IT’LL BE A quiz question in years to come – who were the last two teams to play at Páirc Uí Chaoimh before it was redeveloped?
The natural answer is to go for Austin Stacks and The Nire, who played there last Sunday in the AIB Munster club final. Kieran Donaghy described the venue as ‘this old warhorse of a stadium’ as he basked in the glow of victory afterwards.
But instead the honour of playing the last game in the stadium before it shuts it doors will fall to the U14 hurlers of Cork clubs Midleton and Sarsfields. The East Cork clubs will play in a Rebel Óg Premier 1 league final with throw-in at 11.30am on Sunday morning.
After that the stadium will close its doors with a €70m refurbishment project planned after An Bord Pleanála finally gave the green light this week to allow the project to go ahead. The target is that construction work will commence next February.
Initially proposed in autumn 2012, the €70 million project was granted planning permission in April this year but was delayed to allow for a number of appeals from local residents.
The new facilities will include new playing and training facilities, performance assessment and rehab facilities, an all-weather pitch, restaurants, conference facilities and a museum.
Local residents will also have to be informed when the floodlights on the all-weather pitch will be in operation.
