Club championship start date confirmed

WITH Louth’s cut short the Louth CCC has confirmed that the club championship will start on Thursday, July 7th.

The group stages are due to be played off over three consecutive weekends followed by a break for holidays and the final two rounds of the league.

It also emerged at last week’s June county board meeting that clubs hosting championship games will benefit from a rent hike this summer.

The finance committee carried out a review of long-standing field rents of €100 for single games and €150 for double headers and proposed they be increased by 50 per cent to €150 and €200 respectively with additional payments of €100 for hosting knockout games.

However, counter proposals were submitted by Geraldines and Clan Na Gael, seeking increases of up to €250 or 20 per cent of gate receipts.

Treasurer Aidan Berrill said that increases of that magni- tude would be too difficult to absorb and would inevitably fall back on clubs in the form of increased levies or a reduction in coaching and games resources.

Cooley’s Andy Quinn suggested an amendment to the finance committee’s initial proposal which would see single games increase to €200 and double headers rise to €300 - a 100 per cent increase - but with no extra payment for knockout games. When put to the floor this motion was passed by a large majority.

Later in the meeting, chairman Des Halpenny revealed more progress had been made on the county grounds issue with the news that the Drogheda Gaelic Grounds Company had been disbanded at an EGM. He said that legal documents were now in place to transfer ownership of the ground to the Louth County Board. He added that the stadium design team will be meeting in due course to discuss the planning application.