McHale Park has been a home away from home for all those who have ever been involved in covering sports for local media in Mayo since the Castlebar grounds opened its doors in 1931, when Mayo took on Kildare at the grounds official opening. With the rain spilling down from an overcast spring afternoon last Friday the current day members of the local press corps were given a guided tour of the ambitious new development that has been undertaken at the famous old grounds. Led by Mayo GAA Board chairman James Waldron, the sheer size and ambition of the project became apparent. The old stand offered seating for 4,482 people with only 2,500 of those fully covered, had bad sight lines, and was far from the standards that you would expect from a modern ground. The new stand will see the capacity of the stadium go from an existing capacity of 35,482 up to 41,217, with the new stand offering 9,685 fully covered seats, the stand will stretch the full length of the pitch on the Sportlann side.
Waldron told the assembled media: “There won’t be a bad seat in the stand,” and looking out onto the pitch from the very back of the new development the chairman was right. “It is quite steep but that’s so nobody’s view will be obscured,” he added.
In less than eight weeks the grounds will be on show to the general public when Mayo host either Leitrim or Roscommon in the Connacht SFC semi-final. But the development won’t be completed with only 4,000 to 5,000 of the seats in the stand installed in time for the game. The rest of the seats will be installed later on this year.
But the development is not just about seats in a stadium, as construction workers zipped around under the belly of the new stand we were shown projects that are being constructed inside the giant concrete beast. A new roadway will pass through where the old scoreboard used to be, to allow teams to drive in on the team bus right up to the door of the dressing room. Four dressing rooms in total have been built in the stand to cater for two senior teams and two minor teams who may be competing on any given day in championship action. Also located in the belly of the stand will be a referee’s room, a new state of the art gymnasium, county board offices, a drug testing room, a medical room, meeting rooms and corporate hospitality rooms. Also located right at the back of the stand will be the new press box for the written press who are being moved from their old location on the far side of the field.
The old castle press box which was located on the McHale Road side of the ground has also been demolished and replaced by a new broadcast tower, which will host radio and television commentary, and will have space for a fully fledged TV studio for big games. The county board, which took out a 50 year lease on the grounds from landlords Castlebar Mitchels in 2005, has also installed a state of the art floodlight system in the grounds which will enable night games to be played at the venue, so next season when Mayo are due to host Galway in the national league it could be played there under lights.
Be there for all the action
If you want to be there for every missed point, goal, hop of the ball, and red card you can. The county board has a number of season tickets on sale to the general public from as little as €400 per year so you can have your own seat in the ground. There are a number of different packages available, including the Gold Star costing €3,000 per year, which is limited to 30 companies and gets you six seats in the stand, an advertising board for all games bar inter-county championship, and the opportunity to buy six tickets if Mayo reach the All Ireland final. The Silver Star package costs €2,000 per year and gives you the same perks as the gold but for four seats, while the Bronze Star package gives you a smaller advertising board at the game and two seats in the stand. All these packages are being sold on a minimum basis of five years. The individual member package costs €400 and will give you one seat in the ground for all games, while for €1,000 there is a family package which will get you three seats in the stand for all games.
For more information on any of the packages you can contact any of the McHale Park development committee. James Waldron (087 ) 2855744, Sean Feeney (087 ) 6838484, JP Lambe (087 ) 2333392, Tommy Goonan (087 ) 2624388, Michael Diskin (087 ) 6680115, Brendan Byrne (087 ) 26113030, Paddy McNicholas ( 085 ) 1744117, Donal McEllin (087 ) 2894277, John Surdival (087 ) 2587828, Jack King (087 ) 2595573, Eddie Cuffe (087 ) 2459104, Eamon Clarke (056 ) 2666059, Peter McLoughlin ( 087 ) 2801941.
