Inside Track: Plans for new county grounds are far from concrete

There was quite an exchange of messages, chat and no little excitement in local GAA circles on Thursday last with the arrival of big concrete structures at the site on Dundalk’s inner-relief road, where it’s proposed to build the new county grounds.

Those who didn’t see them for themselves – or maybe didn’t believe it had happened – were referred to a picture which appeared on social media. This had County Board chairman, Peter Fitzpatrick, and one of the county’s Leinster Council representatives, David Rogers, posing beside the structures.

“Is the work about to begin?”, was the most-frequently-asked question. And those who were told “It must be,” gave a sigh of relief, followed by “At last.”.

Sadly, that is not the case. No firm date for work to begin has been settled on. The ambitious forecast that there’d be football on the new sod in September of next year has been replaced by a more pragmatic approach to the completion date, taken by the new committee formed to oversee the project.

Unhappy with a plan the County Board had devised to finance the project, Croke Park warned on several occasions this year against work going ahead on the date, July 17th, that had been proposed for the launch.

Though this was eventually adhered to, but Croke Park – whose financial support for the project would be needed – still felt it necessary to take over.

Former GAA president, John Horan, was named as new chairman, working alongside three other Croke Park nominees and five from the County Board, including Peter Fitzpatrick and a club representative.

All contracts that had previously been signed were declared null and void, except the one for the building of the stand and terracing. This was because work on this had already been started, the contract having been awarded to a County Antrim company.

Work is believed to have begun early this year, but with the Board unable to meet payments, whatever had been completed had to be put in storage. This cost money; but rather than allow the bill to mount, Croke Park stepped in, granting Louth a loan to pay for work already done.

Happy with this arrangement, the manufacturing firm delivered the finished product, which is only part of what will be needed to complete the grandstand and terracing.

A new county ground remains the fervent hope of Gaels throughout the county. The fear among many of them was that with plans going askew a few months ago, a dream might not become a reality, and if the project was completed as first envisaged, a huge burden could be thrown on to clubs.

The involvement of Croke Park is a guarantee that this won’t happen.

The authority, which is also overseeing the rebuild of Navan’s Pairc Tailteann, doesn’t want to have another bail-out to deal with, following on from over-runs in Cork and Mayo.