Connacht Centre of Excellence

[Syferus]

I never said every club

One or two in each county available to play club games in any weather would be huge.
You could run primary school blitzes all year round.
Colleges and 3rd level games need neutral venues.

An indoor pitch in the middle of nowhere in Mayo isn't much use to most gaa people in connacht for playing games

Bekan is pretty centrally located in Connacht so you've contradicted yourself in two successive paragraphs.

[spuds]

I never said every club

One or two in each county available to play club games in any weather would be huge.
You could run primary school blitzes all year round.
Colleges and 3rd level games need neutral venues.

An indoor pitch in the middle of nowhere in Mayo isn't much use to most gaa people in connacht for playing games

Bekan is pretty centrally located in Connacht so you've contradicted yourself in two successive paragraphs.

If NUIG or GMIT play Sligo IT or Athlone IT where suits? If Jarlaths play Summerhill, Muredachs, Ross CBS, Gerards, Carrick does Bekan suit?

If there is a Connacht underage tournament it is pretty damn central. Loads of parking and great facilities.

[whitey]

I never said every club

One or two in each county available to play club games in any weather would be huge.
You could run primary school blitzes all year round.
Colleges and 3rd level games need neutral venues.

An indoor pitch in the middle of nowhere in Mayo isn't much use to most gaa people in connacht for playing games

Bekan is pretty centrally located in Connacht so you've contradicted yourself in two successive paragraphs.

An hours drive from Bekan and would take you to about 90% of football clubs in Connaught

[thebackbar1]

Why on earth would a club spend two hours travelling to Bekan (an hour each way) ?

The only time our players have ever used bekan is for ted web matches, some of them may have played there for their schools.

Could you imagine the impact this money would have if distributed to all the counties ? I would much prefer to see rural clubs getting grants so that they could install flood lights. In Galway wouldn't all the rural clubs around Tuam love to see Tuam Stadium lit up.

Any idea how much is it going to cost to maintain this facility ? money the connaught council wont have to invest in coaching every year going forward.

[Rossfan]

€10m or so of the Soccer/Rubby rent from Croke Park spent on what's there already.
Anither €11m?  on this big shed.
If each of the Counties had got a decent slice of that to provide all weather floodlit pitches at strategic locations in their Counties plus a Central County "centre of excellence"....
Galway wouldn't have bought a field and sold it at half the price and have their finances under investigation.
We'd have Runnabracken up and running and the Hyde  at full capacity plus  decent facilities in the West and North of the County.
I'm sure the other 3 would have put the funds to much needed use too.

[manfromdelmonte]

I never said every club

One or two in each county available to play club games in any weather would be huge.
You could run primary school blitzes all year round.
Colleges and 3rd level games need neutral venues.

An indoor pitch in the middle of nowhere in Mayo isn't much use to most gaa people in connacht for playing games

Bekan is pretty centrally located in Connacht so you've contradicted yourself in two successive paragraphs.

You're the master of contradiction

What would you know about club, school or college GAA activity?

[whitey]

Why on earth would a club spend two hours travelling to Bekan (an hour each way) ?

The only time our players have ever used bekan is for ted web matches, some of them may have played there for their schools.

Could you imagine the impact this money would have if distributed to all the counties ? I would much prefer to see rural clubs getting grants so that they could install flood lights. In Galway wouldn't all the rural clubs around Tuam love to see Tuam Stadium lit up.

Any idea how much is it going to cost to maintain this facility ? money the connaught council wont have to invest in coaching every year going forward.

You're missing the point

Clubs routinely travel the best part of an hour for matches as it stands

Why not travel the hour to a great facility that has all weather pitches.

[manfromdelmonte]

Why on earth would a club spend two hours travelling to Bekan (an hour each way) ?

The only time our players have ever used bekan is for ted web matches, some of them may have played there for their schools.

Could you imagine the impact this money would have if distributed to all the counties ? I would much prefer to see rural clubs getting grants so that they could install flood lights. In Galway wouldn't all the rural clubs around Tuam love to see Tuam Stadium lit up.

Any idea how much is it going to cost to maintain this facility ? money the connaught council wont have to invest in coaching every year going forward.

You're missing the point

Clubs routinely travel the best part of an hour for matches as it stands

Why not travel the hour to a great facility that has all weather pitches.

Schools don't and shouldn't
Underage club teams don't

[whitey]

Ehhh.... there was a Secondary School game there TODAY between St Nathys and Claregalway

There were 2 other schools games played there within the past week

http://connachtgaa.ie/fixtures-results/

[manfromdelmonte]

Ehhh.... there was a Secondary School game there TODAY between St Nathys and Claregalway

There were 2 other schools games played there within the past week

http://connachtgaa.ie/fixtures-results/

Ok. I was referring to primary school games and blitzes

[thebackbar1]

Why on earth would a club spend two hours travelling to Bekan (an hour each way) ?

The only time our players have ever used bekan is for ted web matches, some of them may have played there for their schools.

Could you imagine the impact this money would have if distributed to all the counties ? I would much prefer to see rural clubs getting grants so that they could install flood lights. In Galway wouldn't all the rural clubs around Tuam love to see Tuam Stadium lit up.

Any idea how much is it going to cost to maintain this facility ? money the connaught council wont have to invest in coaching every year going forward.

You're missing the point

Clubs routinely travel the best part of an hour for matches as it stands

Why not travel the hour to a great facility that has all weather pitches.

Would a club team travel over an hour to play on a artificial surface indoors? I honestly don't think they would, unless they were preparing for a match on a artificial surface.

Our club has never traveled to Bekan for a match.

I'm sure is a great facility for the clubs around bekan, but imho there was better ways this money could be spent.

[rodney trotter]

The new indoor dome looks a great project. The biggest Air dome facility in  Europea. Not cheap at 3million,can cater for 600 spectators.

[rosnarun]

The new indoor dome looks a great project. The biggest Air dome facility in  Europea. Not cheap at 3million,can cater for 600 spectators.

and Debt free already.
Lets give credit where its due .
Can we have a round of applause for John Prenty

[magpie seanie]

I honestly think it's pretty amazing. There are an awful lot of schools games played here and the air dome means there's certainty the games will go ahead. It's an outstanding facility.

[MayoBuck]

A lot of people giving out but this will be a great facility to have. So many games get switched to Bekan last minute due to bad weather.