WIT Sports and Conference Centre

Max Powers

See article from Examiner.ie.
This is a great addition to the regions conference capabilities. Badly needed in Waterford. I presume it could it be used for other events like concerts, shows, etc

Construction of sports arena to create 200 jobs

By Ciarán Murphy
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
ABOUT 200 jobs will be created during the construction of a €10.5 million multi-purpose sports arena at Waterford Institute of Technology.
Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin yesterday turned the sod on the project at Carriganore, on the outskirts of Waterford city.

The project is being funded by WIT campus services and will comprise of four playing pitches with a conference centre capable of seating 2,000 people.

The conference centre will double as a 1,000-student seat examination centre with ancillary sports and catering facilities.

The ceremony was also attended by president of the GAA, Christy Cooney, mayor of County Waterford, Liam Brazil, chairman of WIT, Dr Donal Ormonde, and acting president of WIT, Tony McFeely.

The facility complements the WIT sports arena built at a capital cost of €8.5m and is designed to integrate fully with the sports pavilion, changing facilities and outdoor pitches, which were finished last year.

Mr Howlin said he was very pleased to be present at the beginning of a project which has the potential to become a world-class venue and which will showcase hurling, Ireland’s "unique contribution" to the world of sport.

He said that the centre "can be an example of best practice for the rest of the country".

Mr Brazil said: "Waterford County Council is fully supportive of this project and we will assist in its successful completion in every way possible.

"I wish the project every success and look forward to its completion," he added.

Dr Ormonde said: "The completion of this facility will add to the reputation of WIT as the place to study for athletes of all disciplines and will represent a very valuable asset to the infrastructure of the institute."

lA graphic representation of how the new facility will look can be viewed at witsportscampus.ie/nextsteps.html.



Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/construction-of-sports-arena-to-create-200-jobs-174003.html#ixzz1dru8b09t

CardBordWindow

Wahey!! A positive thread for once!!

STIG83

This going beside the existing Carriganore sport complex then? Plenty of green area around to build it.

rayc

It's pretty much an extension of the current sports building adding a large indoor arena.... effectively 3 indoor pitches/courts side by side.

http://www.witsportscampus.ie/nextsteps.html

G S R

Does this mean they'll turn the sports hall on the main campus into another building for classes?

Carraiganore is some set up.

Evelynmc

If anyone hears which company is getting the contract for the building work can you please post it here. Thanks

Lister_Petter

I think this is a bad idea. I mean there are already loads of pitches up in cariganore. And I rarely see more than 1 in use at the same time never mind all of them. Why do they need so many.
I think the money would be better spent on the Engineering and Business buildings that were cancelled rather than another batch of pitches.
THe arena/confrence centre is OK i guess but i think the pitches are unnecesary. THere are piles of playing field in waterford already - Carrignaore existing, RSC, Walsh pk, Roanmore, and countless others.

but I suppose thats what you get when you let a bunch of feckin GAA-heads in charge.
THen it could just be me as I have absolutely zero, nada interest in GAA or soccer or rugby.

G S R

Lister_Petter wrote: »

I think this is a bad idea. I mean there are already loads of pitches up in cariganore. And I rarely see more than 1 in use at the same time never mind all of them. Why do they need so many.
I think the money would be better spent on the Engineering and Business buildings that were cancelled rather than another batch of pitches.
THe arena/confrence centre is OK i guess but i think the pitches are unnecesary. THere are piles of playing field in waterford already - Carrignaore existing, RSC, Walsh pk, Roanmore, and countless others.

but I suppose thats what you get when you let a bunch of feckin GAA-heads in charge.
THen it could just be me as I have absolutely zero, nada interest in GAA or soccer or rugby.

Well considering WIT teams would have to pay to access other GAA/soccer fields, it makes sense if they own the land already. They can also rent it out to the Waterford County board for inter-county training (as they are doing already) and to other GAA/soccer teams so I'm sure it'll be a revenue maker for the college too. I don't think they have the use of the Waterford Crystal grounds (up by the swimming pool) as Waterford Crystal no longer own it (although I could be wrong here) so it makes some sense to upgrade, especially when you consider that their aim was to become a college of sporting excellence like UL. The one thing it does mean is that they'll have an indoor complex on the main campus which will become redundant when this is built.

The WIT Business building isn't in bad shape. The E corridor classes are all grand while 90% of the F corridor are grand too.

Is the Engineering building the "W" building? Didn't a lot of this building get upgraded over the past few years so most classrooms would be of a high enough standard.

O Riain

Lister_Petter wrote: »

I think this is a bad idea. I mean there are already loads of pitches up in cariganore. And I rarely see more than 1 in use at the same time never mind all of them. Why do they need so many.
I think the money would be better spent on the Engineering and Business buildings that were cancelled rather than another batch of pitches.
THe arena/confrence centre is OK i guess but i think the pitches are unnecesary. THere are piles of playing field in waterford already - Carrignaore existing, RSC, Walsh pk, Roanmore, and countless others.

but I suppose thats what you get when you let a bunch of feckin GAA-heads in charge.
THen it could just be me as I have absolutely zero, nada interest in GAA or soccer or rugby.

I drove by the other day and almost every pitch was in use, there was some serious activity going on there. One point to remember is that we are getting the hurling centre of excellence for the country. The place will be booming once this is finally set up.

Lister_Petter

The WIT Business building isn't in bad shape. The E corridor classes are all grand while 90% of the F corridor are grand too.

Is the Engineering building the "W" building? Didn't a lot of this building get upgraded over the past few years so most classrooms would be of a high enough standard.

Noyou have me wrong - there was supposed to be a new extra business building built on the site of the current T-block, which is now gutted and abandoned.
THere was supposed to be a new science and engineeing building where the old rear car-park was. It's a gravvelled site now and fenced off.
Neither of them will be built in the foreseeable future as the funding is dried up

Personally I think putting up these buildings would be far better use of money and is more importnant than a few football pitches.
If WIT want to have a good name I think it should be achieved by improving academic facilitiie and the quality of the courses - NOT by making it an enormous playground for jocks.

Higher Education should focus on just that, education - sports should be way down the list of priorities for any college especially when resources are scarce like now. Again, the GAA-heads seem to have far too much power over WIT anyway.
I just think the money could have been spent on better, more productive things.

G S R

Lister_Petter wrote: »

Noyou have me wrong - there was supposed to be a new extra business building built on the site of the current T-block, which is now gutted and abandoned.
THere was supposed to be a new science and engineeing building where the old rear car-park was. It's a gravvelled site now and fenced off.
Neither of them will be built in the foreseeable future as the funding is dried up

Personally I think putting up these buildings would be far better use of money and is more importnant than a few football pitches.
If WIT want to have a good name I think it should be achieved by improving academic facilitiie and the quality of the courses - NOT by making it an enormous playground for jocks.

Higher Education should focus on just that, education - sports should be way down the list of priorities for any college especially when resources are scarce like now. Again, the GAA-heads seem to have far too much power over WIT anyway.
I just think the money could have been spent on better, more productive things.

Ah I see.

A lot of the WIT courses need to be modernised alright but I'm not sure if I'd agree with you or your terminology on the GAA/sports players.

There is definitely a degree of prestige for the college when they are associated with successful GAA players. This year, a large amount of former/current WIT students players in All Ireland finals: http://wit.gaa.ie/news-2/witpastpresentplayerstakehomeallirelandhonours

Brian O Meara of Tipperary got his chance with Tipp after playing well in the Fitzgibbon cup in 2010. TJ Reid of Kilkenny is now a successful entrepreneur and would have learned many of these skills in WIT whilst also representing the college at Fitzgibbon cup level. I've hurled with WIT myself when I was there and I'll tell you this, it's not that easy to keep high grades and hurl with the college so fair play to any of the current group of hurlers that are able to do it.

There's more to Higher Education than just academic achievements. At the end of the day a degree/postgraduate degree is only a piece of paper unless you have to life skills to put it to good use. Although GAA might not be everyones cup of tea but you have to admit that being involved with an elite sports team brings out a number of key skills in an individual.

It's great for WIT to have people like Dr John Nolan, for example on their books (http://www.nutrasightconsultancy.com/johnnolan.html) but realistically WIT is never going to as prestigious academically as somewhere like Trinity or UCD so why not focus on improving something that they are becoming renowned for?

I'm not sure how building a new business building for example, would improve the business degrees? It would be the lecturers/course leaders who would need to improve the course, which admittedly, they don't seem to be doing at present but this could be down to them not having sufficient time as the the college are pushing all staff members to obtain, at minimum a Masters degree and ultimately PHDs.

dayshah

I don't like Carriganore, too isolated.

I'd far prefer they bought the W Crystal site and consolidated the campus.

They want to move the whole place out to Carriganore long term, which is the totally wrong policy in my view

witless1

Lister_Petter wrote: »

Personally I think putting up these buildings would be far better use of money and is more importnant than a few football pitches.
If WIT want to have a good name I think it should be achieved by improving academic facilitiie and the quality of the courses - NOT by making it an enormous playground for jocks.

You seem to be under the impression the college is funding this development. It's funded by a company called WIT Campus Services, independent of the college. They run it, make money on it and presumably have some form of deal done with the college as it is being built on their land. This is an investment within the town and by extension within the college, something the college can leverage on.

witless1

O Riain wrote: »

I drove by the other day and almost every pitch was in use, there was some serious activity going on there.

We played out there last week and the chap in charge told us 28 teams were using the facilities within a 4 hour period that night. That's a mix of college teams, people playing the astro leagues and GAA teams playing as well. One of the pitches had about 30 children on it as well, presumably some development camp.

who what when

dayshah wrote: »

I'd far prefer they bought the W Crystal site and consolidated the campus.

They want to move the whole place out to Carriganore long term, which is the totally wrong policy in my view

Why would they move the entire campus when theyve spent god knows how many million in the last 15 years building some very impressive buildings?

And im sure the Carriganore project was considerably cheaper than buying the Waterford Crystal site!

wellboytoo

dayshah wrote: »

I don't like Carriganore, too isolated.

I'd far prefer they bought the W Crystal site and consolidated the campus.

They want to move the whole place out to Carriganore long term, which is the totally wrong policy in my view

Well that's it then. I'll stop the new building and knock down the sports facility for ya!