GAA Infastructure

I seen a while back ulster GAA are already open to discussions with the Irish FA about hosting 2028 Euros soccer matches in Casement, so absolutely the stadium will likely be made available to any other sports events that wish to rent the stadium. Plus its great for the GAA as any money from renting out Casement is reinvested back into Gaelic facilities/coaching etc.

Regarding your second point, clubs can be started by anyone who wishes to start a club, its all grassroots. There is nothing stopping anyone from starting a new club today in a Loyalist area (apart from maybe threats from loyalist paramilitaries as we've unfortunately seen with East Belfast GAA). Re: having to use Irish, Its one line on an application form asking for your name in Irish, hardly the most challenging/difficult of tasks to complete - you can find it fairly easily with a google search. Re: national anthem, the organisation operates on an all-ireland basis, you can chose to sing the anthem or not. Indeed maybe we could add Ireland's Call as an alternative or to compliment Amhran na Bfhiann in future.

Please give examples of Ulster GAA being 'too political' and 'republican', specifically around 'all the non sporting stuff'. Ulster GAA (I don't work/volunteer for them or anything, am just a member of my local GAA club) by far and way lead the other provincial councils (and indeed can be compared to their regional counterparts in the IFA and Ulster Rugby) with how they operate, v. professional setup imo, they seem to make efforts with every element of Gaelic Games across all the codes in addition to Scor etc. Plus they run the great cross community Cuchulainn initiative in addition to running the EU Peace Sports initiatives along with Ulster Rugby and the Irish FA.

Because ten plus odd years ago, the NI Executive was gonna build a municipal stadium for all the big sports at the Maze but that plan was scrapped and instead the NI Executive created the Regional Stadia programme, offering Ulster GAA the opportunity to make a massive investment in one of its stadiums north of the border through a combination of Ulster GAA and NI Executive money, and where better to do it then in Ireland's second city, accessible by motorway, public transportation both within the city and to and from the city. Plus the opportunity of hosting concerts and conferences etc given that it's Belfast (with no disrespect to Clones here, big acts though will only generally play in cities/well connected towns etc) allows for even more money to be generated for investment in our games.

Why would they invest in Clones when they're given the above opportunity, plus factor that in with it being fairly difficult to get to clones plus the town itself isn't in a great state tbf.

There's nothing stopping Clones GAA however from investing in the ground if they so wish / apply for grants from Croke Park/Governemnt etc.

Ulster GAA has some excellent administrators and volunteers. Always had. My comment about it being too political ,well its obvious isn't it. They've named Clubs and club grounds after guys who got killed in the troubles,some fairly reprehensible people who were indeed some mothers son but who blew up or attempted to murder others. They need to cut out plaques that commemorate these people . It's a bad look and alienates others like me and I'm not a Unionist or Loyalist but a regular GAA member from Munster.Thats something that can go a long way.

Clones and Clones GAA already and for years have invested massive time and money into the stadium so has the Irish state. But it is not enough and the miserly approach of the Ulster Council is the main reason for the current state.

If you purposefully downgrade the facilities you have then sure you can make an easy case to waste more money on a new souless stadium,

Word is the business plan for Casement may finally see the end of it, though. The permission to host gigs may be more torturous and restrictive than the Garth Brooks debacle. Resistance from Unionism to more money being committed to it will be intense too.

There is nothing guaranteed, watch the uproar if the UK gov dig deeper for the extra costs, which are exponentially greater than they were. The business plan doesn't support the extra costs I have heard.

2 of the millions they have already thrown at Casement would have made Clones fit for use for the next ten years, which looks like the time frame before this gets built. There is no excuse for the state of Clones. You are blaming the wrong people for it, is the point.

How would I get to Belfast for a game from Monaghan? I'll tell you, the exact same way someone from Donegal gets to Clones. Transportation is gonna be the same to a large degree, car and bus.

3 concerts a year is not gonna bring the windfall you think and that is probably why the business plan is not making sense now.

Parking in fields is the norm for massive events like EP or Glastonbury. Coming up with a proper traffic plan would solve a lot of it. Not even Croker can cope with traffic on a big day and it's something big event goers put up with and expect. I have spent two hours getting out on to the M1 on big Croker days.

You'd wonder how anyone manages to get to Clones or any other venue for intercounty matches to listen to you.

Casement will be no easier or harder to get to. And the inability to get to it won't hamper profits, it never has, even in the days when nearly 40,000 made it to Clones.

There is no venue that can handle that volume and delays are normal and most accept that.

Maybe the GAA should get into music promotion biz and forget about football altogether? That obsession with profit and the bottom line finished me with premiership soccer, I would hate to see the GAA go the same way, but signs are that they are.

Probably why the business plan is in trouble.

You said it yourself. Clones is falling apart for want of investment. The 'money' therefore isn't filtering to where it is needed NOW or for the last decade and more as they pursue the shiny new jewel.

It's wrongheaded nonsense.

30,000 people make their way to Clones again and again and before the capacity was reduced up to 40,000 and the last complaint you will hear is 'I couldn't get there by public transport. I am almost 50 years involved in this..from selling programmes to working on the final/semi finals.

In that 50 years, the greatest threat to numbers attending is the cost of the product...the money you would have to spend to follow your county to an All Ireland is just astronomical. Concerts in Croker have driven the price of attending games up, rather than down.

Getting to and from Clones has not impinged numerous sellout games. Jesus are you blind?

Why complain about facilities in Clones if you are happy with the lack of investment? My experience of Belfast and Dublin is no different to the experience of getting into and out of Clones. I expect delays and that is ok.

Could be a lot better with people tasked to traffic management, but the accountants don't see the benefit of that. As one Ulster Council chairman said and bit the nose of me when I suggested a proper traffic plan, 'I don't give a **** how they get home as long as they pay for a ticket'

The 'product' has not gotten cheaper with the shiny new stadiums and concerts, it has gotten a lot more expensive. If they build Casement expect to pay a lot more to see inter county football. The beast will have to be fed.

Ten minutes from Monaghan town to the Ballygawley roundabout???? You haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. It would take far longer than 1hr 20 mins to get to Belfast, the motorway would be jammed with match day traffic with nowhere to go at the end of it.

The GAA should have invested in Clones, not some white elephant in Belfast.

Alot of general statements here that don't reflect reality also if im being truthful. There is basically little to no public transport to clones when you compare it to Belfast. Again, repeating myself, if I wanted to get to either Belfast or clones tomorrow morning from any major town across ulster, id get to Belfast much quicker (may not even be possible to get to Clones from a lot of towns across Ulster via public transport).

re: Concert venue size, No it is not irrelevant lol, again a silly general statement, a lot of the acts that play at Boucher, Ormeau Park, SSE Arena could play (& fill up) the new Casement Park now - just looking at some of the acts playing at the latter two (smaller) venues this year - Billie Eilish, Calvin Harris, Westlife, Liam Gallagher, Lewis Capaldi - all could fill a 34,500 stadium (as they have done so in bigger venues elsewhere).

"I doubt there will be much money to be earned from concert", again a general nonsense statement, of course there's decent money to be made from renting a 34,500 stadium out. Casement is not out of town lol, it is in the west of the city lol with great public transit links with the glider there now. Same with Croker, poor parking options but yet its conferences and meetings do really well.

"distributing money elsewhere is wishful thinking at best, downright delusional at worst", again another nonsensical general statement that doesn't reflect reality - majority of GAAs revenue is redistributed back into our Games

It’s clear that if I were to try to get to Clones in the morning from any town or village across ulster without a car, I would struggle. The total opposite is the case with Belfast.