GAA house draw postponed as 12,000 ticket-target not met

Meath GAA Co Board announced yesterday evening at 6.01pm that tonight's (31st October) scheduled first Pairc Tailteann redevelopment fundraising house draw would be postponed until Saturday 29th December.

The eight-week postponement is to facilitate more sales as the target of 12,000 tickets per draw has not been
achieved and according to Meath Co Board the clubs need more time for sales.

The logistics of planning a major draw appear to have been underestimated by Meath Co Board according to chairman Peter O'Halloran.

“Running a draw like this is a major operation and it took us longer than planned to put the framework in place," he stated.

The draw that was scheduled to take place tonight at Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim would have the first of three as part of plans to raise €1.5m for the redevelopment of Páirc Tailteann.  

Tickets for each draw are €100 but a three-draw ticket is available at a discount of €250. 

Meath Co Board hosted a special meeting about the project for club officials in November 2017 at Dunganny as a follow up to a meeting on the project the previous October.

This was to facilitate discussions on fundraising for the project, but that second meeting was subsequently postponed. 

Neither meeting was open to the media, but a spokesperson for the Co Board commented at that time - 
"In relation to Monday's meeting the clubs requested more time to discuss the project with their members."

The Co Board announced ambitious plans in April 2017 for a proposed €9 million redevelopment of Páirc Tailteann into a 21,000-seater stadium.

To get the project off the ground, the Co Board sought support from clubs to finance the initial estimated €300,000 cost of preparing detailed plans.

That support was forthcoming with the application submitted in December 2017.

Permission for the development was granted at the beginning of February this year.

THE PAIRC PLANS WERE ON VIEW AT AN OPEN FORUM IN NAVAN IN NOVEMBER 2017