Galway United rolled out the big guns this week to convince the Government to back its plans for a €10 million training centre outside Athenry – with a plea for €7 million of that to come from state coffers.

Plans for the 15-acre site at Mountain South in East Galway – once part of the ill-fated Galway Hurling Centre of Excellence before it failed to get off the ground – would see the centre shared with Athenry Swans, providing a desperately-needed hockey pitch for the club and Connacht Hockey in general.

The plans, which are currently being finalised before being submitted to planners, include an all-weather 3G football pitch, a grass pitch, an all-weather 2G hockey pitch, a high-tech physical therapy and training suite, indoor gym and admin facilities.

It would mean that all of Galway United’s teams – men and women, from academy to League of Ireland – could train in one location instead of renting space on an ad hoc basis across the city and county. And it would allow the fledgling Athenry Swans to play a home match for the first time, instead of travelling as far as Athlone and Sligo to fulfil their fixtures.

Details of the proposal were unveiled at an event in Mary Mullen’s Bar off Eyre Square – owned by Galway United chairman Jonathan Corbett – this week.

But this was also the launch of a campaign to ensure state funding for the project, with the FAI and Hockey Ireland offering their own expertise on the application for this €7 million slice of the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund.

This is the same fund that Connacht Rugby successfully accessed when the then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar came to the Sportground to confirm a €10 million package almost four years ago.

Caption: The proposed site of the new training centre at Mountain South, outside Athenry.

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