Details are revealed on planned Mayo GAA Centre of Excellence

€15.5 million. Plus VAT. That’s the initial estimate that has been placed on Mayo GAA’s plan to develop its own Centre of Excellence in Bohola.

Confirmation that the county board aims to proceed with the project in 2025 was given by Seamus Tuohy at last Wednesday’s Mayo GAA County Convention in Ballina. The chairman cautioned, however, that the venture was still at a very early stage, saying there was a “huge programme of work” to be undertaken before planning is even sought for the proposed facility, including legal transactions, site surveys, site investigation and tendering process.

€15.5 million, however, may already be a conservative estimate as to the total cost of bringing the Mayo GAA Centre of Excellence to completion, as the figure is based on a four pitch development. On Wednesday night, Seamus Tuohy revealed it was already the board’s intention to seek agreement with Bohola Community Council to develop a fifth pitch on adjoining land that is in the ownership of BCC.

Mayo LGFA has already entered a licence agreement with Durkan Bohola Community Park which is to act as a training base for all of Mayo’s ladies football teams.

That land, likewise Mayo GAA’s 26 acres, has been gifted by construction tycoon and Bohola native, Bill Durkan.

Thanking Mr Durkan for his generosity and support on the proposed project, Seamus Tuohy said: “A Centre of Excellence can be the most exciting project ever undertaken by Mayo GAA and who is to say it won’t prove to be the missing brick in our ultimate dream for this county since 1951.” 

Describing the planned facility as “state-of-the-art”, Tuohy highlighted its centrality and accessibility. Along with dressing rooms, gym facilities and other ancillary meeting and storage rooms, two of the four pitches would be floodlit.

“How can we pay for this?” posed Seamus Tuohy rhetorically, before proposing that Mayo GAA appoints either a full-time Commercial Business Development Manager or Chief Executive Officer to “drive the project forward, develop new sponsorship opportunities and explore all available grants”.

He said it's his intention to bring that proposal to an upcoming meeting of the Mayo GAA Management Committee and hopes the committee will explore all avenues to bring this to reality.

“The appointment is critical to start our fundraising as soon as possible,” said the chairman, adding that any new appointee would work alongside Mayo GAA’s existing financial manager and Cairde Maigh Eo, its fundraising arm.

“There are huge opportunities out there and together with exchequer state funding, together we can reach our goal,” he predicted.

Other topics raised by Seamus Tuohy during his chairman’s address, included the work of the Football Rules Committee (FRC) that recently saw wholesale change to the rules of Gaelic football adopted by Special Congress. Saying that any new and innovative ideas are welcome, he cautioned it was also important to strike a balance and that the coming year was certainly not the time to have decided to remove pre-season inter-county competitions where players could have adjusted to the rules prior to the commencement of the Allianz Football League.

Tuohy also noted the current high number of managerial vacancies at club level in Mayo, across all three grades of senior, intermediate and junior football, saying it’s worth asking why so many managers are stepping down and whether now is the right time for clubs to return to appointing “homegrown” managers more often.