Walsh Park will be ‘best in class’ as Waterford announce development date

Waterford hope to begin development work on  Walsh Park next year, with 2025 earmarked as the date for completion. Picture: Inpho/Laszlo Geczo

Waterford GAA launched its strategic plan Thursday evening, with improved facilities and increased participation among its key goals.

County chairman Sean Michael O’Regan acknowledged 2022 as a start date for redeveloping Walsh Park, with 2025 earmarked as the date for completion.

“We’re very confident, we have a very good project oversight team in place and we’re in discussions with Croke Park and the Munster Council.

“The timescale means there’s nothing going to happen in 2021, everyone is aware of that. Our target is to use this year to finalise our discussions with all the key stakeholders, to see the financial side of things, and to bring it all together and do this in a phased basis the way Croke Park was done — what Peter Quinn did, though that was on a larger basis.

“This is nothing like that, or the redevelopment of a Páirc Uí Chaoimh. In that sense it’ll be modest but for us, it’s hugely important.

It’s going to happen probably over a four or five-year basis but that will come around very fast. We hope to start in 2022 and have it completed within three to four years after that.

“All the costings will have to be examined and we’ll have to look at the best way for Waterford GAA to get to the finishing line financially and building-wise.”

Waterford Council chief executive Michael Walsh, a member of the Strategic Plan Committee, said the aim was to have “something that’s best in class for what it is” when it came to the redeveloped Walsh Park.

“It would have been targeted as a 16,000 (capacity) stadium, we think probably 12,000-13,000, but we want it to be a niche stadium that would be best in its class in the country on that scale, in terms of the customer experience and presence as a showcase for Waterford GAA.

“That’s the ambition and we believe that can be made happen.”

The strategic plan also aims to increase participation at all levels in the county and to embed fun as part of activities for younger children. To that end Waterford consulted Leinster Rugby and Dublin GAA among others, to learn more about player engagement and development, with an innovative ‘Wellkids’ programme the result of that consultation.

The plan’s key goals in full are coaching and games development; facilities; club development; adult competition structures; excellence in marketing and communication; and financial sustainability.