Shamrock Rovers are the main National League beneficiaries from the latest round of Sports Capital Grants which were announced by the Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid, in Dublin yesterday.
Rovers received £500,000 towards the cost of developing their new home in Tallaght, bringing the total funding for the scheme to date to around £1.4 million, or close to 60 per cent of the first phase price tag.
"We're still a long way off having the five-and-a-half million in place to complete the whole stadium," said Rovers chairman Joe Colwell yesterday, "but we're very happy with this latest allocation from the Government which brings us very close to having the funds in place to cover phase one."
That first phase includes the pitch as well as a 1,500-seat stand, and is to be ready for use by October, when the club hopes to start playing home matches in the south Dublin suburb.
Bohemians, meanwhile, were one of seven other clubs to benefit from yesterday's round of funding in which a total of £1.4 million was allocated to assist with work on league grounds.
In the case of the league champions, the money will be spent on the installation of additional seats at Dalymount Park. They hope to have some 8,200 seats by the start of September.
"We're very grateful for this latest money," said club chairman Gerry Cuffe. "It keeps us moving along in the right direction and towards our goal of ensuring that Dalymount Park is the leading venue for domestic football in the country."
Elsewhere, the Carlisle Grounds, the Showgrounds and Flancare Park also benefited. Bray are set to begin work on the development of the railway side of their ground over the coming months. Sligo are ready to install additional seats in their recently built stand, and Longford are nearing completion of their development of their home as an 8,000 all-seat stadium.
The transformation of Longford's home has, in fact, been the most dramatic in the whole league with Strokestown Road home now entirely unrecognisable from even a year or so ago, and there are further plans for the site with a number of all-weather pitches due to be installed when all of the work on spectator facilities is finished.
Along with Bray, Home Farm, meanwhile, were the largest recipients after Rovers with each of the two clubs getting £200,000. At Whitehall Road, where both Home Farm and their National League tenants, Dublin City, will benefit, there are plans for a £3 million redevelopment of the facilities which are eventually to include an 800-seat stand and a new clubhouse.
In his first official engagement as president of the FAI, Milo Corcoran welcomed the Minister's announcement as "a vote of confidence" in Irish football. He said that the grants would "enrich the communities (in which the various clubs are based) and the young people those clubs serve."
The Minister, meanwhile, noted that the latest sums handed out brought the total divided up among the various National League grounds over the past four years to more than £4 million.
