WORK on Austin Stack Park, which will commence at the end of May, is set to cost between €750,000 to €800,000, according to the Chairman of the Kerry County Board.

The development work was approved at a meeting of the county committee last night in Tralee.

Speaking to Jerry O’Sullivan on Radio Kerry’s ‘Kerry Today’ programme this morning, Chairman Pat O’Sullivan said the GAA have half the money and he will be meeting members of Tralee Chamber Alliance and Tralee area councillors on Tuesday afternoon about fundraising for the rest of the project.

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He said the laying of a new sand-based pitch will ensure Tralee will not lose out on any more games due to bad weather and it will be brought up to the same standard as Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney.

“We’re hoping that the people of Tralee will row in behind it,” he told Radio Kerry. “At the moment, in our National League games programme, there are four [home] matches. We play two [in Tralee] and two [in Killarney] and if there’s three games we play two in Tralee and one in Killarney. But last year, because the weather was so bad, we had to move the Derry match to Killarney and Tralee lost out,” he said.

He said the work will ensure Tralee does not lose out again on such games.

In terms of the 2015 county hurling championship, he said he is hoping many of the games will be played in Abbeydorney, with the venue for the final to be decided at a later date.

He also said it is hoped Austin Stack Park will be ready in March/April next year and there will be new floodlights in place when it re-opens.