Facilities at county grounds

yahoo_moe

Lads, just wondering idly what the facilities/setup would be like at most county grounds (Gaelic Grounds, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Pearse Stadium, Markiewitz Park, etc.)?

I'll gladly go to non-Dublin matches but I tend to specialise in ones at Croker, with only the occasional trip to Nowlan Park or Fitzgerald Stadium outside of Dublin, mostly when I was younger. So basically I've no real idea how these places are set up - would they generally have big screens/adjacent car parks/whatever else you can think of?

The_Kew_Tour

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Lads, just wondering idly what the facilities/setup would be like at most county grounds (Gaelic Grounds, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Pearse Stadium, Markiewitz Park, etc.)?

I'll gladly go to non-Dublin matches but I tend to specialise in ones at Croker, with only the occasional trip to Nowlan Park or Fitzgerald Stadium outside of Dublin, mostly when I was younger. So basically I've no real idea how these places are set up - would they generally have big screens/adjacent car parks/whatever else you can think of?

I would have said the worst ground in the country 10 years ago was limerick..

Now it is Cork by country mile.. It has nothing to offer

Declan30

Haven been to most county Grounds .Facilites at a lot of them are poor.
Car Parking is manily sides of the road or near the gound.
No grounds would have big screens.

Limerick has improved a lot over the yrs .The need work on the Mackey Stand . Stil you can teas /coffee and sandwiches now.

If you were looking for a worst Ground.Ever been to hyde park in roscommon easily the worst.

Diabhal Beag

You can not expect the same qualities that you see in Croker around the country. A handful of grounds are decent but the rest are just poor.

Special mention to terraces on grass.

Daysha

Little Shyte wrote: »

Special mention to terraces on grass.

That is meant to be our main stadium. And yeah, thats grass around three sides of the pitch :rolleyes:

I know there have been plans to improve the ground (floodlights, concrete terraces and an upgrade from 15,000 to 25,000 capacity) but that's extremely short sighted.

Like Cusack Park in Ennis, the GAA would make an absolute fortune from selling the place due to its very central location and just decide to start from scratch out in the suburbs, but I doubt that'll happen for quite a while, especially with the current economy.

Daysha

There's no other grounds that come to mind that are particulary bad, because I've only been to the usual Munsters grounds and a few in Leinster. I suppose you might expect Pairc ui Chaomih to be a bit better given its located in Irelands 2nd biggest city and all that, but there are far worse grounds in the country.

smashey

Daysha wrote: »

There's no other grounds that come to mind that are particulary bad, because I've only been to the usual Munsters grounds and a few in Leinster. I suppose you might expect Pairc ui Chaomih to be a bit better given its located in Irelands 2nd biggest city and all that, but there are far worse grounds in the country.

Sorry Daysha but as the GAA is an all Ireland organisation, Cork would be the third largest city.

Daysha

Haha, my bad

LeoB

To be fair most of the grounds have had work done and while some are not great they are nearly all better than what they were 10-15years ago. One problem is every county wants their ground to be upgraded and its not really a runner. In munster Pairc Ui Caoimh should have a big job done as it has been neglected. others should be picked on location. Each province should have 1 provincial ground Maybe Thurles or Limerick for Munster, Roscommon for Connacht Casement, Newry or Crosmaglen for Ulster and Navan or Portlaois for Leinster.
I think county grounds in general dont get enough use to justify the cost of upgrading them all. How many will ever have more than than 15-20,000 in them.
Good point from Daysha some are in great locations and should be sold off and Counties move to green field sites. But I was talking to a man in the know (worked for (EnglisH F.A) about this and he says stadiums dont work outside the major cities. Economics, htels restraunts shops......

Daysha

LeoB wrote: »

Good point from Daysha some are in great locations and should be sold off and Counties move to green field sites. But I was talking to a man in the know (worked for (EnglisH F.A) about this and he says stadiums dont work outside the major cities. Economics, htels restraunts shops......

I guess that's understandable. But look at the picture of Walsh Park above. There is absolutely zero room for any sort of significant capacity upgrade.

Also, if you take British stadiums as an example, not many stadiums are actually situated right in the city centre. Places like Wembley and Old Trafford are actually miles away from the centre of the their respective cities, while clubs with stadiums situated in city centre areas (like Anfield and Goodison Park) will be moving to new pitches in the next 5-6 years, while other clubs like Man City have already made the move to the suburbs.

I'm not suggesting build stadiums in the countryside, I just think more county councils should be exploring every available option that will improve the quality of pitches around the country. In Munster, Limerick Cork and Thurles all have stadiums with a capacity over 45,000. That's the target my own county needs to be setting, if not a small bit under that.

While pubs, restaurants and the like in the city would suffer from building a new stadium outside the city centre, the amount of money worth to the economy if we could build a stadium that could host Munster semi finals and finals in the future would more than make up for it.

LeoB

Daysha wrote: »

I guess that's understandable. But look at the picture of Walsh Park above. There is absolutely zero room for any sort of significant capacity upgrade.

Also, if you take British stadiums as an example, not many stadiums are actually situated right in the city centre. Places like Wembley and Old Trafford are actually miles away from the centre of the their respective cities, while clubs with stadiums situated in city centre areas (like Anfield and Goodison Park) will be moving to new pitches in the next 5-6 years, while other clubs like Man City have already made the move to the suburbs.

I'm not suggesting build stadiums in the countryside, I just think more county councils should be exploring every available option that will improve the quality of pitches around the country. In Munster, Limerick Cork and Thurles all have stadiums with a capacity over 45,000. That's the target my own county needs to be setting, if not a small bit under that.

While pubs, restaurants and the like in the city would suffer from building a new stadium outside the city centre, the amount of money worth to the economy if we could build a stadium that could host Munster semi finals and finals in the future would more than make up for it.

But look at the population of Greater Manchester its as much as Ireland. I agree with you on County Councils getting involved but they would have to for all sports and the cost of putting G.A.A into a new stadium is far greater than soccer when you tae the pitch size into account. Thats why G.A.A was not properly catered for In Tallaght or Lusk but juvenile games will be catered for in Lusk. I would like to see more sports campus being built to cater for all sports including Athletics and swimming.
I personally think where possible stadiums should be in towns or beside Railway or main road for ease of access. Take Parnell Pk in Dublin I would have sold it and built new ground just off M.50 where a big car park could also have been built but then public transport as the problem.
Whats the point in having Walsh park developed for maybe 1 or 2 games a year where it would be full? Dublin draw big crowds but Parnell Park is just big enough

Daysha

Whats the point in having Walsh park developed for maybe 1 or 2 games a year where it would be full? Dublin draw big crowds but Parnell Park is just big enough

That sentiment could be applied to any stadium in the country IMO. How many games was Semply Stadium completely full last year? Zero. Yet they're going full steam ahead for their redevelopment. Pairc ui Chaoimh last year? Zero (I think). Yet increasing the capacity to 60,000 is still on the cards.

In fact, for any medium sized (aka, +10,000) stadium in the country can only expect to be at full capacity for championship games. But it's more than just size that's a problem with our stadiums. Ease of access is a major problem in city centre stadiums, including Walsh Park. But the improvements suggested by the Waterford CC won't solve that problem. Granted, it will get rid of grassed terraces, there's a lot more than just grassy terraces that needs solving in Walsh Park. And they're not possible to fix when it is where it is.

LeoB

I acept the sentiment could be applied to any ground but I think Thurles makes sense but Cork no, only because they have a fine stadium and I think it should be revamped.

If Walsh Park is upgraded it should have at least 2 decent games during the summer. Back door games. How many would a double header of club semi-finals get? On Thurles only been in it a few times but maybe they should use it for All-Ireland Semi-finals at U/21 and Minor every year Tipp are not in in it and it should be used for Football quarter finals.
My point is the feasability of very expensive upgrades.

The access is terrible to nearly all the grounds in Ireland and only for Clonliff Collage and O'Connells school Croke Pk would be a total disaster.

Declan30

Access to all grounds in the country is terrible. Even thurles is bad. Everyone says it is great but look at it country lanes leading into the ground and for a lot of limerick fans having to go through Tipp Town to get to thurles is a nightmare thankfully i know a few routes around it now:)

blackbelt

I like O Connor Park in Tullamore.It is easily accessible,great car parking facilities across the road and inside the stadium you have a large enough stand and the pitch is in good conditions and the OCB have a digital score board with scorers names.All they need now is floodlights and the article is finished.

I like my home ground Parnell Park.It is big enough for the crowd that go there and the facilities are good although O Connor Park is a bit nicer but parking these days doesn't seem to be an issue unless we are playing Meath in an all ticket game.Parnell Park is serviced by DART and a good few bus routes.

Pairc Ui Chaoimh,don't like it.Sure they have a huge pitch but the ground isn't serviced properly by public transport and the seats in the venue are designed for 5 year olds.Basically your knees are up against the seat in front of you and you may feel somebodies elses knees on your shoulders.

yahoo_moe

LeoB wrote: »

Good point from Daysha some are in great locations and should be sold off and Counties move to green field sites.

But lads, there'd be a huge amount of uproar if this happened on a large scale - I'm not a big man for the sentiment in these things myself, but many would be up in arms at losing the sites of old famous victories. And more importantly, there'd be accusations that the GAA was cashing in which would be very hard to disprove if people have made up their minds already (as they often do in these cases).

Daysha wrote:

Also, if you take British stadiums as an example, not many stadiums are actually situated right in the city centre.

In fairness, with the size of Manchester, Liverpool, London, Glasgow, etc. the grounds there are still in built-up areas comparable to (if not bigger than) Ennis, Mullingar, Sligo Town, etc.

dundalkbhoy

louth county ground in drogheda is pretty poor to be honest
grass terraces on 3 sides yetwe have one of the best if not
best training facilitys in the country.

AMixedBag

cusack park in ennis is bad enough
sitting on bricks when your watching matches kinda gets sore after a while..
theres no point really doing anyting with it anyways (at the moment) since its only really used for league games & primary school games for the little ones..
all i want is new seats anyways, is that sucha big ask??

mrgaa1

Croke Park, Crossmaglen, Westmeath's home ground, Clones, Killarney all good grounds

Obviously Croke Park is miles in front - we all know where to park, how to get there etc... Some club grounds are better than county grounds