Plans revealed for new Drogheda stadium

While the close season is a time for building, Drogheda United are taking a more literal view of the off season and are set to build a new 3,500 seater stadium with an artificial pitch.

This project isn’t expected to take years, in fact, there are mooted reports that should it all go to plan that next season could be the Boynesiders last at Hunky Dorys/United Park.

This is a project which has been two years in the making and the group involved are almost ready to unveil their plans and aspirations to the town. Most importantly is that they are separate from the club and that they require no funding from Drogheda United, meaning the club’s day-to-day budget will be unaffected.

Speaking on LMFM’s late lunch show on Thursday, club president, Vincent Hoey outlined some of the details of the new proposed stadium.

“Now the present state of play is that the plans for the stadium are prepared, two years work has gone into this and these plans have been prepared and they fully comply with FAI and UEFA requirements. The stadium will have an artificial playing area which will be state of the art and of the very best quality.”

“The site has been identified, I’m not at liberty to confirm where it is yet. Negotiations are at an advanced stage, we just have to tie up certain legal requirements.”

He also spoke about how their will be capacity to expand the stadium with a maximum capacity believed to be around 8000.

“It will be planned in such a way that it can be extended, and we hope there comes a time which we will need to do this,” he laughed.

He insisted that the stadium will not be solely for the club, but it will be a community stadium. The fact that it will have an artificial surface means that it will be made available to local schools and youth teams.

Interestingly, Hoey began the interview with his reasons behind the development,

“First of all, I want to say the need for a stadium is vital. The way I see things is that an All-Ireland league will come, now that might not be in the too distant future and Drogheda has to be ready so we can take our part in that and we will have to have a reasonably good stadium to do it.”

It is believed that the old site of Hunky Dorys Park will be used as one site in the proposed two new primary care facilities touted for the North East.

Drogheda United manager Mick Cooke feels that the new stadium is a positive move forward for the club. The former Monaghan manager was around when Shamrock Rovers first tabled the idea of Tallaght Stadium which took almost a decade to complete.

Speaking on his future at the club, the Dubliner joked that he may be the next Mick O’Dwyer and continue managing well into his 70s.

“We are a club in ascendancy and my dream would be to remain with Drogheda and then for Robbie Horgan to step in and take the club from there,” he told the Drogheda Independent.

So far Drogheda have agreed terms with Gabriel Sava, Brian Gannon, Gavin Brennan and Derek Prendergast.