Derry City given green light to train at Derry GAA's Owenbeg Centre of Excellence
Derry GAA and Derry City Football Club will enter into unique 'exchange of ides' partnership which will see the Candy Stripes' use Owenbeg as a temporary training base until they secure and develop their own purpose built site.
The move was rubber stamped at a meeting of the GAA's Central Council in Croke Park this morning and will see the state of the art facility in Dungiven available to new Candy Stripes manager Tiernan Lynch and his players as early as next week.
Lynch, appointed as successor to Ruaidhri Higgins in November, had been keen to find a 'one stop shop' site for training, meetings and team analysis and was 'blown away' by the Oak Leaf Centre of Excellence which boasts a gym, physio and meeting rooms, video analysis suites and canteen facilities as well as four grass and one 4G training pitches, all of which Derry City will have access to.
The new partnership is similar to one which Derry GAA currently enjoys with the Ulster University at Magee, a relationship that sees the sharing of facilities, resources and knowledge.
Before Christmas the Brandywell club's CEO Sean Barrett revealed the club were in "advanced talks" over a potential new base on the site of a redeveloped Templemore Sports Stadium, a site the Candy Stripes are optimistic of having operational within two years. That timeframe prompted the League of Ireland club to approach the Derry County Board to explore the possibility of a closer working relationship, with the Co. Board agreeing to take the matter to Central Council after a meeting on December 17th.
The two bodies have held informal talks in the past to discuss on areas they could collaborate on "for the betterment of the city of Derry" with the new arrangement further strengthening those ties and allowing Derry City access weekly on Monday to Thursday mornings, meaning no GAA activity is impacted.