MacHale Park debt has to be paid off

Mike Finnerty

THERE may be approximately 35 years of debt repayments remaining on the MacHale Park redevelopment loan — which is costing €25,000 per month to service — but Mayo GAA ‘need to invest further’ in the facility in order to ensure ‘a return on the investment’.
That’s the belief of Mayo GAA chairman Seamus Tuohy who says that ‘maximising the usage of the facility’ will be one of his main priorities during his term.
“We have a fabulous stadium, and we're trying to support that infrastructure at the moment,” he told The Mayo News. “That is the home of Mayo football.
“Supporters and the wider diaspora have invested in this and we need to protect that investment. MacHale Park will be there. Your sons and daughters will get the opportunity to play there and it's a fabulous stadium.
It’s something special. Anyone that ever played Gaelic football wanted to kick a ball in MacHale Park, it's the Croke Park of Mayo.
“You have invested in it, let's protect that investment. It did cost money, but it’s the home of Gaelic football in the county.
“We've a fabulous stadium, but as I already said, we need to get more use out of that stadium. We need to invest further.
“Because too often you go in there and there's no-one in there. We want to go in there and create a hive of activity in there, maximise the usage of the facility. If we do that, I think people will feel more comfortable with this investment.
“It’s something we had to have, we had to have a county grounds. It cost a fair sum of money, there is a loan that has to repaid, it has to be paid back, and none of us are going to renege on that.
“Croke Park are our partners at the end of the day and we work with them.
“From time to time it's important we have a review with them, particularly about what our commitments are going to be going forward. And we'd hope Croke Park will come on board and support us down the line with the Centre of Excellence/new Academy Centre in MacHale Park.”
Tuohy explained that revenues raised from the sale of Mayo GAA’s annual Cairde Maigheo [Development Draw] tickets ‘pays for a lot of the repayments’ on the MacHale Park loan.
Mayo GAA will pay €3m over the next ten years in repayments on the loan for the redevelopment of the MacHale Park stadium in Castlebar back in 2008.
The stadium has also required some maintenance work to be carried out recently, with more projects in line for 2023.
“The most recent thing we have done is we have upgraded the lights in the stand,” said Seamus Tuohy.
“Going forward, the floodlights on MacHale Park itself need upgrading so that’s another investment that will be needed. The whole stadium, I think, we need to improve on the infrastructure, to make it more suitable for meetings and for reasons that may be required.
“And I wouldn't rule out, I’d love to see MacHale Park become an all-seater stadium.
“I think it's important. The day of concrete beams, right around the outskirts of a ground, I'd like to see an all-seater situation, even though it would cut back on capacity.
“But it's about making it comfortable for our supporters.”
However, holding a major concert at the Mayo GAA venue to raise funds seems unlikely.
“Personally, I was never a hugely in favour of concerts,” said the chairman.
“I wouldn't rule it out if somebody came with a plan and there was an opportunity to raise quite significant funds. Then I wouldn’t rule it out.
“But the pitch, for me, it’s a playing area. It was never envisaged that it would be for concerts.
“Often these short-term gains may not do the pitch surface any favours.
“What I’d like to do, is give the pitch this period of our recovery and manage our games going forward, to maximize the amount of games that we can get into into Hastings Insurance MacHale Park for our players.”