should gaa stadiums be all seater stadia?

with it being 20 years since that dreadful day 15/04/89 at hillsborough and seroius overcrowding in cork v tipp game last year, should gaa stadiums be safer and all seater?

Mossy Monk

I don't think it needs to be changed. The few times I am on a terrace there is plently of room.

Daysha

I go to the terraces for every game and I really don't think there's any need to change it. I know some people will make Hillsbrough comparisons but that disaster was not solely down just having a terrace behind the goal. It was disasterous crowd management and horrible, horrible entrance facilities that caused the crush, and I don't think either or those two are rife in the GAA. We don't have tiny different pens like they did in Hillsbrough that day.

The only time I've genuinely felt unsafe in a terrace was the 04 Munster final against Cork. Everyone wanted to invade the pitch at the end but the only gates that were open were these tiny, tiny openings right at the bottom corners of the stand. Those 5-10 minutes trying to get down to them along with a few thousand pretty hyper fans were pretty uncomfortable.

That's the only sequence in a GAA match I can see some sort of accident occurring.

homerjay2005

remove the high fences in some of the grounds infront of the terraces and we are ok.

ideally we would all love all seaters, but it would take from atmosphere and also mean lesserattendance capabilities and also cost too much.

overmantle

In an ideal world yes but not in reality. Not practical or necessary .

woodyg

proper developed and managed terraces are fine, The new Hill is an example.
If it's managed right crowd safety is never an issue, hillsborough was due to awful crowd control and shocking facilities. Investment in the stadia in the GAA has improved a hell of a lot in the last 10 years and with this there should never be an issue.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

DDC1990

Hilsborough wouldn't happen at a Gaa match for a few reasons:
1) The match would be put back 15mins as has happened many times before.
2) The Gates would not be kept locked in the case of a crush: Look at the Tipp Cork game last year and after every All Ireland final. They keep them closed for a few mins untill the players are safely away and open them to the crowd.
3) The Gardaí would have more sense the the Police on that awful day in Sheffield. They would take action much sooner, and not presume the crowd were a bunch of "Drunken Yobs"... as was the excuse in Hilsborough.

The Terrace has a unique atmosphere and I assume will grow in populatity with the cheaper prices for the recession.

RIP 96

JFT96

cruiserweight

I do not see the need to have all seater GAA stadiums. Also there are many large soccer stadiums around Europe that have terraces with no problems

Nalced_irl

Hillsborough was a disaster of crowd mangement more than stadium setup. While the stadium wasnt the laid out very well to cope with such an incident, had the crowd been handled better and action taken as soon as it was evident there was a problem, those people would still be alive. Also, in soccer they would be aprehensive about moving fans to a more suitable area of the stand to avoid a crush due to the nature of football and trouble between fans. In GAA there is no problem doing so as the different fans get along far better. So i dont think there is any need for it in GAA. I do think Croker would look magnificent built the whole way around but the atmosphere created on the Hill in any game would be sorely missed if it was done. Couldnt imagine an AI Final without it!

Browney7

Hope that day never comes. Atmosphere on a terrace surpasses the stand any day in my book. If a terrrace is stewarded properly there shouldn't be a problem. The gaeilic grounds in Limerick and the Hill are very safe terraces altogether. Plenty of barriers and plenty of room

And if I'm not mistaken the Taylor report after hillsborough said that standing in itself wasn't unsafe but that all seater stadia would be safer and people would know where to go by having an assigned seat

Pride Fighter

I prefer all seater stadia tbh. If the GAA were generous and allowed other sporting bodies the use of all their stadia Ireland could host a Soccer or Rugby world cup which would be a great boost to the nation.

Daysha

The thing that would worry me about all-seater stadiums is that CB's would resort to more premium level seating to make up for lost money since stadium capacities would obviously decrease with a lack of terraces.

That in turn would lead to far worser atmospheres around the country.

live2thewire

the bundesliga doesnt use all seater so if the germans think so then lets not change what we have.

Daysha

live2thewire wrote: »

the bundesliga doesnt use all seater so if the germans think so then lets not change what we have.

Well if the Germans say so...:p

thanks all for your contributions. some good points made regarding mismanagement and not bad stadium layout. to be fair it wasn't layout as when spectators at hillsborough walked in there was no police or steward to guide them to the pens on the left and right and instead they just walked through the tunnel for the centre pens from what i gather

joey54

Not sure if current GAA stadiums should be forced to convert to all seating but I do think any new developments or extensions to current stadiums should be all seating.

I know terraces do tend to be well managed and organised at GAA matches but I think every possible step should always be taken in order to avoid unnecessary tragedy.