Connacht Centre of Excellence

[SLIGONIAN]

How are they going to manage 5 Counties wanting to use the Centre at the same time if that happens.

Galway won't be using it at all. They already have their own foootball centre built and up and running for the past 18 months or so. The hurlers have their one under development. Maybe club teams would use it but who the feck would want to go all the way to Ballyhaunis to train anyway? It's hardly La Manga.

You are on the ball GBB 

Centre of Excellence will be Connacht's 'La Manga'

Edwin McGreal

THE new Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence will be the the province's equivalent of the famous Spanish sport resort, La Manga, according to Connacht GAA Secretary John Prenty.
The Centre, which will be located at Cloonacurry, Bekan (on the Knock-Ballyhaunis road) successfully came through the planning process last week and Prenty has dismissed suggestions that the €10 million proposed development is a luxury.

"Absolutely not. What you need to bear in mind is that there are similar facilities in other provinces in places like DCU, Jordanstown and places like that," he told The Mayo News. "Counties in those provinces use those places all the time but in Connacht there is no such centre.

"You had the Mayo County Board bringing players to UL (University of Limerick) to get lads tested. Now counties in Connacht can come to the centre for that kind of work and it can also be a centre for underage development squads. We would see it as a La Manga type facility for the province with everything on site."
However, it is the provision of facilities for the playing of second-level games that has most driven the need for the Centre.

"Colleges GAA is the main reason we've went for this facility," explained Prenty. "For the last number of seasons we've had major difficulties with pitches. Only a certain number of clubs were willing to allow us to play games on their pitches in winter and that was understandable. We'll have six pitches available now and there's no reason why a game should be called off."

Along with six outdoor pitches, a gym, a video analysis room, and dressing rooms, the Centre will also house a full-size indoor astro-turf facility. The on-site location and height of the roof of the indoor pitch were both changed to accommodate concerns from local residents but it is expected that both hurling and football will be played there. John Prenty is also keen to emphasise that the Centre should be viewed as an additional facility for counties, in combination with their own.

"What it will be is an add-on to what counties have," he said. "Each county needs their own training centre but there are parts of this centre, like the indoor pitch for instance, that make more sense to have in a central provincial location rather than the counties each having them. The counties can use these facilities in addition to their own."
Along with funding from their own resources, the Connacht GAA Council have received funding from Croke Park from revenue generated from rugby and soccer internationals at Croke Park. Advertising for tenders is due to start in the coming weeks with work expected to commence in late Autumn. The Connacht Council offices, currently located in Ballyhaunis, are also due to eventually move to the Centre.

A 10 million centre, what are the running costs if its so state of the art, its like sport science academy, will trained professionals be full time there etc...

Am I out of touch with regards the colleges, do they not have there own pitches? Is the CC responsibilty to provide funds for pitches for them.. Is College Football that important that the CC will build a 10 centre for mainly there benefit.

[magpie seanie]

Spectator - you're on thin ice there.

[spectator]

Thank You Seanie.

These August frosts are not conducive to ice skating in the West of Ireland, right enough 

[SLIGONIAN]

Did I miss something? Thought Spectator comments were bang on.

[Peter Solan the Great]

I see that work has began on Mayo Connacht centre of Excellence


http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=129252

Sod turned on Connacht Centre of Excellence
22 May 2010


GAA president Christy Cooney was on hand yesterday to turn the sod on the Connacht Council's new €10m Centre of Excellence at Bekan near Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo.

The 65-acre site is set to be transformed into a complex comprising six floodlit outdoor pitches, a state-of-the-art indoor pitch, gymnasium, and related facilities. It will act as a venue for county, club and school teams from throughout the province and is expected to be completed by 2014.

"This is a hugely significant day in the history of the GAA in Connacht," Cooney said.

"It will be the first provincial Centre of Excellence in the country, which is a real feather in Connacht's cap. Money generated by the rental of Croke Park was ring-fenced for projects such as this and I wish everyone involved with this development every success."

[Cosmo Kramer]

So, from reading this it looks like Galway don't need to use it, Sligo and Roscommon don't want to and Leitrim can't. Sure we might as well start the rebranding process now then!

Connacht Centre of Excellence

That should keep everyone on board for the moment...



Seriously though, I had a look at the plans there:

http://www.mayococo.ie/scripts/cgi/SecCategoryList.asp?id=081995&v=1&lanum=1

It looks like some job, a 140m x 88m indoor GAA pitch with a 19 metre high roof and a 900 seater stand built into the back of it is a serious development. Interesting that the documentation says it will be used for a lot of FBD league matches (the facility, not the indoor pitch). You could have FBD double headers on January Saturdays and Sundays and bring more of a crowd in, show off the facilities etc. It would be a massive improvement on some of the dumps you end up traveling to in January watching those games. There is also a medical room shown in the plans I think for whoever asked earlier in the thread.


People talk about the platform given to other sports by the opening of Croke Park but it's unlikely that soccer or rugby could ever develop facilities of that quality and scale in the west of Ireland, and this kind of thing is the longer term benefit for the GAA from Croker.

Anyone know how the Tyrone development compares in terms or size and facilities?

[SLIGONIAN]

It just goes to show how much control prenty has in Connacht, there is no democracy in Connacht, Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim all afraid of the holes to stand against this project in case it comes too bite them in ass. GAA is a sick organisation in alot of ways. This is absollute travesty that this gets built. Vanity project for 1 man and a county under the guise of connacht. 10 million in this day and age on a project that isnt even going to be used except for mayo is fcking disgrace.

[Cosmo Kramer]

All joking aside this is the Connacht centre of excellence and is for the use of the whole province. I don't fully understand the apathy being shown by Sligo and Ros lads, if those coounties do not embrace it, then it just makes it more likely that it will become a Mayo centre in effect. It is located right in the middle of the province, if you draw a line on a map from Manorhamilton to Inishmore and another from Belmullet to Ballinasloe they pretty much intersect in Bekan. It just so happens that the geographical centre of Connacht falls within County Mayo. From a Mayo perspective it would be better if it was in Breaffy in the same way that it would be better for Sligo people if it was in Collooney etc, but it's a provincial centre so it is where it is.

I mean, would you refuse to use Ireland West Airport because its in Mayo? But if they put smaller airports in all 5 counties they would all just become unsustainable? Same kind of principle - one large high quality GAA centre instead of a few average ones.

I think Connacht is the only province where this idea can work, it's a good bit smaller than the other three. I would guess 80-90 percent of the population would live within an hours drive of Bekan, but there will be parts of all 5 counties (a good chunk of Mayo included) that will be a little bit further away.

[SLIGONIAN]

All joking aside this is the Connacht centre of excellence and is for the use of the whole province. I don't fully understand the apathy being shown by Sligo and Ros lads, if those coounties do not embrace it, then it just makes it more likely that it will become a Mayo centre in effect. It is located right in the middle of the province, if you draw a line on a map from Manorhamilton to Inishmore and another from Belmullet to Ballinasloe they pretty much intersect in Bekan. It just so happens that the geographical centre of Connacht falls within County Mayo. From a Mayo perspective it would be better if it was in Breaffy in the same way that it would be better for Sligo people if it was in Collooney etc, but it's a provincial centre so it is where it is.

I mean, would you refuse to use Ireland West Airport because its in Mayo? But if they put smaller airports in all 5 counties they would all just become unsustainable? Same kind of principle - one large high quality GAA centre instead of a few average ones.

I think Connacht is the only province where this idea can work, it's a good bit smaller than the other three. I would guess 80-90 percent of the population would live within an hours drive of Bekan, but there will be parts of all 5 counties (a good chunk of Mayo included) that will be a little bit further away.

Sligo has an airport, and our centre of excellence has gone to planning. Why would we use the connacht one if we are going to build our own?

At the announcement of the connacht one, the best prenty could do was say it was for college football and they find it hard to find pitches for them. FBD aswell and maybe connacht minor league. As i said before if the 10 milion for this project means we dont get a penny for ours welll i will be raging and i will hold Sligo CB accountable aswell.

Common sense, fairness, democracy would of seen the 10 millon spread evenly around connacht and then ye could build yere own one in breaffy. None of that exists in Connacht. Ours is planned for Strandhill just out side the town.

[Cosmo Kramer]

That would be fine if there was an unlimited pot of money to build five of them. But if you split the 10 million 5 ways, 2 million on a greenfield site might get you a bog standard pitch, changing rooms and maybe a small gym in each county. So instead of one centre of excellence you'd have no centre of excellence and five very average training facilities akin to what you'd find at a well run senior club. Given that facilities of that standard are in place in all five counties already, it would be money wasted, especially if left to the respective county boards. As this is being done at Connacht Council level, I have some hope that it will be a fairly high quality development.

I would imagine it would be difficult for the Connacht Council to justify funding an individual development in Strandhill on top of this, I take it you are funding that yourselves?

[Turlough O Carolan]

Interesting that the documentation says it will be used for a lot of FBD league matches (the facility, not the indoor pitch). You could have FBD double headers on January Saturdays and Sundays and bring more of a crowd in, show off the facilities etc. It would be a massive improvement on some of the dumps you end up traveling to in January watching those games.

I remember a few years ago a sight of Mayo men getting lost around Ballinlough trying to find the Glavey's pitch. Now Bekan isn't too far away from both Ballinlough and Ballyhaunis where every FBD league game between Mayo and Roscommon has been played since I can remember but it's still in the middle of nowhere. But it's much a bigger middle of nowhere, it's only claim to fame as someone said is that "Bekan" rhymes with "Bacon". This is the Connacht Council's Zombie Center of Excellence, one more last symbol of the Celtic Tiger era when concrete rubbish was just thrown up anywhere without any regard for location, access or need. The only time it might ever prove useful is if a Tsunami or earthquake hits Knock Village and they have to find some temporary shelter for dislocated nuns and their rosary beads.

[Rossfan]

Can't seewhat use this is to North Leitrim, North Sligo, North or South Roscommon, most of Galway and many parts of Mayo.
Another Prenty dictatorship decision.

[Lar Naparka]

I was pretty sceptical about Bekan as the preferred location when the centre of excellence was first mooted. It had the paw marks of a consensus by committee job all over the plans. It has been said that the camel was created on foot of a committee decision and I certainly thought we had another camel in the making on our hands when I observed all the horse trading and intrigue that it took for all five county committees to fix on a location and further to agree on what facilities the blessed centre was going to provide.
However, Bekan it is and I now believe it will prove to be an inspired choice. Like Cosmo, I took a look at a map of Connacht and Bekan is as close to dead centre as any reasonable individual could ask for. But I would suggest that location alone wasn't the prime reason for its selection; the road infrastructure had to be considered also.
It lies in an area bounded by the N17, N83 and N60. I'd welcome any suggestions from anyone who thinks there are better placed locations to serve the needs of all five Connacht counties.
Given the sheer size of Mayo and the appalling state of the roads in the northwest of the county, Bekan is more inaccessible for clubs in the Belmullet and Achill regions than for every club in Sligo, Roscommon and all of Galway, bar parts of Connemara and the extreme southern region. The same goes for the greater part of Leitrim also.
I have studied an AA road atlas and I am standing over what I have just stated.
So, sucks to anyone who thinks Mayo has come out best in the horse trading!

[magpie seanie]

Look the simple fact of the matter is that counties should have their own centres before you go down the route of contemplating provincial ones. I really don't see the point of it. It's a complete joke. No sport facility is a waste of money but the money could be spent so much better whatever the amount.

[neilthemac]

€10 million and not a handball alley in sight...

it'll be used mainly to play:
colleges games
3rd level games
primary school blitzes

I cannot see who will train there:
Mayo teams?

all the other counties are developing centres. the money from Croker was meant to help clubs. if that means county teams will have somewhere to train and play challenge games and save the club pitches up and down the country then that is money well spent. but i do not know who will use this Prenty Palace. its like some Nicolae Ceauşescu would have built in Romania back in the day to demonstrate his largesse and greatness