Club Development
Mervue Utd is delighted to have been informed by local TD Brian Walsh that the club has been successful in the Sports Capital Grant application process and have been awarded â¬190,000 under the Regional Sports Capital Programme announced by Minister Michael Ring in December 2012.
The club were recently granted permission to extend the All Weather playing pitch, which will also be resurfaced with an FAI approved playing surface so competitive games can be played on the pitch at Fahy's Field. The plans also include upgrading one of the pitches at Fahy's Field to the same standard as the main League of Ireland pitch and also a new training area and running track.
The club is committed to continually upgrading the facilities at Fahy's Field and providing the best possible playing facilities at Fahy's Field and O'Sullivan Park for all our club members and the many other sporting clubs and organisations that support the wonderful facilities available in Mervue.
The club board and committee have been working hard over the past twelve months on the club's application for the sports grant and would like to thank our local TD Brian Walsh for all his help and support of our application and also Tobin Consulting Engineers for all their hard work on the application. The club would also like to extend their thanks to Acting City Manager, Joe O'Neill, and Ciaran Hayes, Director of Transport and Infrastructure, and all the City Councillors for their support and help with the project. Thanks also to the local residents of Mervue, Wellpark and Tara Grove for their input into the proposed development. The club board would also like to thank all those who contributed in any way towards the advancement of this important development to the facilities at the club's base at Fahy's Field in Mervue.
Cllr Declan McDonnell and club CEO stated "the club is delighted with the awarding of the the grant allocation and now hope to be in a position to commence work on the project in April/May and have the All Weather pitch resurfaced and ready for use again by August/September for the start of next season's soccer campaign."
Local TD Brian Walsh who was instrumental in securing the grant for his local area stated "I am delighted to announce that almost half a million euro is to be invested in three Galway sports facilities under the Regional Sports Capital Programme. Mervue United will receive â¬190,000 for the extension and resurfacing of its synthetic playing pitch plus development of pitches and training area and running track at Fahy's Field.
Connacht Rugby will receive â¬200,000 for new changing facilities at the recently revamped Galway Sportsground. Galway and District League will receive â¬60,000 for new dressing rooms and physio rooms at Eamonn Deacy Park. This follows the investment of over â¬800,000 in sports and leisure facilities that I announced last August, and â¬1.4 million for clubs and organisations across the county under the Sports Capital Programme earlier this month."
Fahy's Field - 500 Seater Stand Plans
Plans for a 500 seater stand are one of the club's development plans with the club having attained a licence from the FAI to play their home Airtricity First Division games at Fahy's Field. Following a lot of upgrading works in January/February 2011 the club played all of our home games in the 2011 and 2012 Airtricity League at Fahy's Field.
The club had been given the use of Terryland for the entire 2009 and 2010 campaign, but as Chairman Declan McDonnell stated the plan was always for Johnny Glynns side to stage games at their own ground, once structures such as fencing, turnstiles etc had been put in place around the pitch at Fahyâs Field.
Declan McDonnell said that because the club was rooted in the community, had a successful lottery, and would retain its amateur ethos, he did not envisage Mervue having the kind of financial troubles which plagued many League of Ireland clubs in recent times.
âWe have a structure within our club, with a guaranteed income stream, which would make us different to most established clubsâ he said. âHaving said that, we will be watching the financial aspect of it from week to week and month to monthâ.
Having won their right to gain admission to the Airtricity League back in 2009 through the âAâ Championship, the club felt the time was right for Mervue to join the national league.
âWe are a community and the club, and I would have said ten years ago that it not for usâ, he said we would hope to develop a ground which is similar to the UCD Belfield Bowl eventually.
âWe just want to make sure we have the players to be competitive and to give a viable channel for the talented younger players in Galway to go into. Fortunately, the younger players at Mervue are that good, that some of them are ready to go into the teamâ.
John Glynn has said it was the community - based ethos of the club which attracted him to Mervue. âWhere we are right now is a testament to the vision of the people who decided to take up the challenge of going into the âAâ League and now the Airtricty Leagueâ. âLast year was a difficult year for the League of Ireland, but we are humbled to go into such a League. In times of recession, sport has always prospered and Galway is benefiting from where we are at the moment.â
Fans of the club, who currently have 600 members playing in 26 teams at all levels, can check out regular updates on www.mervueunited.com in the build up to the start of the new season
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