St Conleth's Park €17.5m redevelopment to begin at the end of March

Kildare GAA chairperson Mick Gorman says the redevelopment of St Conleth's Park in Newbridge has had to endure several challenges and obstacles but work on the €17.5m facelift will finally begin this month.

Contracts were signed on the long-awaited development at the Osprey Hotel in Naas on Thursday night.

Construction will commence on Monday, 27 March after Kildare's final Allianz Football League game with Meath and will continue for a period of 18 months.

This means that the ground will be completely closed during construction and reopening is anticipated in time for the county finals of 2024.

New venues will have to be found for club championship games and alternative arrangements made for Kildare’s 2024 home league fixtures.

Speaking to RTE Sport, chairman Mick Gorman said the county had to fight hard to reach this point.

The re-development was originally costed at around €10.5m in 2019 but due to rising costs the project was been delayed until the necessary finances were all in place to proceed.

"Covid definitely impacted on the finances of everyone, there were serious challenges with that," he said.

"Inflation, the cost of steel, all of that had a huge bearing on this project.

"But we have been running at a surplus in the county board and we were able to put €2m aside into the redevelopment fund because of that.

"We also put in €2m in borrowings. We received a grant from the Government funding of €4.875m through the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) grant of €4.875m."

Kildare also received funding from the Government’s IIP (Immigrant Investor Programme worth €4m.

Aside from support from the Government’s Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) and IIP scheme, the GAA’s Central Council and Leinster Council