New era to commence at Aldridge Park

A new day is about to dawn on Aldridge Park as Athy Town AFC are preparing to begin work on their brand-new AstroTurf pitch. With an estimated cost of €500,000, the project represents a significant undertaking by the club.

The redevelopment has been in the pipeline for some time according to Athy Town Chairman, Sean Bolger.

“We started talking about it roughly four fours ago, but it intensified and became realistic about two years ago. It’s an expensive project; you can’t just rush into it – you need to be set up, because it’s a lot of money,” he told The Kildare Nationalist.

“We were successful with our LEADER (Grant) application, and we got €200,000 off them, so, we’re borrowing the other €300,000. We didn’t fundraise; what we did was be frugal with what we spent over the last number of years to allow us to get enough money together for a deposit.

“We will be able to meet the payments, that’s not an issue; that’s why we were given the money, because we were able to prove the way we were structed and the way we saved over the last number of years.

“We brought in a strict policy of ‘no pay, no play’ – and that’s right across the board, from the eight-year-olds to the adults – and that has allowed us to work within our budget. We knew how much we were bringing in, so, we knew how much we could spend and how much we could save.” 

Despite operating on a shoestring in recent season, the club have still enjoyed an incredibly successful period, winning back-to-back Leinster Senior Leagues. 

Athy put in a commanding display across the 2025/25 season, finishing with a terrific record of 15 wins, two draws, and just one defeat in 18 games, going on to win the league, finishing 14 points clear of second place Firhouse Carmel.

In previous years, winning that division would earn promotion to the Major 1 division, but that is no longer set in stone.

“Because some clubs have gone to the third tier of the League of Ireland (National League), the other leagues are bumping up. Major 1 and Major – which are the two divisions underneath Intermediate – the two of them could be amalgamated into one division, and we would be in that. Which would mean we are just one step off intermediate football,” Mr Bolger said.

The new season will get off to a testing start for Athy, who will be forced to spend the beginning of the campaign playing away from home as the AstroTurf Pitch is not expected to be completed until “late September, or more realistically mid-October,” Mr Bolger estimated.

“We have a summer camp on now, which is a fitting last action on the grass at Aldridge Park. Soccer has been kicked on that pitch since 1948, so it has pulled on the heartstrings to dig it up. But we couldn’t grow as a club with what we had.

“We had no choice but to put down the all-weather pitch and we have the capacity now to just keep the club growing and growing and growing. Over the last eight years, girls’ participation in the club has grown by almost 400%, and that’s the kind of football headache that we welcome.

“I was in consultation at all times with the trustees, who are the ones who laid the foot-print of the club. They trust me; they trust the committee – a very small, hard-working committee - and they were fully supportive of everything we did at all stages - the money we were borrowing, etc.” 

There has been further success for the club off the field, with two underage players transferring from Athy Town to League of Ireland sides as Ryan Keavney joined Shamrock Rovers and James Walsh joined CK United.