Wexford soccer to get its own grounds

June 1997

Wexford soccer has received a major boost as Wexford Corporation has agreed to sell lands at Carriglawn to the Wexford & District Soccer League to develop a permanent home there for ‘ the beautiful game’.

League officials are delighted that after a number of years of planning and fruitless searching, they have finally now got concrete plans for building a county soccer ground.

Work on the site will start as soon as a price is set and the transfer of deeds arranged. There could be soccer action on a new pitch in Carriglawn as soon as Christmas, according to the Wexford youths team manager and well-known builder, Mick Wallace.

The site is on a major slope but this will be used to make a ‘ terraced’ effect, with a car park and buildings on top, and the pitches on ‘steps’. ‘It’s a crazy surface, but location is everything,’ said Mr Wallace.

Indeed, the state of the Carriglawn site will add greatly to the costs of developing the complex, but it is better than being out in the sticks, according to Mr Wallace.

Location is everything and for that reason the Carriglawn site is perfect. There are six schools within one mile of the site – five of which have no outdoor sporting facilities.

The complex will be open to these schools, according to the League. It will also host inter-county games at all levels, domestic cup semis and finals, and prestigious representative games.

The total cost of the development will be £400,000 and the League has already saved £70,000, got £50,000 from the National Lottery, and has been promised finance for another £85,000.

‘We will have to make a countywide appeal then to raise the rest of the funds,’ according to Mr Wallace.