Connacht willing to sell naming rights to help fund €30m stadium revamp

CONNACHT will consider selling the naming rights to the Sportsground as part of their €30m plan to redevelop the stadium.

The province announced their decision to stay at the Galway venue yesterday, revealing plans for a new stadium and highperformance centre that will include a partially indoor training pitch, having reached agreement with the Irish Greyhound Board.

Chief executive Willie Ruane said the organisation will consider installing a synthetic pitch in a bid to get the most out of the redeveloped ground which will cater for a crowd of 12,000 when completed.

Connacht will not leave the Sportsground during the phased redevelopment that will start with the resurfacing of the pitch, before the high-performance centre is built and work begins on the new stands.

AS WELL as additional seating, the new stadium will offer Connacht a chance to generate additional revenue through their corporate facilities.

Connacht have engaged with the Government and met with Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross and Junior Minister Brendan Griffin in advance of going public with their plans.

They hope to secure funding for the work from the Government’s soon-to-be-announced €50m Large Scale Sport Infrastructure fund.

Leinster’s development of the RDS, Meath GAA’s Páirc Tailteann and Dublin City Council’s redevelopment of Dalymount Park, in conjunction with Bohemian FC, are all hoping to draw from the same source.

“This is the first time in about 10 years that the State is making funds of this size available for projects like this, so all of these projects require significant State support,” Ruane said.

“You just have to make sure that when it becomes available you’re ready to move.

“Our planning application will be going in in the next few weeks, we’re pretty confident in terms of that; we’re developing a stadium on the site of a stadium.

“We will take local residents’ views into account, opening up an engagement process with them where we’ll have an open evening, they can come in and review the plans and ask questions.

Planning

“Outside of that, we’d like to think that we’ve a pretty good planning case.”

Asked if the sale of naming rights would be on the table to help cover Connacht’s end of the refurbishment, Ruane said: “That’s a conversation we intend having as well.”

Leinster are reported to have signed a €650,000-a-year deal with Laya Healthcare for the naming rights of the RDS when its work is completed.

Having visited a host of sporting venues during the more than two-year process to date, Ruane remains open-minded on the playing surface as Connacht plan for the realities of life on the west coast of Ireland.

“We’ll look at them all, which one will give us the level of durability and usability in terms of everything else,” he said

“One of the big factors for us is that we have every cup final from U-13s, every level through in grassroots rugby, play here. We want this to be their Aviva Stadium.

“Whatever surface, it will give us greater capacity to go out and play those games but also in the knowledge that we won’t have any issues the following week in terms of the performance of the facility.”