Fundraising appeal for state-of-art tennis complex

Athlone Tennis Club is looking forward to ushering in an exciting new era with the start of work on phase one of a new state-of-the-art tennis complex towards the end of this year.

It comes hot on the heels of a grant of €150,000 for the project from the Leader programme last month which will see the club move a short distance from the current base in Athlone GAA club to land adjacent to Athlone Regional Sports Centre.

The proposed facility, which was granted planning permission back in 2019, will incorporate six International Tennis Federation (ITF) tennis courts, all covered with an artificial grass surface, a clubhouse, LED floodlights, net dividers between each court and specialised training areas.

A unique new feature of the proposed complex is that half of the tennis courts will be indoors under a dome (subject to planning permission), offering tennis fans the ability to play in all weathers all year round.

“Because of the cost, we have broken the project into three phases – phase one will be three courts and a temporary clubhouse with floodlights.

“The second phase will be a further three courts and we hope they will be indoor under a dome. That will be subject to planning approval. The third phase will be a permanent clubhouse,” explained Oliver McGrath, who is Lead on the Development Team driving the project.

“It's exciting for the club, it's fantastic to have got the Leader application through and we have Sports Capital applications in which we won't know until the fourth quarter whether they have been successful,” he added, saying much work has been going on in the background in the last two years.

With the Leader funding in place, and another €50,000 already raised by the club, they are appealing to the public to help bridge the gap – some €90,000 - to allow them to begin the development in the fourth quarter of this year, a move which club members believe will open up tennis to many people with state-of-the-art facilities alongside Athlone Regional Sports Centre, the nearby outdoor fitness park, skate park and playground.

A bond purchase scheme has been set up and further information and details of this scheme can be found on the club’s website (www.athlonetennisclub.com), the club's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Athlone-Tennis-Club) or by messaging directly to bondsathlonetennisclub@gmail.com.

“We're hoping our bond scheme will be taken up by members of the club, the public and the wider community,” said Oliver McGrath as part of an appeal to the people of Athlone to get behind this ambitious project. It is hoped that other financial support for this ambitious project will come from the wider community through commercial sponsorship and donations.

It's estimated the first phase will cost €440,000 to put in place, while phase two around €600,000.

“I hope subject to funding we'd be playing on the new courts in March or April,” Oliver continued, pointing out that phase two would happen over the next two years or so, dependent on funding of course.

“We want everyone to use it (the new complex). That's why the dome is in there, it's a big facility which will give someone the chance to play tennis seven days a week, 365 days a year if they want to,” he detailed, saying that Minister of State Jack Chambers recently visited the site and was very impressed with the club's plans.

While hugely grateful to Athlone GAA Club, he said the lease there runs out in 2024, and the new project will put the club on a secure footing into the future courtesy of a 50-year lease agreed with Westmeath County Council for the 1.3 acre site. It also allows them to apply for major grants in the future, something they were precluded from to date because the club needed at least a 15-year lease to do so.

With over 300 members, substantially up since Covid-19, Oliver believes the club which is in existence since 1885 can grow even further with new facilities which will open tennis up to new groups, schools and players from other clubs in the Midlands who will travel to take advantage of indoor tennis all year round.

A number of town hall meetings have been taking place in recent days to inform club members about the project, which the team driving it says will strengthen the sport of tennis in the greater Athlone and Midlands areas and prove an invaluable recreational and educational amenity to further enhance the town's reputation.

He thanked David Costello, club manager for bringing the project to this stage, Cllrs Vinny McCormack and Tom Farrell for their assistance on the project, Barry Kehoe and Pat Coyle from Westmeath County Council and Peter Ormond from Westmeath Community Development who oversees the Leader programme.