{"id":161001,"date":"2025-11-26T17:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/161001\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T17:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:17:09","slug":"unique-e100-million-velodrome-expected-to-be-completed-by-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/161001\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Unique\u2019 \u20ac100 million velodrome expected to be completed by 2028"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A \u201cunique\u201d \u20ac100 million velodrome and badminton centre will give \u201ca new lease of life\u201d to athletes in Ireland, a minister has said.<\/p>\n<p>The centre will have 12 badminton courts and can host a maximum of 20 track cyclists on the velodrome track.<\/p>\n<p>Minister for Culture and Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan said the funding would come from National Development Plan funding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope to see the contractors move in immediately after Christmas and begin the works, and hopefully then it\u2019ll be finished in time for 2028,\u201d he said after turning the sod on the site on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt gives a new lease of life and a new lease of optimism to people who had thought this was going to happen years ago and who had a number of false dawns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, then-junior minister Jack Chambers said that \u201call going well\u201d, construction of the centre would begin in the third quarter of 2023, and would take about 18 months to build.<\/p>\n<p>It was then estimated to cost \u20ac60 million, although work on the design was still ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>Chief executive of Sport Ireland Dr Una May said the design was a \u201ccomplex undertaking\u201d and that there are only four or five track designers in the world.<\/p>\n<p>She said that the design was \u201crelatively unique\u201d as the track was at a level \u201cabove the infield\u201d, which would allow the two sports to operate alongside one another.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt also has a double end on it, what we call a \u2018double D\u2019, which allows us to have a specific space, just for the high-performance team on one end and then for community users on the other end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have no other indoor track cycling facility in the country,\u201d she told the PA news agency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had incredible success at an international level despite this, and this will allow us now to nurture a whole new crop of young riders and young athletes, and they have role models to aspire to, and now we have a facility which will accommodate them.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of State Charlie McConalogue said it was a \u201creally significant day\u201d for cycling and for badminton, as track cycling athletes had to go abroad for training previously.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"not-prose no-underline\" data-action=\"click\" data-category=\"Read more article clicked\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/indoor-velodrome-to-be-built-in-limerick-1666113.html\" data-value=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/indoor-velodrome-to-be-built-in-limerick-1666113.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/velodrome-2.png\" class=\"rounded-sm object-contain bg-transparent z-10 w-full h-full not-prose\" alt=\"Indoor Velodrome Set To Be Built In Limerick Ahead Of 2028 Olympics\" width=\"278\" height=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Ireland<\/p>\n<p>Indoor Velodrome set to be built in Limerick ahead of 2028 Olympics<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s simply not a recipe for excellence or indeed a recipe for increasing participation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the world-class facility would allow athletes \u201cto maximise their capacity to compete\u201d and inspire young people to take up the sport.<\/p>\n<p>He said a cricket pitch was also due to be built and is expected to be completed by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cunique\u201d \u20ac100 million velodrome and badminton centre will give \u201ca new lease of life\u201d to athletes in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-161001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}