Have Salthill Devon been promoted to the LOI? Things have gone very quiet. The last I heard was that the needed to confirm their licence but that was weeks ago. Any confirmation on where they are going to play?
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Have Salthill Devon been promoted to the LOI? Things have gone very quiet. The last I heard was that the needed to confirm their licence but that was weeks ago. Any confirmation on where they are going to play?
If they get in they'll be playing in Drom I think
There's always been a good history there and years ago I played in the summer festival there. it would certainly add spice to the west!
Good luck to them anyway, although i don't agree with them being here.
They would certainly be very competitive in the First Division, so on balance they should take their chance at the next level. Like Acornvilla though, you'd worry whether they have the support to maintain a club for a 33-game season, and having three clubs (for now) fighting for the same fanbase doesn't help matters, but I could see them finishing comfortably in midtable based on last year.
There is no stand in Drom although there is a fine clubhouse and large car park.
I will attend their games as I am from Salthill.
That's for sure. Terryland is reasonably accessible. Drom is on technically outside the city on a country road in the middle of nowhere. There isn't a shop or pub for miles. My guess is that it is 8km from the Eyre Square/city centre.
Photos here: http://www.salthilldevon.ie/dromphotos.asp
very impressive alright.
Unfortunately the photos, impressive as they are, somewhat fail to convey the stark openness of the countryside around the area which leads to some of the coldest, windiest conditions known to mankind, even in the summer. An awful lot of games played there are affected by strong winds, which is a pity because the pitches are top notch.
I once saw a shot from 40 yards in a junior game, wind assisted, smack the crossbar, float up in the air before being blown back on to the bar, twice. Hit the bar three times in one go. Impressive.
My money would be on them not taking up the offer of First Division football.
It just looks like they'd be a great feeder club to United. The same as Mervue. It really is the FAI's fault for allowing this (the first year of the A Championship there were only three teams that could have been promoted and two were from Galway). One of them HAS to get relegated.
The FAI get blamed fro everything on here ! I'm not sure what you wanted them to actually do here though.
Is the introduction of a feeder system for the senior league broadly a positive development for Irish football ? Yes.
Can the FAI magically create or force a better geographic spread of clubs interested in joining the A League ? No.
The FAI can only deal with those who WANT to be in the A League and have the facilities/stability to merit inclusion. They can't just magic clubs up out of thin air to create a better geographical spread, regardless of how desireable it would be.
I hear Devon have purchased a stand and it will be in place for the start of the season.
Looks like they are readying for the 1st Division.
I wanted them not to put the league in this situation in the first place.
Agreed, I didn't say it wasn't.
Yes but they didn't have to accept all clubs that applied. For the most part it would be unwise to them not to but not in this scenario.
Not true. I have a friend who lives 100 meters from Drom and he and his fellow neighbours are watching every move the Salthill Devon make.
When the club originally purchased the land, the planning process was prolonged by the neighbours. The end result was that there could never be a bar, restriction times on floodlight usage, traffic restrictions etc. The neighbours don't want a stand in Drom and they are monitoring every move that the club make.
Interestingly, Drom is not in Salthill; in fact it is not even in Galway city. Galway County Council are governing council.
Meanwhile in Salthill itself, the GAA operated Pearse Stadium has been wrangled in a long running battle with local residents over the plans to erect floodlight pylons. http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=122200
I don't recall any such woes when any of the other many floodlit facilities in Galway were installing floodlights.
Doesn't sound like a suitable venue for LOI football then despite the pitches etc. You have to have some sort of stand and spectator facilities. I said this on here before some place but as a youngster I played in Drom and it was probably the coldest place I ever played. The wind is seriously strong there. Even colder than Bray which is saying something.
Mervue and Salthill are more entitled to use terryland than Galway are as they pay more into the Galway FA and have a greater share in the Galway FA, but last year anyway Galway United got first choice as they have been there longer than Mervue were. Thats what a friend of mine told me last year anyway, and he is involved with Mervue!!
im not sure if its 100% true but that what i was told, and he said that info came from some within the galway fa!!i would love to go to that game, was at teh a league game between them in mervue 2 years ago and the crowd was getting right into it, and it was a feisty game!!
Really ?
I assume you're referring to Galway being kept there at the expense of Dundalk, which is hardly the same as sticking a pin in the map and magicking up a new club out of thin air in the name of regional balance, as is the perennial sentiment from some on here.
They were put there, not kept there.. Although it's not the same thing as making up a club to give a better regional balance, the IAG process does show that the FAI do (or at least did) consider geography to be a relevant factor.
Population densities were taken into account to assess potential catchment areas for clubs in scoring the attendance section of the IAG process. Altogether this section accounted for 10% of the points.
It just shows what a complete waste of time the IAG process was. The FAI wanted the clubs with the potential for the largest fan bases in the Premier Division and yet three years down the line we end up with UCD and Sporting Fingal in the Premier along with 3 other Dublin clubs (and possibly also Shelbourne if Cork go under) and we get the model club of the IAG process Galway United having two new league clubs right on their doorstep to compete with.
All the best to Salthill next year.
I'm not familiar with the details but I'd be surprised if Salthill didn't take the oppurtunity of first division football.
They may never get the chance again and if it doesn't work out they can always go back to Junior football.
Galway United have first call on the use of Terryland Park. Last season, when there was a fixture clash, Mervue changed their fixture to Saturday evening.
if i had somthing to do with the running of salthill i'd take the chance.. if they do well and ome ahead of mervue theres always the possibility mervue could go back junior also so its worth the chance for a season yet.. by next season aftter this one there could easily only be 2 teams again possibly 1 so let them have their chance i say..
Unless Mervue improve significantly on the second half of last season, they'll be favourites for relegation with no Kildare, more so if Salthill provide more competition for players. The three Galway teams in the league could well only last for one season.