GAA Infastructure

No question GAA fields are bigger then a typical soccer field. The maximum size allowed for a GAA pitch is 145x90m with the minimum being 130x80m. The equivalents for soccer are maximum 120x90 and minimum of 90x45m although no professional team would play on a soccer field anywhere near that small. I see no issue with a pitch being laid that is say 140x85m. Hardly so drastic a difference as to make playing in a joint stadium untenable. GAA could use the full dimensions if they wanted and you would have a maximum sized soccer field that would only be 20 meters shorter so 10 meters behind each goal line and it would only be 5 meters narrower thus only 2.5 meters in on each side line. Hardly major issues and hardly is 10 meters behind each goal and 2.5 meters along each side far away as to be an issue.

Old trafford is 106 x 76. Anfield 101 x 68 and these are teams that are very strong and would like to play expansive football. I doubt Dundalk or Cork City want to play European teams on a pitch 120m x 90.

It's only really an option for counties which don't have good stadiums in either sport. It'd be great for Waterford, Louth and maybe Wicklow if land could be found for a stadium in Bray. But for counties like Cork, Limerick or Kilkenny it wouldn't really be an option due to scale.

Why would a GAA team want a minimum pitch in a new stadium? Why build anything new to a minimum standard when you can do better? The needs of another sport are not a reason. There is a probably some high tech solution which moves the stand or adds additional seats at the front, but this is not going to be an economic runner in a provincial venue.

I don't think whether the pitch is small medium or big is going to make any real difference to how Dundalk or Cork City fair against anybody even half way decent in Europe. Plus playing on a bigger pitch would make it easier to play open attractive football which I would be all for personally.

League of Ireland teams as is are going nowhere in European competition against any half decent opposition regardless of the size of the pitch. But having better grounds with bigger pitches would certainly encourage and hopefully enable a better more attractive domestic game to grow which in time could be built on.

Thats why its an advantage to play at home. Plus thats why teams train during the week to prepare for whats next up. Just like teams playing on turf now prepare and train on grass when playing away on grass.

They couldn’t even if they wanted to. While the rules of the game state up to 120m, individual competitions have their own regulations. For UEFA competitions pitches must be between 100 and 105m long and 65 and 68 wide.

It would certainly not benefit a LOI side to have to shorten their pitch by 15m and narrow it by 12m every time they went to play in European competition.

Pure madness down in Kerry.

This is the proposal for the upgrade of Fitzgerald Stadium.

A new two tier stand

A rebuilt of the existing stand

An all seater uncovered end

And a rebuilt of the "slope" (that up to about 5 years ago had concrete seats) at one end into a terrace.

All for what?

A few games that you might play v Mayo or Dublin or Tyrone in the group stages and the hope that Cork get better and Munster finals become a thing again.

Tralee will still want to keep those lucrative Saturday night league games.

Its since before Covid since i was there and i taught it was a fine spot to watch a game. Does work really need to be done?

But Cork has a big new shiny stadium so they need one too.

Never mind the fact that they situated in a part of the country far away from other football strongholds so the potential to draw big crowds just isn't there.