'No rip-offs' for Solheim Cup, council warns

Updated: Wednesday, 9th September, 2009 4:55pm

Businesses in Meath should not become involved in what Meath County Council's Kevin Stewart described as 'gouging' or ripping off on prices when the Solheim Cup comes to Meath in 2011.

Mr Stewart, the head of the council's economic development unit, addressed the monthly meeting of Meath County Council on a recent trip to the Solheim Cup ladies golfing event between Europe and the United States, in Illinois. He was accompanied to the event at Sugar Grove by the chairman of Meath Tourism, Cllr John V Farrelly.

The next Solheim Cup is set to take place in Killeen Castle, Dunsany, from 23rd to 25th September 2011. Mr Stewart said that, in the US last month, over 8,000 hotel rooms were booked in the wider area of the venue in Naperville, a town about the size of Athboy. This is four-and-a-half times the hotel capacity in Meath.

Some 1,600 volunteers came to work at the event, and the hotels, restaurants, bars and local restaurants were packed all week, while set-up and take-down crews and other course workers stayed longer.

The challenge for Meath is to get as much business as possible into the county around the 2011 event, Mr Stewart said. Event awareness has to be raised with Meath hotels, guesthouses, self-catering and business generally. Training and informing people to be aware of the event in every business in the area, and there should be plenty of 'after-sundown' events to keep people in the county.

The Meath delegation stayed in the Holiday Inn in Naperville, which was the main tournament hotel. "We were bussed from the hotel to the course every day - a 30 to 40 minute journey. Killeen is a similar distance from O'Connell Street, which is a threat in terms of Meath accommodation," he said.

"This is a Meath event and we want Meath businesses to benefit. We will do everything we need to do to help capture that business, but the trade must help itself," Mr Stewart said.

Cllr John Farrelly said that the view abroad was that the Ryder Cup event in Kildare in 2006 was a 'rip-off', and that Meath can do what Kildare failed to do after the Ryder Cup was held in that county. "There was no value given, and no repeat business. This is not a once-off, its a five-year investment plan."

However, he said that the local authority equivalent in America had four years to prepare, so Meath is a year behind. "But we have Meet in Meath in place which will be preparing for it."

Kevin Stewart said that 120,000 attended last month's US golf event, and Discover Ireland were predicting about 95,000 attendees for the Dunsany event, which he considered conservative.

Cllr Noel Leonard said that Dunboyne Castle Hotel already had 50 reservations for the 2011 event.