American Football team Derry - Donegal Vipers' search for training pitch continues

Head of Community and Leisure, Barry O’Hagan explained to members that the demand for pitches across the council area outstrips available facilities stating ‘if we had another 20 pitches we still wouldn’t be able to facilitate the demand.’

The plight of the Vipers was brought before the committee by Alliance Councillor Rachael Ferguson.

She said: “I know a number of our members have been contacted by the Donegal/ Derry Vipers American Football team. Over the last eight years they have been a nomadic team moving from the YMCA after the flooding and since have been using pitches in Greysteel, Limavady, Derry and Donegal.

“I know they have reached out because they are trying to find a resolution with our current council policy where you can’t train on grass pitches. They have raised a number of issues where other councils have been able to accommodate on grass pitches and I know they would love to have access more to Templemore Sports Complex.

“I wanted to propose a meeting with ourselves, the committee members, council officers and the Donegal/Derry Vipers to see if there is a way we can go forward.”

Explaining that council officers have been working with the team since pre-Covid, Head of Community and Leisure, Barry O’Hagan added: “I have been on to Colr Farrell and Colr Doyle in the last month in terms of this. They were facilitated in City of Derry Rugby Club but that seems to have been terminated.

“In terms of grass pitches, the knock-on effect of providing one club with access to grass pitches for training is that we would have to open it up to all clubs, soccer, gaelic, rugby and we have a huge, huge demand for training across all codes.”

He added that the growth in female participation has further increased demand, and said Council were happy to take the matter raised forward.

“We have provided 4G/ 3G to the club and we have told them they can get access to Templemore for competitive games.”

Mr O’Hagan said they had advised to submit within the booking process like all other clubs within the district do.

“In terms of meeting with the club, I have probably 20 requests from clubs about training so I think we would need to meet with all clubs across all codes if we are going to be looking at facilities because we do have a huge demand on all facilities.

“The one knock on effect from opening our grass pitches for training would be that competitive games on Saturdays and Sundays at this time of the year would have to be cancelled because of the state of the pitches. We can’t facilitate training and play on all our pitches at present.”

Agreeing with Cllr Ferguson, Aontú Cllr Emmet Doyle felt it would be beneficial if committee members who have been contacted by the club could attend the next meeting in a ‘non formal basis’.

Mr O’Hagan responded: “We have regular dialogue with the club and when our Sports Development team hold the next meeting we will invite the members in.”

“We will be giving the same message we have given today. If we had another 20 pitches we wouldn’t be able to facilitate the demand we have across the district because of the growth of sport. We will try to facilitate the club as best we can.”

Gillian Anderson

Local Democracy Reporter