Kildare's St Conleth’s Park to get facelift

By Daragh Ó Conchúir

St Conleth’s Park, the ground at the centre of the Newbridge or Nowhere campaign, is to be rebuilt to a capacity of 15,000.

Kildare GAA has been granted planning permission for the development, which will include a new, two-storey, 2,600 all-seater cover stand, plus the revamping of existing facilities.

The new stand will also be the site of four new dressing rooms, as well as a VIP area for dignitaries and commercial supporters, and meeting rooms/offices.

Other facilities will include food/services shops, toilets, and spectator concourses.

There will be a new civic plaza at the main entrance, and floodlighting.

The stadium had fallen into disrepair, after a proposal involving relocation to a greenfield site outside the town, and the sale of St Conleth’s for housing development, was held up by planning objections, before losing all traction with the onset of the recession.

Kildare lost the right to host Limerick in an All-Ireland qualifier in 2012, after the park’s capacity was slashed, due to health-and-safety concerns. But a subsequent qualifier, with Tyrone, the following year, went ahead without a hitch.

The capacity has increased gradually, with a number of improvements since, and was put at 9,020 by the Slattery Report. But the GAA sparked one of the controversies of this summer when it announced that, with an-as-yet-unexplained 10% reduction for all-ticket ties, this was not sufficient for them to host Mayo in the qualifiers and fixed the tie for Croke Park.

When Kildare’s executive, players, and management insisted that they would not play anywhere but their grounds, as the rules of the competition stipulated, and the weight of public opinion sided with them, the GAA were forced to row back and the Lilywhites went on to a famous victory.

St Conleth’s Park subsequently played host to another rousing encounter, in the Super 8s, in which Galway just edged out Cian O’Neill’s side.

By then, the plans had already been drawn up for a redevelopment that should remove any further question marks about Kildare’s ability to host major fixtures.

It will also improve the chances of securing a naming sponsor, which was revealed to be on the agenda of the board at the end of last year.