Clare County Board treasurer Bernard Keane admits there are “no guarantees” that Cusack Park will be ready to host the Banner County’s Allianz Hurling League Division 1B opener against Offaly on February 14.

A €2.3m facelift is almost complete at the Ennis venue and while new board chairman Joe Cooney is confident work will be completed in time for the Offaly visit, Keane admitted “a few hurdles” still need to be vaulted.

“They are making progress. I think around the 15th of February we’re hoping to have it ready.

“It will hopefully be ready for the hurling game. The first football match is January 31, a home game against Sligo, and I think that will be going to Miltown-Malbay.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll be ready for the hurling but there are no guarantees on that just yet. A few hurdles have to be cleared.

“There’s real progression in the work on the toilets and all of the different areas, all parts of the project and turnstiles etc.

“The whole project is costing €2.3m.

“It’s good value for money, we could have gone bigger but we feel it will be a nice, compact stadium when it’s finished.

“If everything works out according to plan, we’ll be pleased with it.

“We didn’t want to go too far into debt or put our clubs under financial strain.”

Keane is predicting a much-improved showing from the Clare senior hurlers this year, following the high profile appointment of Dónal Óg Cusack as coach.

He said: “Every day you’d hope that you will achieve and that we will get back to where we were in 2013.

“We have the infrastructures, a very good backroom team there now and excellent hurling and football managers, very enthusiastic people totally committed to Clare.

“There’s excellent back-up for both codes and hopefully 2016 will bring its reward.”