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Development of Tuam Stadium

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You make a great point on mobilising our support. Nothing is done in this line.

Promotion of games on all media, Managers feeding their thoughts onto the media, match day experience, selling merchandise, memorabilia, live streaming club games etc. Galway is seriously lagging behind. Working with local community (Salthill or Tuam) to make match day a big day in the area.

Lots can be done and it should be a revenue generator which could be pumped into the facilities.

I realise the county board all do this in their spare time and it is very easy for us to say what should be done while expecting others to do it. Maybe (and i mean MAYBE) it is time to look at hiring a full time commercial director. Connacht rugby did it and increased their commercial revenue 10 fold never mind the knock on of increased attendances. It would be a big step and would need to be done right. Professional appointed with specific goals rather than someones nephew or a former player for the sake of it!

This topic needs a page on its own.

Mayonman (Galway) - Posts: 1922 - 02/02/2018 09:12:39    2073300

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Replying To Mayonman:  "You make a great point on mobilising our support. Nothing is done in this line.

Promotion of games on all media, Managers feeding their thoughts onto the media, match day experience, selling merchandise, memorabilia, live streaming club games etc. Galway is seriously lagging behind. Working with local community (Salthill or Tuam) to make match day a big day in the area.

Lots can be done and it should be a revenue generator which could be pumped into the facilities.

I realise the county board all do this in their spare time and it is very easy for us to say what should be done while expecting others to do it. Maybe (and i mean MAYBE) it is time to look at hiring a full time commercial director. Connacht rugby did it and increased their commercial revenue 10 fold never mind the knock on of increased attendances. It would be a big step and would need to be done right. Professional appointed with specific goals rather than someones nephew or a former player for the sake of it!

This topic needs a page on its own."
Do u16's get in free for league games?

JDF (Galway) - Posts: 322 - 02/02/2018 09:33:52    2073305

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Excellent piece about the pros and cons. I think if Tuam is to try and maximise its chance of attacting people in the future it should be developed into a compact 10,000 seater stadium , lights and seats. They could then have Saturday night games.
Pearse Stadium is the best facility for county games, players love it, and most fans enjoy it. If your telling me the view from the seats in Pearse are bad there something wrong. This summer we will have home games in the hurling championship and you will see big crowds ,hopefully the footballers will get into the super8s and they to will have home games.

On a side note, one never reads on hurling threads about how games should be in Kenny Park, its the spiritual home of hurling etc? People travel from Portumna , Kinvara Gort and more for games. They understand that Galway is a big county and fans come from as far west as Carna and CLiifden and as far east as Bsloe. Anybody who doesn't travel to Pearse Stadium for games because they feel it should be in Tuam, they aren't real GAA Gaels in my opinion.

puckemhard (Galway) - Posts: 235 - 02/02/2018 10:15:24    2073314

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Replying To puckemhard:  "Excellent piece about the pros and cons. I think if Tuam is to try and maximise its chance of attacting people in the future it should be developed into a compact 10,000 seater stadium , lights and seats. They could then have Saturday night games.
Pearse Stadium is the best facility for county games, players love it, and most fans enjoy it. If your telling me the view from the seats in Pearse are bad there something wrong. This summer we will have home games in the hurling championship and you will see big crowds ,hopefully the footballers will get into the super8s and they to will have home games.

On a side note, one never reads on hurling threads about how games should be in Kenny Park, its the spiritual home of hurling etc? People travel from Portumna , Kinvara Gort and more for games. They understand that Galway is a big county and fans come from as far west as Carna and CLiifden and as far east as Bsloe. Anybody who doesn't travel to Pearse Stadium for games because they feel it should be in Tuam, they aren't real GAA Gaels in my opinion."
10,000 is not sufficient- if there is going to be lkighhts installed then 20k is minimum-i would aim for 25k....imagine the dubs or mayo coming on a saturday at 7- would fill the place. need a proper warm up area, dressing room improvements and of course the stand and toilet facilities....probably 500k needed witht he lights costing asnother 60k....could be a while waiting!!

squares_edge (Galway) - Posts: 680 - 02/02/2018 10:32:05    2073320

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Replying To Mayonman:  "You make a great point on mobilising our support. Nothing is done in this line.

Promotion of games on all media, Managers feeding their thoughts onto the media, match day experience, selling merchandise, memorabilia, live streaming club games etc. Galway is seriously lagging behind. Working with local community (Salthill or Tuam) to make match day a big day in the area.

Lots can be done and it should be a revenue generator which could be pumped into the facilities.

I realise the county board all do this in their spare time and it is very easy for us to say what should be done while expecting others to do it. Maybe (and i mean MAYBE) it is time to look at hiring a full time commercial director. Connacht rugby did it and increased their commercial revenue 10 fold never mind the knock on of increased attendances. It would be a big step and would need to be done right. Professional appointed with specific goals rather than someones nephew or a former player for the sake of it!

This topic needs a page on its own."
Even having a mobile van selling Galway merchandise outside or at each ground whenever there's a game would be of huge benefit. Connacht Rugby have the merchandise van just inside the gate and Mayo GAA always have one outside McHale Park for games.

Think about it, if even a newbie, a young child or even adult buys something small - it all adds up. PLUS it adds to the amount of Maroon and White, Galway gearon show both inside and around the county, this has a knock-on effect and then more will want to have some Galway gear. I fairness, even though it pains me to say it, but if I'm ever in Mayo you'd see nearly 70% of kids and even auld wans ging around in Mayo gear on!

The_DOC (Galway) - Posts: 779 - 02/02/2018 11:15:49    2073336

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Replying To The_DOC:  "Even having a mobile van selling Galway merchandise outside or at each ground whenever there's a game would be of huge benefit. Connacht Rugby have the merchandise van just inside the gate and Mayo GAA always have one outside McHale Park for games.

Think about it, if even a newbie, a young child or even adult buys something small - it all adds up. PLUS it adds to the amount of Maroon and White, Galway gearon show both inside and around the county, this has a knock-on effect and then more will want to have some Galway gear. I fairness, even though it pains me to say it, but if I'm ever in Mayo you'd see nearly 70% of kids and even auld wans ging around in Mayo gear on!"
Mayo stream club games for a small fee. Not sure if they make money on it but it certainly promotes the game.

I live in Mayo for my sins but to be fair to them every man woman and child is passionate about the Mayo team. They have great support and while I am sure they have their own challenges with the county board they certainly seem to be more progressive than ours. Maybe I am being unfair and based on my lack of knowledge of what the Galway Board is doing but in a way that is my point. Mayo county board is always in the paper, meeting/arguments reported on, new initiatives etc.

Mayonman (Galway) - Posts: 1922 - 02/02/2018 13:07:10    2073363

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Replying To squares_edge:  "10,000 is not sufficient- if there is going to be lkighhts installed then 20k is minimum-i would aim for 25k....imagine the dubs or mayo coming on a saturday at 7- would fill the place. need a proper warm up area, dressing room improvements and of course the stand and toilet facilities....probably 500k needed witht he lights costing asnother 60k....could be a while waiting!!"
Dublin and Mayo are the two best supported counties in the country, yet when Dublin came to McHale park in 2016 10,500 attended this match. I think 10k would plenty for a county with poor enough supporters like ours. 60k would barely light the warm up area !

devrandom (Galway) - Posts: 77 - 02/02/2018 13:15:30    2073365

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Can someone confirm whether u16's can go in for free at league games?

If so its a travesty that our attendances are so low. Now I realise they wouldn't be counted on the gate but once you get kids interested you've got them forever and they'll paying supporters a few years down the line.

JDF (Galway) - Posts: 322 - 02/02/2018 13:34:48    2073373

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Replying To devrandom:  "Dublin and Mayo are the two best supported counties in the country, yet when Dublin came to McHale park in 2016 10,500 attended this match. I think 10k would plenty for a county with poor enough supporters like ours. 60k would barely light the warm up area !"
sorry dev but do you only want to use tuam for league games? that makes no sense to put that much money in and then only use it for games drawinf the max of 10k you say...
as for lights yes that should be closer to 150k id imagine once generator etc bought

squares_edge (Galway) - Posts: 680 - 02/02/2018 18:46:21    2073449

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Replying To squares_edge:  "sorry dev but do you only want to use tuam for league games? that makes no sense to put that much money in and then only use it for games drawinf the max of 10k you say...
as for lights yes that should be closer to 150k id imagine once generator etc bought"
I'd focus on redeveloping Tuam so that it could host club matches, especially games under lights ! and the odd league match. It just doesn't make sense for us as a county to have multiple stadiums with a capacity greater than 10k, i wont rehash why as ive explained the reasons in this thread already.

devrandom (Galway) - Posts: 77 - 02/02/2018 19:21:13    2073453

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Maybe 10k stadium in Tuam might be bit on small side but I do think 15k more than enough something like Athletic ground in Armagh a good atmosphere in smaller stadiums. Still think they should build new dressing rooms underneath a new stand and not build stand alone dressing rooms to me this would be wasteful could leave old dressing room for backup or maybe knock them and put in proper warm up area around that area if it possible,

Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 1069 - 02/02/2018 19:36:36    2073461

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I wish there was some strong leadership ,
to make he decision to start a major overhaul of tuam stadium
to start a major fundraising project with development plans made known to public
I live just outside galway city but would go to tuam for games anyday
getting from one side of city to pearse stadium at times can be a night mare
but its not just that tuam has allways been the natural home of galway football
its location next door to mayo near to Sligo and Roscommon etc
and the new motoray meaning easy acesss from other countys

rhudson (Galway) - Posts: 1478 - 03/02/2018 12:30:10    2073561

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how many people fit on the terraces in tuam as it is? stand would take about 4000?

squares_edge (Galway) - Posts: 680 - 03/02/2018 13:22:40    2073576

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Replying To rhudson:  "I wish there was some strong leadership ,
to make he decision to start a major overhaul of tuam stadium
to start a major fundraising project with development plans made known to public
I live just outside galway city but would go to tuam for games anyday
getting from one side of city to pearse stadium at times can be a night mare
but its not just that tuam has allways been the natural home of galway football
its location next door to mayo near to Sligo and Roscommon etc
and the new motoray meaning easy acesss from other countys"
In fairness there is a local committee raising money for Tuam stadium, its called the Dafts committee, they have raised 170k already ! The money will be used to rebuild the dressing rooms.

There is strong leadership in Galway GAA, they have decided to do redevelopment of Tuam Stadium as In Galway we have the following county grounds

- Athenry
- Tuam
- Ballinasloe
- Pearse Stadium

Sorry if I have left one out.

All of these stadiums have there merit and all cost money to keep maintained without even mentioning development.

In the old days there was the football board and the hurling board, and each maintained and developed there own facilities. Now we have one county board that maintains all the facilities.

The county boards doesn't have unlimited amount of funds, after the mountain south debacle they're actually pretty short of money. So they have decided to invest in one stadium, Pearse Stadium. This stadium doesn't suit anyone perfectly, but if the hurling community were given a choice between Tuam and Pearse stadium I would imagine they would pick Pearse Stadium.

One option would be for the county board to cut all spending on coaching and teams and invest in capital projects. Now that will probably mean the first day Mayo plays Galway in a redeveloped stadium the score line would be Galway 0.4 Mayo 15.18.

Unfortunately people need to wake up the financial predicament call Galway GAA finds itself in.

devrandom (Galway) - Posts: 77 - 03/02/2018 22:34:13    2073711

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Galway should try and market their teams a little bit better. With a sign outside the Pearse with the coming games for example. Galway GAA do not have the money to develope any more stadia. They are almost broke. So please no more "mad suggestions"!

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 2614 - 03/02/2018 23:24:29    2073723

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There's been numerous comments about the motorway making Tuam more accessible.

For whom exactly? The motorway isn't a huge game-changer by any stretch of the imagination. If you're from Gort and surrounding areas then yes its fantastic but aside from there isn't a major difference in the length of travel time. And traffic will still merge into the one road approaching the town after that. Unless you want to travel around the town. But that's only one relief.

And why is there a concern about making it easy for other supporters. One week you want to have every game in Tuam to make it harder for opponents but would you want to fill Tuam full of opposition fans. Tyrone nearly made up half of the ground last week, despite the long journey for them. Of course Mayo fans want to go to Tuam. they'll have a shorter journey home. Mayo fans will always find a way to get to the game. If going to Pearse makes their life harder then good.

FallenStar (Galway) - Posts: 427 - 04/02/2018 13:30:58    2073828

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Replying To FallenStar:  "There's been numerous comments about the motorway making Tuam more accessible.

For whom exactly? The motorway isn't a huge game-changer by any stretch of the imagination. If you're from Gort and surrounding areas then yes its fantastic but aside from there isn't a major difference in the length of travel time. And traffic will still merge into the one road approaching the town after that. Unless you want to travel around the town. But that's only one relief.

And why is there a concern about making it easy for other supporters. One week you want to have every game in Tuam to make it harder for opponents but would you want to fill Tuam full of opposition fans. Tyrone nearly made up half of the ground last week, despite the long journey for them. Of course Mayo fans want to go to Tuam. they'll have a shorter journey home. Mayo fans will always find a way to get to the game. If going to Pearse makes their life harder then good."
If the hard working people of Tuam on the dafts commitee knew you were so anti Tuam stadium fallenstar they would be disgusted. Granted nobody is saying that it is anywhere near fit for big games but jesus give them a chance. Afterall you are friends, clubmate ( or were ) to these guys so leave it be and give them a chance..

Belclare1 (Galway) - Posts: 1626 - 04/02/2018 16:13:37    2073867

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Replying To Belclare1:  "If the hard working people of Tuam on the dafts commitee knew you were so anti Tuam stadium fallenstar they would be disgusted. Granted nobody is saying that it is anywhere near fit for big games but jesus give them a chance. Afterall you are friends, clubmate ( or were ) to these guys so leave it be and give them a chance.."
Suffering jesus.

Feel free to look back amongst my posts. I've said more than once I hope the stadium is redeveloped. And I've said it will be a great facility to have.

What I also do is challenge the opinions that I think are nonsense. The motorway for example. I've researched it and from being on it, I don't see what major benefit it will do to alleviate match day traffic. No more than what affects Pearse Stadium.

However, people come along and say essentially that the motorway makes Tuam Stadium a much better option for Galway home games, when it actually doesn't. If someone wants to debate the points I raise, then by all means, respond with facts. If I'm wrong then I'll hold my hand up. Otherwise I'll challenge things that perpetuate myths.

I'd love to sit down and talk with the committee, to hear what the plans are, whats their long term goal etc. I've only heard it mentioned once that the stadium is going to be 18'000 all seater. I'd love to get more insight on that. As I mentioned above is it along the lines of McHale Park they want or something different etc.

My main motivation, is not for Tuam Stadium or for Pearse, but for the support. What good is it having Pearse (an excellent stadium) and Tuam (to be redeveloped) when we can't bloody fill them. Mobilising our support on a similar scale to Mayo would reap far more benefits than any stadium would.

FallenStar (Galway) - Posts: 427 - 04/02/2018 19:22:39    2074001

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Replying To FallenStar:  "Suffering jesus.

Feel free to look back amongst my posts. I've said more than once I hope the stadium is redeveloped. And I've said it will be a great facility to have.

What I also do is challenge the opinions that I think are nonsense. The motorway for example. I've researched it and from being on it, I don't see what major benefit it will do to alleviate match day traffic. No more than what affects Pearse Stadium.

However, people come along and say essentially that the motorway makes Tuam Stadium a much better option for Galway home games, when it actually doesn't. If someone wants to debate the points I raise, then by all means, respond with facts. If I'm wrong then I'll hold my hand up. Otherwise I'll challenge things that perpetuate myths.

I'd love to sit down and talk with the committee, to hear what the plans are, whats their long term goal etc. I've only heard it mentioned once that the stadium is going to be 18'000 all seater. I'd love to get more insight on that. As I mentioned above is it along the lines of McHale Park they want or something different etc.

My main motivation, is not for Tuam Stadium or for Pearse, but for the support. What good is it having Pearse (an excellent stadium) and Tuam (to be redeveloped) when we can't bloody fill them. Mobilising our support on a similar scale to Mayo would reap far more benefits than any stadium would."
Please God tell me how the motorway does not benefit Tuam, and a match in Tuam Stadium, Example, lets ask Mayo people next Sunday evening how was the traffic going through Tuam for their trip to Pearse stadium?. Lets compare it to last summer and three years ago especially there were tailbacks all through the town , that will not happen next Sunday. So Instead of people travelling to Tuam from North or South Galway through the town they now have the by pass and the new motorway into the town. Parking available in two business parks on the Galway rd 5 min walk to the stadium, Multi story car park, O tooles car parks all within five min walk, all with easy accesibilty to get out of town.
The problem starts when Gombeens decide to try and drive right up to the gate of the stadium and then give out about traffic.
You've researched it, what from going for a spin, will you stop, I live in the town, I travel the road daily, all daily tailbacks have ceased since the day it opened, its of huge benefit and down the line will help when hopefully Tuam stadium gets redeveloped.
And just so you know the main aim of redeveloping Tuam stadium now is not to fill the ground but to have proper facilities for all players, senior county down to schools, clubs etc and also proper facilities for supporters, after that well lets see what capacity they can attract..

Belclare1 (Galway) - Posts: 1626 - 05/02/2018 14:32:39    2074287

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Sad to hear the news of Tommy Varden's passing - a true Galway football man. I think all stops should now be pulled out by Co. Board/businesses and public, to ensure his noble vision for Tuam Stadium becomes a reality. Would be a nice touch if they named a new stand after him. Would Pudge settle for the the dressing rooms?..

Really (Galway) - Posts: 633 - 26/04/2018 19:48:14    2095158

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