Help Save College Park

Trinity College plans to remove facilities for student sport from College Park to cater for tourists and I am starting this petition to ask Trinity College to find a new location for the proposed tourist attraction which doesn’t take away space from students and our sport.

A two story temporary exhibition structure planned to sit on College Park for three years will host an exhibition while the old library is being refurbished but it will severely impact the student sport experience and I am asking that College please lets us continue our sports and instead can we please look at an alternative location for the tourists. Somewhere off campus would cater to tourists or remove some cars off of campus and look at putting this temporary three year structure on Trinity’s Nassau Street car park which will also do good for the environment. I’m currently lobbying College for Dublin City Council to look at this.

If this is passed, we are facing a very sad scenario, where those who come to Trinity, will not be able to play a single match on their home ground for four years, in College Park if this structure is built, which is a really bleak proposition. Imagine being part of a club and not being able to play on your home ground?

I am starting this petition because our sport is very important to us as students for our health, wellbeing and metal capacity and as the student voice on the Estates Policy Committee I am passionate about represent this truth about student population and I disagreed with these plans and noted my dissent on Wednesday October 15th 2021; we’d like College Park to be protected both now and in the future for student activity. We would also like permanent floodlighting to be installed to make it safer space for us as students and to extend College Park’s usage for us into the evenings please.

Please sign this petition and join our College community, please Help Save College Park

1. It’s a really peaceful and restful space for students and a safe space for us to exercise and rest and it improves our mental health so please help us to keep it peaceful.
2. It is the home ground of the Dublin University Cricket Club (DUCC) which has been at the forefront of Irish cricket for almost two centuries. The planned tourist structure would reduce the Cricket outfield significantly and the current plans depicting the structure don’t even show the correct dimensions. The plans are created from the incorrect perspective - creases on the wicket actually look as if they will be impacted. The Cricket pitch is drawn as a circle on the plans, it’s not a circle.
3. College Park is also home ground to the oldest surviving association football club in the Republic of Ireland; Dublin University A.F.C. (DUAFC). Founded in 1883 DUAFC plays its home matches at College Park. No student will get to play a match on this home ground for three years if this structure goes ahead. Why?
4. No one has bothered to check out what the correct dimensions are for the various sports facilities and at least put them on a correct map as opposed to incorrect plans. Whoever put the words UEFA before a 48 metre wide football pitch… that person needs to know that the pitch is already on the small side. 48 metres is way too narrow. UEFA requires min 64 metres x 100 metres.
5. Dublin University Harriers and Athletics Club (DUHAC) also train in College Park and have broken numerous records training there and the club has the biggest turnout of men and women and welcomes runners of all abilities. The men’s and women’s athletics team have amongst others, postgraduates and sports scholars as members. Without a correct running track these scholarships will be in jeopardy.
6. During the track season (April-September approx.) DUHAC the athletics club use the 400m lime track that Estates and Facilities line out. This is a central piece of Trinity’s sporting history. The construction of an exhibition installation would mean that the club could no longer train on campus and participation would decline dramatically.
7. Reducing the running space will cause runners to bottle on corners as they run too fast and will render it a completely ineffective training space.
8. The College Races are over 100 years old, and past competitors included Ronnie Delaney and many other Olympic medallists. There were plans for the College Races to be revived for the 150th anniversary of DUHAC, and to Oxford and Cambridge to take part. The plans to reduce the track to 300m would scupper these races entirely.
9. This is not a fait accompli, clubs and students were not consulted. We are being told what the plans are and that is not correct consultation of the various stakeholders.
10. The two story structure will no doubt impact Library staff and students casting a shadow along the side of the Berkeley. There are better spaces for this structure on campus including the obvious New Square or the Nassau carpark, or even a space off campus which won’t impact our student sports facilities over the next three years.

As students we’d be most grateful for your support! Please as a College community, please Help Save College Park. #HelpSaveCollegePark