The Waterford County Board will “explore every possibility” of hosting home Munster hurling championship matches next summer, including the prospect of staging games at Fraher Field in Dungarvan.
With a reduced capacity at Walsh Park of just 8,000, plus the need for development work, Waterford played both their “home” games in this summer’s round-robin series in away venues – drawing with Tipperary at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, and losing to Cork at Semple Stadium in Thurles. They also lost “away” to Clare and Limerick.
Provisional planning permission for the redevelopment work has been granted, but is still subject to an appeal process, the final outcome of which should be known early next month.
“Nothing has been decided yet,” said Waterford county secretary Pat Flynn. “We’re waiting to see where we are in the development process, whether we get planning, and that will determine where we go from there. If the planning doesn’t come through then we could be looking at a proportion of it being completed in time or not.
“We won’t know until after that process is complete, and we hope to have news one way or the other in the next week or two. The planning permission is still open to appeal, but we haven’t being officially advised yet or not whether any appeal is successful. We would hope to get some clarification quite soon. We are definitely not ruling anything out or anything in at the moment, and definitely will be exploring every possibility.”
Fraher Field has a capacity of 15,000, but was not considered suitable for Waterford’s hurling championship matches this summer: it might, however, be put forward as Waterford’s preferred venue for 2019.
All the facts
“That would be up to ourselves and the Munster Council to decide on it,” said Flynn. “The Munster Council are anxious to have it all tied up in the next few weeks as well, but we can’t make a decision until we have all the facts. We’ve also had initial talks with Croke Park and the Munster Council in terms of finance, that’s ongoing at the moment, so we’d be optimistic on that as well. In fairness, if at all possible, we would hope to play those games in Waterford.”
One local objection by Belvedere Manor Residents’ Association against the proposed redevelopment was deemed invalid.
If approved the plan is for a new 16,000-capacity stadium, with a cost of close to €7 million. The current stand on Slievekeale Road will be upgraded along with a new press area, while the Keane’s Road terrace stand is also expected to be covered and provide wheelchair accommodation.
The redevelopment is also set to include four new dressing rooms, office space and shops, plus off-street parking for team buses.
Among those most keen to see some agreement on home games for next summer is new Waterford manager Pauric Fanning, confirmed last week to succeed Derek McGrath.
A former selector with the county, Fanning had been part of Davy Fitzgerald’s Wexford backroom team for the past two seasons. Benji Whelan was also named as the Waterford football manager.
