Ballymackey FC have entered the final stage of the Development of our facilities in Ballinree, with construction of our Community Centre/ Club House and Dressing room complex underway.
This facilities Development is in motion over 10 years from the purchase of 6.5 acres of land next to the Ballinree Community Field in 2008. September 2010 saw the first phase of the development completed when our 2 new grass pitches, surrounded by a walkway, our new entrance and new car park were ready to use.
2014 saw the next phase completed when our 64m x 44m Astroturf pitch was open for use. At that stage over €500,000 had been invested in our facilities and the Development Committee of our club managed to do so in a manner which saw no major debt been incurred by the Club. They did so by a combination of securing grants from a variety of sources and also from a tremendous amount of fundraising, with our Annual Patrons Draw being the backbone of the fundraising from the beginning.
By not burdening the Club with any major debt or borrowing the Development Committee left the Club Committee in the strong position of been able to work solely on growing the membership of the Club to utilise the great facilities and our membership has grown from less than 100 members in 2011 to over 400 currently, with a almost 50:50 male/female split.
The same strategy of progressing with the development when funding from Grant sources and our own fundraising allows is being employed to complete our building project and to that end the €450000 Building project has being divided into 3 phases.Phase 1 is the completion of our Community Centre and work on this is well under way. Phase 2 will be our Club House and Phase 3 will be the Dressing Rooms.With Grants secured from North Tipperary Leader, UEFA/FAI and the Sports Capital Program, it was hoped a big fundraising drive would allows us to progress from phase 1 to 3 and have the building completed in the next 2 years.1 new fundraiser where farmers are donating and raring calves for the Club was started in March, with over 30 farmers taking part. We were at a very early stage of the sale of our Annual Patrons Draw which is traditionally done by calling door to door when Covid-19 restrictions stopped us.We are now able to offer these tickets for sale online either with a €50 single payment or with 2 Monthly €25 payments at the below link. Tickets cost €50 for entry into 10 monthly draws with a €200, €100 and €50 prize been drawn each month. (draws for March, April, May and June will take place when it is possible to do so when restrictions start to lift so tickets bought up to 30th of June are valid for the 10 draws). Like all facets of life our club has been negativity impacted by the Covid pandemic, this draw currently is down substantially on what our projected sales would have been. Many of our other streams of income have been severally affected by the close down while we still having outgoings from ESB 3 phase Electricity standing charges and the regular costs of maintenance of the facility.We are in need of as much help as possible especially after the events of the last few months to get this project to completion. It would be a big help to get as many people as possible to join our Patrons draw. To join the patrons draw please click the following link: Link to Patrons draw
