GAA Infastructure

Gaa very rarely think outside the box

It will be the mere basic

purplepanda wrote: »

Walsh Park redevelopment looks much better, they've put a covered stand with seats behind one goal so the seating capacity for national league & county club games is much higher.

The terraces won't be needed for most of the above games but add capacity for championship fixtures.

What will the eventual capacity be when finished?

I think Wexford Park could do with another covered & seated stand, similar to what the Walsh Park plans & Nowlan Park have in place.

I would have covered the big terrace and left the ends open for the summer but either way it's good they are building a stadium with the non hurling championship games in mind

PTH2009 wrote: »

How many county teams would train in there home stadium nowadays ?

The centre of excellence is the done thing now in counties that have them but I imagine they would train in the home stadium in the build up to a match as it would be an advantage to have the under foot and dimensions fresh in the mind

Seen on the Irish News website that there has been further progress on Casement Park's application - Belfast City Council approves Stormont's redevelopment of Casement Park (26/06/21). (can't post link as my account is new)

Will be great for Gaelic Games in Belfast, Antrim and the Province if it goes ahead! Plans look v. impressive! Potential also to host rugby, soccer & other events!

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Not a hope of the NI Exec, or the GAA itself for that matter, ponying up money for that white elephant.

Hopefully you are right, utter madness.

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Not a hope of the NI Exec, or the GAA itself for that matter, ponying up money for that white elephant.

I think in the recent Stormont/Assembly budget from a few months ago they've included £20m to kickstart the building. With the original £70m ringfenced by Stormont to complete the project (complementing the other two stadiums built) I don't think its too much of a stretch for Stormont to pay the overrun / portion of the overrun.

spot555 wrote: »

The stadium would be a spectacular venue for players and spectators alike to look forward to getting the opportunity to play / watch a match in a world class venue, with proper toilet / catering facilities etc. Could also be a great revenue generator for the GAA, hosting conferences, concerts, tours etc which would then be reinvested into the grassroots as the GAA does with the majority of its budget. Also a great potential tourist attraction for Belfast, potential to host future soccer, rugby, American football matches etc

I believe the GAA have already started a grassroots initiative (Gaelfast) with dedicated funding for Antrim GAA to do coaching across schools and clubs etc.

While I support the development of Casement, this is a load of nonsense. What concerts are held in NI that need a 40'000 seater stadium? What conferences are going to move there on a large scale? And who is going to pay for a tour of a brand new stadium with no noteworthy history? People tour Old Trafford and the Bernabeu because Man U and Barcelona are iconic global brands, nobody will want to tour Casement Park.

CrabRevolution wrote: »

While I support the development of Casement, this is a load of nonsense. What concerts are held in NI that need a 40'000 seater stadium? What conferences are going to move there on a large scale? And who is going to pay for a tour of a brand new stadium with no noteworthy history? People tour Old Trafford and the Bernabeu because Man U and Barcelona are iconic global brands, nobody will want to tour Casement Park.

No concerts because there isn't the facility to have them - classic egg/chicken argument.

What conferences are held in Croke Park and where were they held before Croke Park had the facilities.

Tours etc. is a bit of a stretch and probably not a money maker, but there are plenty of 'new stadiums' that do tours etc.

spot555 wrote: »

The stadium would be a spectacular venue for players and spectators alike to look forward to getting the opportunity to play / watch a match in a world class venue, with proper toilet / catering facilities etc. Could also be a great revenue generator for the GAA, hosting conferences, concerts, tours etc which would then be reinvested into the grassroots as the GAA does with the majority of its budget. Also a great potential tourist attraction for Belfast, potential to host future soccer, rugby, American football matches etc

I believe the GAA have already started a grassroots initiative (Gaelfast) with dedicated funding for Antrim GAA to do coaching across schools and clubs etc.

Could be the operative word - pretty much all the exact same sort of stuff was said about Pairc Ui Chaoimh before the refurbishment project.

What seems crazy to me is the current version is for a 34k capacity. Don't even mention the lunancy of the 40k version.

Ulster GAA already have Clones which has a slightly lower capacity [and I read something that there were proposals to increase this by a few thousand in the next few years]

Ulster GAA could save millions by building a more sensible size of stadium at Casement instead of having two 30 plus capacity stadiums that will sell out at most once every second year.

Pogue eile wrote: »

What will Ulster GAA Council actually be paying for the project though?

There are four such stadiums in Munster and never filled either.

Ulster GAA will obviously be paying something for it - the notion that Stormont/NI taxpayers will be footing the vast majority of the bill and the GAA will only have to contribute a token sum is pie-in-the-sky fantasy stuff.

Also in regards to the stadiums in Munster - just because mistakes were made previously, the GAA shouldn't continue to repeat these mistakes. I mean Pairc Ui Chaoimh is almost the prefect example of building a stadium with too much capacity. It looks like Ulster GAA have learned nothing from Cork GAA's debacle Cork GAA could have saved millions by building a 30k capacity stadium as opposed to a 40k capacity stadium. In a way as a Kerryman I should be delighted that Ulster GAA are going down the same route as Cork GAA - pissing money that could have gone to improving clubs and coaching up against a wall building a stadium that will only be filled to capacity on a handful of days over the life of the stadium [if even that]. Ulster GAA's approach to the capacity is possibily even worse given that they already have another 30k+ stadium.

It's about time the GAA started building stadiums that cater to the 15k that show up all the time versus the extra 15--50k bandwagoners you'd get if your county made the final.

Can anyone name me a GAA stadium that's right sized, has great views and quality facilities for fans? Setting Croke Park aside, I can't think of any.

Build a modern 15/20 k staduim and it will be more than enoght. Leave the Ulster final in clones which has funding for an upgrade

FrancieBrady wrote: »

For all the money they spent on Croker, it's still in a choke point in a city (same issue getting in and out of Casement)
Two hours it took me to get out of the city the last time I was there. And they complain about traffic into and out of smaller town venues like Clones.

All the best stadiums are in cities. Modern greenfield stadiums are a crap day out

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I agree up to a point.. And some discomfort/inconvenience is part and parcel of that. The best GAA stadiums here are in smaller towns that are literally taken over for big days. Part of the soul of the GAA if you ask me. They risk a lot with the big statement soulless venue IMO.

I love big cites and am not a fan of little towns in general so I am bias towards the excuse to go to Dublin or Cork in fairness. Corks biggest problem and Limericks and Galways too is it's a long empty drag from stadium to town so by the time you hit the pubs the crowd has split up. Dublin doesn't have that problem but I still prefer those places for a match