Dundalk FC: Return to grass surface at Oriel Park deemed unfeasible

The much-desired return to a grass surface at Oriel Park has been deemed ‘impractical’ by Dundalk FC Chief Operating Officer Martin Connolly, who along with owner Brian Ainscough, poured cold water on the idea at a Q&A session inside the Lilywhite Lounge.

The Lilywhites became the first-ever League of Ireland club to implement an artificial surface when they did so back in 2005, but with the turf not being upgraded since 2017, FAI and UEFA standards will necessitate a fresh installation ahead of the 2025 season.

Connolly acknowledged that, although the majority of supporters would prefer to see a return to a grass pitch, backed up by last year’s supporters’ consultation findings, the idea is impractical given the volume of teams currently availing the Carrick Road venue.

He said: “That comes back to the fact of why we’re having discussions with the council and other people about sharing our facilities, because it’s totally impractical for us at the moment to have a grass pitch.

“As you see tonight, the night that’s out there, our two ladies teams are training. Before that it was our U17 and U14 team, so four teams have availed of that facility over three hours. If that was grass that couldn’t happen.

“I think everybody in the room would prefer a grass pitch, but the practicality of it just at the moment, it can’t be done.”

Having previously served as CEO with Kerry, where a FieldTurf surface was installed ahead of their maiden League of Ireland campaign, Ainscough confirmed that Dundalk will also be using the North American company when the relaying commences at Oriel.

“When I was in Kerry we had a FieldTurf field also,” said the Dundalk owner.

“There was a couple of weeks that Shamrock Rovers couldn’t even play at Tallaght on their beautiful pitch and we were playing down in Kerry in a monsoon, so there’s something to be said when you’re in Ireland or Russia or anywhere else that FieldTurfs have a place.

“If we didn’t have all the teams playing here, I’d ideally like to have grass there, but with all the teams and the way we are right now and the quick turnaround, it will be FieldTurf.”

In April last year following a 2-2 home draw with Derry City, head coach Stephen O’Donnell cited the artificial pitch as a cause for his team’s large injury list at that time.

In addition to the surface, Ainscough confirmed that the floodlights at Oriel also need replacing, while more cosmetic changes to the ground will happen in the longer-term.

“The bottom line is for me, the lights and the field are the first two things that we’ll do. I’d like to do some more cosmetic stuff around the field and we will, but we haven’t really sat down and ironed that out.

“We’d like to have seats behind each goal. We’d like to make it look like a real stadium and the idea is that we might do them in a portable fashion initially, which doesn’t help you with UEFA laws, but it will definitely help us aesthetically and maybe move some of the poor fans from the away team into a better location.

“I’d like to see more away fans at a game, but if I was asked to come up here and watch a game in that area there, I think you’d only get the hardy supporters that would come.

“From an economic standpoint, I’d like to fix that area a little bit up. I don’t know if we can put something over it and dress it up a little bit and do the same down the far corner.

“There’s tons of stuff to do, but right away for ’25, we better have lights because we’re grandfathered in with them and they need to be at a certain LED lux. I think it’s 700 lux and the field needs to be fixed, so if I want to play and the team Dundalk FC wants to play there next year, they’re going to have to be fixed.”