ECB Football final round in Limerick - November 5th

Hello all,
see below information about the tournament in Limerick. More information to follow. Let me know arrival and departure details as Tony describes below, there may be a chance to piggy back on some transort. I have gone back to him with our numbers etc..
Regds,
Billy

On 21 September 2011 01:37, ECB Secretary:
A chara,

You will be aware that to celebrate Limerick City's designation as European City of Sport 2011, the final round of the ECB football Championships and Shield will take place in Limerick on Saturday, November 5th.

The programme will include a night at Limerick's new Greyhound Stadium on Friday night (with the ECB Stakes being one of the races on the card!!) See: http://www.igb.ie/Limerick/Great-Night-Out-III/

The tournament group games and matches up to and including the semi-finals of the various competitions will take place on state of the art 3G astroturf pitches and grass pitches in the University of Limerick (see: http://www.universityarena.com/outdoor.html) on Saturday, November 3rd.

Teams will be transported from hotels in time for Registration which will commence at 08:30 and the first games will be 09:00. Semi-finals are scheduled for 15:00. Lunch will be provided in the with a transfer to the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick city afterwards.

The finals of the Shield, Ladies and Men's Championships will commence at 16:30, 17:15 and 18:00. (see http://www.limerickgaa.ie/ for pictures of the Gaelic Grounds)

The gala dinner banquet and presentations with special GAA & LFGA guests will follow a Civic Reception for team captains and mentors at 19:45.

Each team will receive a pack with full information, shopping discount vouchers, souvenir programmes and meal/drinks vouchers upon arrival.

Please note Limerick County GAA board will provide all umpires, linespeople, pitch co-ordinators and registration staff. Thus teams will be free to concentrate on playing and enjoying the finest facilities in the European City of Sport 2011.

Limerick County Board in conjunction with a number of sponsors will be hosting the games and assisting the ECB in providing personnel, transportation between venues and hotels as well as from/to arrival points in Ireland. It also hoped to arrange TV coverage of the finals.
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In order to finalise arrangements and pricing for various accommodation and meal packages, I am trying to put together details of requirements for accommodation and transport for the final football round in Limerick.

Therefore I would be grateful if you could send me the information specified in the attached spreadsheet as soon as possible.

*Accommodation*
Accommodation will be based on twin/triple rooms in 2/3/4* hotels unless otherwise specified.

*Transport*
We will try to arrange transfers from airports or ferry ports, Actual details will be arranged when we see how we can group travelling parties with similar arrival/departure times. It is expected that transport will be free if we can group arrivals together (or at minimal cost, but certainly cheaper than public transport) Transfer between events, games venues and hotels in Limerick will be provided free of charge.

*Meals*
It is proposed to arrange dinner and a night out at Limerick greyhound racing stadium on the Friday night. Lunch will be provided in the University of Limerick restaurants on the Saturday. A gala dinner banquet and presentations will be take place on Saturday night. Obviously costs will depend on numbers, the more we have for each meal, the lower the cost. It is hoped that we can provide two dinners (Friday + Saturday) and lunch on Saturday for 35-45 euro's per person (including registration fees etc).

We expect that teams will probably be planning or have made definite arrangements for travelling therefore we are asking you to please complete the attached spreadsheet* (and save with your club name in the filename)*and return to me by Friday September 23rd.

At this stage a reasonable estimate is sufficient as detailed booking forms will issue next week when approximate requirements are established and prices have been negotiated with suppliers. Our intention is to provide 2/3/4* hotel accommodation at prices significantly below usual rates.

The assistance of the Limerick County Board and sponsors should ensure that teams will not incur costs above the normal (or indeed cheaper) than the usual costs of attending the final round at an ECB venue (excluding travel). If you have not booked travel as yet, a useful site for checking air fare options is http://www.momondo.com/, Please note that the following airports should be checked for flights - Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Kerry, whilst ferries from Cherbourg to Rosslare can be checked at http://www.irishferries.com/ie/timetable-ie-fr.asp.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Is mise le meas,
Tony

*Tony Bass*
*Secretary
European Board