Club Development
Plans for a 500 seater stand are the club's next exciting development with the club having attained a licence from the FAI to play their home Airtricity First Division games at Fahy's Field. Following a lot of upgrading works in January/February 2011 the club played all of our home games in the 2011 Airtricity League at Fahy's Field.
The club had been given the use of Terryland for the entire 2009 and 2010 campaign, but as Chairman Declan McDonnell stated the plan was always for Johnny Glynns side to stage games at their own ground, once structures such as fencing, turnstiles etc had been put in place around the pitch at Fahy’s Field.
Declan McDonnell said that because the club was rooted in the community, had a successful lottery, and would retain its amateur ethos, he did not envisage Mervue having the kind of financial troubles which plagued many League of Ireland clubs in recent times.
“We have a structure within our club, with a guaranteed income stream, which would make us different to most established clubs” he said. “Having said that, we will be watching the financial aspect of it from week to week and month to month”.
Having won their right to gain admission to the Airtricity League back in 2009 through the ’A’ Championship, the club felt the time was right for Mervue to join the national league.
“We are a community and the club, and I would have said ten years ago that it not for us”, he said we would hope to develop a ground which is similar to the UCD Belfield Bowl eventually.
“We just want to make sure we have the players to be competitive and to give a viable channel for the talented younger players in Galway to go into. Fortunately, the younger players at Mervue are that good, that some of them are ready to go into the team”.
John Glynn has said it was the community - based ethos of the club which attracted him to Mervue. “Where we are right now is a testament to the vision of the people who decided to take up the challenge of going into the ’A’ League and now the Airtricty League”. “Last year was a difficult year for the League of Ireland, but we are humbled to go into such a League. In times of recession, sport has always prospered and Galway is benefiting from where we are at the moment.”
Fans of the club, who currently have 600 members playing in 26 teams at all levels, can check out regular updates on www.mervueunited.com in the build up to the start of the new season
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