but not by much (certainly not when you see how Connacht pack em in on the Main Stand side). The old stand (capacity 1800) was formerly a terrace, were it just converted back to terracing then the ground would comfortably exceed the Sportsground's regular capacity of ~6200 while providing 1500 seats (over twice what we currently have in our two seating areas), and, therefore, a lot more income than we currently pull in. Additionally, when Connacht possibly moving there was reported in the media last summer there was no indication we'd be using it as is: it was stated that a redeveloped stadium would have a minimum capacity of 8000 with catering and corporate facilities.

So staying at the Sportsground very much looks like the costlier option. I'd much rather see us move there than go round in circles financially at the dog track, or move out of town.

I should say it has been YEARS since I was in there, but remember thinking at the time how totally unsuitable it would be for Rugby due to lack of space. I must have missed the article about the redevelopment but redevelopment isn't free and no amount of redevelopment will mean that it's not in the middle of a housing estate serviced by one small road. I suppose parking at the black box and walking down is an option but it must be....30 minute walk from town, so not exactly out of town but compared to the SG not exactly convenient. Checked and google mpas has it as a 20 min walk so less than I thought.

From a tenants point of view are we sure the Galway FA are going to be any more easy to work with than Dog people?

I can see there are some plus points to ED park but I still think the SG is a better option.

I suspect Galway FA would if anything be harder to deal with. ED isn't just the Galway Utd ground, gets a lot of use I think; wonder if the pitch would always be in a good state. Though the summer season for Soccer should help.
Also, if Galway Utd have any European notions (well it COULD happen!), then they won't be wanting to swap seating for terraces.

The best outcome is staying in the sportsground, perfect location, the proximity to town helped build a casual fan base. Has good parking facilities nearby. And unlike sharing with Galway united there's not as many scheduling conflicts. The docks would be a massive outlay which I don't​ think Connacht can afford and I doubt the IRFU would want to fund a stadium.

It's a shame we haven't heard any new information. But I'd say that the sportsground is where most of Connachts efforts are being concentrated

Just on a similar note up until last year there was big talk of redevelopment at the RDS too, however, that has gone cold of late. They even had plans drawn up and went through phases of design. I wonder if the IRFU has put all future developments on hold with the RWC bid. Even in the RWC bid stadium specs they had the RDS at it's current capacity not at a projected redeveloped capacity, it could mean that they're going to wait to see if they get the RWC and if they do they may have to give some money to the GAA to help develop some of the Stadia for the RWC as part of an agreement for using them, if they don't get it they might revisit developing the Sportsgrounds and RDS

The RDS development is going ahead