Austin Stack Park closes for 11 months

Austin Stack Park is to close for up to 11 months to allow the laying of a new sand-based surface.

The redevelopment, which will see the Tralee venue become Kerry football’s primary home for future National League campaigns, is to commence next month and is expected to be completed in April of 2016.

The regeneration project, which includes upgrading the floodlight facilities at Austin Stack Park, is to cost in the region of €800,000.

Kerry chairman Patrick O’Sullivan says the board will finance half of the project. It met with the Tralee Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday to explore methods of fundraising the remaining €400,000.

“At the moment, the pitch at Austin Stack Park is a clay-based surface, which is not fit for purpose. What we are going to do is replace it with a sand-based surface to bring it up to the same standard as Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney,” said O’Sullivan.

“This will mean that we can continue with our games programme and also teams will be able to train there, regardless of the weather. We aim to put in new floodlighting after the pitch is completed so as to enable us to fix evening games at the venue.”

O’Sullivan has promised a greater role for the venue in hosting league and provincial fixtures.

“This year, we had four home NFL games, two were played in Killarney in February and two in Tralee in March. In the case of three home games, we are giving a commitment that it will be two in Tralee and one in Killarney. This is something we could not do last year because the weather was so bad. We had to move the Derry game to Killarney so Tralee lost out on a big game.

“We will play all our minor and U21 inter-county games in Tralee. When it comes to our own county championships, we will play nearly three quarters of our matches in Tralee and the entire senior hurling championship. Unless we do this work now, Tralee will continue to lose games because the surface and the lighting is simply not good enough.”

Most Kerry SHC games are set to be played at Abbeydorney this summer.

“The secretary is talking to Abbeydorney and I was talking to their delegate Timmy Weir on Monday night and we would be hoping to play a lot of the matches in Abbeydorney and, depending on the final, we will have to see who is involved and then decide.”