Stadium will be built insists Fitzpatrick

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“Myself and a delegation from the County Board will attend the meeting and this will be the first time that all the relevant people will be in the same room together. Questions will be asked and answered. Concerns will be put to bed and I’m very confident that we will have a positive outcome from the meeting. This meeting needed to take place and once we sort out these minor issues the building of our new stadium will commence,” insisted Fitzpatrick.

“I did briefly resign on Sunday evening but I’m back fully on board now as Louth GAA Chairman and I am 100% committed to delivering this stadium for the people of Louth,” he added.

The long-touted plan to build a brand-new stadium in Dundalk for Louth GAA was dealt a damaging blow over the weekend as Croke Park officials demanded the Louth County Board to halt the project pending a reassessment of the costs involved..

The fallout of that instruction from Croke Park saw Peter Fitzpatrick briefly resign as Chairman of the county board during a hastily arranged and reportedly heated emergency meeting in Darver on Sunday evening. He withdrew that resignation the following day as Louth GAA announced that he would lead a delegation to Croke Park yesterday afternoon.

The County Board under the chairmanship of Peter Fitzpatrick had invited the public to attend a formal launch of the commencement of the building of the stadium with the main contractor Ganson due to officially make a start on the project.

However, that launch was unceremoniously halted after officials from Croke Park directed the County Board to postpone the launch amid worries about the spiralling costs of the project.

A statement from the GAA confirmed that they had instructed Louth County Board not to proceed with the launch.

“Meetings of An Coiste Bainistíochta and Ard Chomhairle took place last night (July 14th) and today (July 15th) respectively. The following decisions were taken: It was agreed to instruct Coiste Contae an Lú not to proceed with the current plans for a new Stadium pending a reassessment.”

On Sunday evening a statement from Louth GAA confirmed that they had abided by that directive but insisted that the delay would be a short one.

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“Following communication with the GAA over the weekend, the launch and commence- ment of construction of our new stadium is postponed until early August”

Initially the costing for the 14,000 capacity stadium was quoted at in or around €12m but that figure ballooned to €29m in the space of a couple of years with a negotiated price of €25m eventually agreed with the main contractor Ganson.

€14.8 million of that figure was sourced from the governments Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP) while roughly another €3.2m has been raised/will be raised by the Louth County board from fundraising initiatives, selling seats in the new stadium and naming rights. It was hoped and expected that the shortfall would be made up by Croke Park as well as national grants but those hopes were dashed with headquarters expressing their concerns about the cost of the stadium.

Croke Park officials will no doubt ask questions of the Louth delegation about the €25m bill to fund the building of the stadium but Fitzpatrick insists that they have the answers to all the questions and that it remains full steam ahead for the stadium which is due to be completed in time for the Senior County Football final in September 2024.