Mayo GAA plan Academy campus

THE CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS Mayo GAA Chairman Seamus Touhy is pictured speaking at the County Convention at the McWilliam Park Hotel in Claremorris recently. Pic: Conor McKeown


Exclusive
Mike Finnerty

THE cost of developing three pitches, one with a 4G surface, a ball-wall and a six-lane running track at Mulvey Park in Castlebar is likely to cost Mayo GAA between €3m and €5m.
During the course of a wide-ranging interview with The Mayo News last week, County Board chief Seamus Tuohy explained that the ambitious development will be used primarily for the training of Mayo’s inter-county teams and will form part of a ‘Mayo GAA Leadership Academy’ campus at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.
Tuohy said he believes that the ‘Mulvey Park phase’ is a medium-term solution to Mayo’s lack of training facilities. However, he feels it should only be the first step towards acquiring ‘a greenfield site’ as ‘four or five extra pitches will probably be needed down the line’ for Mayo teams to train on in the future.
The chairman also confirmed that Mayo GAA officials are ‘currently in discussions’ with Mayo County Council and the OPW with a view to ‘acquiring the two pieces of ground they need in order to proceed with the development plans that we have in place for Mulvey Park’.
“Hopefully, in mid to late January, we hope to bring those discussions to a close,” he added.
All going to plan, the Mayo GAA chief said that he hoped that the ‘Academy Centre’ — which would involve utilising the new Mulvey Park pitches and all of the facilities at MacHale Park — would be fully operational before his five-year term as chairman ends in 2026.
“Even in my time as vice-chairman, I had this vision for Mulvey Park,” said Tuohy.
“I felt that with the amount of ground that was down there, we weren’t maximising the usage of it. We have this ground, outside of the small pieces we need to add to it, so for me it was more of a medium-term solution to deal with the challenge we have for training facilities.
“So if we got that done, I think we need to keep another eye on a greenfield site in order to proceed, and there’s no doubt that it will happen with the amalgamation of the LGFA and the Camogie Association, that we will need more space, more green space, in order to facilitate these teams. And we are trying to facilitate them as best we can at the moment.
“But if we are to proceed with the amount of teams that we’re talking about, and the amount of usage that will be required, we would probably need four or five extra pitches down the line.
“So I think, let’s complete this Mulvey Park phase and then move to the next phase.
“Our view at the moment is that we need to make better usage of our MacHale Park facilities; the building itself, the offices, the training facility, the gyms, the physiotherapy room, all the other rooms and facilities.
“What I’m looking at here is creating a Mayo Academy Centre. So basically, it’s an area that people can walk into and feel inspired. This will be a campus that’s alive with activity, where people feel there’s a lot happening here, and are inspired by it.”
Club representatives were first told about the chairman’s ambitions plans for the ‘Leadership Academy’ campus at the recent County Convention.
He told The Mayo News where the name and concept for the project came from.
“When you go out and try to raise funds in order to achieve your goals, we all know that Mayo football, particularly anyone that’s involved in coaching, is much more than teaching the skills of the games,” he said.
“It’s about the development of young people, bringing them forward, preparing them for challenges, both now and into the future.
“So there’s a lot of stuff that can go on from a mental health perspective, from a coaching perspective, from a mentorship perspective, that you need to work on with young lads.
“And there’s a lot of challenges out there for young people who are involved in underage football and in county squads. It's a big challenge nowadays, so we need to prepare them for the bigger picture.
“The Leadership Academy is where you can create a more comprehensive programme for training education for young people.”
“My plan is to see it operational in my term of office, I think that’s quite achievable,” he added. “A lot of it won’t cost huge money, the pitches will cost the money.
“How we reconfigure the whole usage of McHale Park won’t require a huge investment, but it will require a structure and putting people into it who are going to facilitate programmes.”
In relation to raising the funds needed to finance the project, Seamus Tuohy explained that the Cairde Mhaigh Eo fund-raising committee have been researching ‘how best to raise these type of funds… ‘Because when the planning decision comes back, we need to know exactly what what is required here once we know the exact sum that's going to be required’.
“We have huge support out there,” he said.
“A lot of people want to help but we need to come up with a very constructive plan in order to go to these people and say, ‘This is our plan’.
“The idea of going down the Mayo Academy Leadership Academy route will attract further investment into what they need to achieve.
“As I said before, it’s not all about green pitches.”