UCD has announced that it is to build a new €3 million track-and-field athletics facility to be operational as soon as 2020.
This will replace the one torn up at short notice in 2011.
The move comes with news that an anonymous donor has come forward to fund the likely €3 million construction cost of the facility.
It will be located at the opposite end of the campus to where the original track was, close to the University’s impressive sports facilities that include the UCD Bowl, home to the Women’s Rugby World Cup last year and UCD’s SSE Airtricity League soccer team, as well as the National Hockey Arena the 50 metre Olympic Swimming pool and the GAA and other sporting grounds.
Leinster Rugby’s headquarters is on adjacent grounds to the campus.
UCD is reporting that the cost of the track will be covered in full by an anonymous donor and that the gift will include the cost of maintaining it for a period of at least the next twenty years.
“With the support of a major philanthropic donation, the University is proud to announce that it is now able to move forward with the design, planning and development of a new athletics track on the Belfield campus,” said UCD President, Professor Andrew Deeks.
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“The lack of an athletics track on the campus has put additional pressure on our athletes, some of whom have had to commute daily between campus and off-campus facilities for their training sessions.”
“We are grateful to these athletes and to the wider university community for their patience.”
“The University always aspired to have a world-class athletics track as part of the university’s overall sporting facilities, but lacked the funding to deliver on this aspiration.”
“We are extremely grateful to the anonymous philanthropist who stepped into the breach, and whose generous donation will now fully enable the track project and the maintenance of the track for the next twenty years, after which the university is committed to maintaining the track.”
“Our entire university community owes an enormous debt of gratitude to this donor, and to all donors to the University, for the remarkable generosity that is enabling us to transform the teaching, research and sporting facilities on campus for this generation and for generations to come.”
“A key feature of a successful university campus is the availability of world-class sporting and recreation facilities. The provision of publicly accessible, attractive, and welcoming facilities helps to promote a balanced, healthy life for students, faculty, staff and the wider community.”
The new track will add to the scarce athletics facilities in Dublin. Santry Stadium is managed by the National Sports Campus which itself has an impressive indoor facility to match that built at Athlone Institute of Technology.
Work has also been undertaken on the feasibility of a track and field and multi-sports facility on grounds owned by Dundrum South Dublin Athletics Club.
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