Kieran Donaghy details pain of Kerry basketball community after roof collapse in Tralee
Finding a basketball court is only part of the challenge. To pay their bills, the Tralee Warriors need fans, and accommodating them will be a challenge, according to Kieran Donaghy
Kerry legend Kieran Donaghy has opened up about the massive blow sport in Tralee has been dealt by the cold snap.
Donaghy is renowned for his exploits on the football pitch as a player with Kerry, and last year he coached Armagh to the All-Ireland.
But another of Donaghy's sporting loves is basketball, and he was a star player for Superleague side Tralee Warriors for years.
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The roof of the Tralee Sports complex - home of the Warriors - collapsed earlier this week due to the weight of a heavy snowfall.
And it's left Donaghy's club in a limbo in the middle of their season.
"It's highly dangerous so everything is sealed off, at the moment,'' said Donaghy on Ireland AM.
"For us, the financial implications are huge. The complex is the largest venue around and we used to pack it out on Saturday nights. It was vital to us in terms of the gate, getting the numbers that we got.
"We'd get up to 800 at the games, and that was vital to keep the club going.
"There's no other venue around here with that capacity. We're in talks with a number of venues, including our brilliant local college here - the MTU - who have built a brilliant facility."
Finding a basketball court is only part of the challenge. To pay their bills, the Warriors need fans, and accommodating them will be a challenge.
"We have to find a seating company where we can rent seats and get bums on those seats for the games, that's a vital part for us,'' said Donaghy.
"The college reached out to us last night about using their facility for training and we're lucky in that we have a break in the season of two or three weeks.
"We're actually lucky in that we have a bit of time to try and find somewhere.''
Funds will need to be raised to try and get the Complex back, and Donaghy feels plenty will want to step up to the plate to offer help.
"We'll certainly need to lean on everybody to try and get this building back up and running. It's vital, not just to the Warriors, but there's two swimming pools, a badminton club. My own daughter goes to gymnastics there. There's the racquetball. It's a hub of the community, in terms of sport, which is vitally important to the town,'' he said.
"We're going to have to look at exhausting every avenue to get something built and up and running as quickly as possible. It's vital for the community.''
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