Rovers redeveloping Roadstone

SHAMROCK Rovers are redeveloping their facility in Roadstone to construct a new 7 aside astro pitch which will be of great benefit to the youth teams.

The project is expected to cost in excess of €200,000 with the club availing of a sports capital grant worth €108,000 and the Members club financing the remainder of the payment from the club lotto and the bar profits at Tallaght Stadium.

Development of Roadstone has been viewed as a priority within the club with manager Stephen Bradley of the opinion that it is crucial in order to ensure that top players in the club continue to come through.

Brendan Dawson on the board of the members club spoke about how the conversation with Bradley went.

“We met with him a couple of months ago, he said that we need to be doing more with Roadstone in terms of developing it. We’re developing multi million euro players here but the facility has kind of stood still. He wanted to make the place feel like Shamrock Rovers.”

The development will see the current small sided grass pitch be replaced with a 7 aside astro which will allow for more training times throughout the winter months with the grass pitch unplayable  for several months of the year.

Funds for the project are also being raised through a club lotto which is being organised by the members club.

Roadstone is not owned by Rovers and also hosts a pitch and putt club as well as a snooker club with Rovers working with the Roadstone club in order to avail of their facilities.

The relationship between the two entities is extremely positive, without Roadstone working with Rovers they would not be able to provide the standards of their academy.

Rover’s work in Roadstone ensures that Tallaght and the surrounding areas are provided with some of the best facilities in the country. 500-600 people train each week at the facility including the first teams though the vast majority of this number are children belonging to Rover’s expansive youth section.

Another key demographic which is served by Roadstone is the Walking Football side which caters towards older members of the community who are still looking to remain active and have a social outlet.

The development of the astro pitch will serve children throughout the academy system from U7 and U8 level all the way up until they graduate to playing on full sized pitches as teenagers with an 11 aside astro already present within Roadstone.

The pitch is just the first of several developments that the club has in plan for Roadstone over the near future with pitch construction hoping to begin in June and finished by end of August.