When I said "put a new roof over the whole lot", I was talking specifically about the seated stand. Putting a roof around all sides would cost a fortune and have no benefit. A roof on the terrace along the other sideline would be a nice-to-have but isn't realistically going to happen for a long time.
The first rule of setting goals is to make them achievable, setting an unachievable goal for some vague notion of looking like a modern stadium is pointless.
Over 20 years since it was redeveloped ,so why would be out of the question to have a roof on the terrace along the sideline? Look at the Athletic Grounds a roof over the terrace side.
Maybe you have a grand seat in the stand but lots dont like getting wet in Breffni
I see you have gone from "it should be roofed on all 4 sides" to a roof on the terrace along the sideline. Just for context, PUC cost €100m and they didn't roof behind the goals. The works proposed for Breffni aren't going to cost near that but it would definitely be tens of millions. Kildare are building a smaller overall structure with less "amenities" but the main contract there is €12.9m plus VAT. Unless the County Board has €50m available, they aren't going to be roofing the other sides of Breffni given the scale of what they have applied for planning permission for.
I'd rarely sit under the roof, like a lot of people I'm quite happy on the terrace the majority of the time. Umbrellas are useful for those who don't like getting wet. A roof over the terrace is a nice-to-have but the value of it v the cost is very questionable. The County Board has obviously decided to focus attention on the other side of the stadium.
I misinterpred what you meant at the beginninng, hence why I said 4 sides. The terrace along the sideline should be done at some stage. Yeah there is umbrellas but they block the view of others.
Nobody should bring an umbrella to a terrace. Buy proper wet gear and make sure to go into the dry side of the crowd
What is the status of casement park now. I now Jarlet burns is taking about delivering a county grounds for Antrim but we will be looking at full redesign and planning needed.
Will the state leave the 50 million in a bank account for Antrim because who is to say what happens in the future as we all remeber 2008
Full redesign and planning are needed, will take a couple of years from when that gets the green light.
The official line is that the €50m remains in place but it would be very easy for a future government to say that was for that Casement project, not another one. €50m would build a good stadium but it's not for the Irish taxpayer to fund the whole thing, a reasonable contribution would be enough.
The Breffni project looks like pure pie in the sky stuff at the moment. A new stand with improved spectator and player facilities would be a reasonable aspiration but beyond that I can't see it happening.
Kieran Callaghan, Chairperson Cavan GAA has admitted that either it hasn't even been costed or if it has wont reveal it. Why go for planning and not reveal the projected cost?
"While refusing to speculate on what it might cost to deliver, Mr Callaghan suggests the government allow Cavan GAA to take a bite out of the €13bn in unpaid taxes set to be returned to the Exchequer by tech-giant Apple."
Hoping for a contribution from the Apple money is not realistic. It is likely that the money from that will go to housing and rail/road/water infrastructure.
"The cost-benefit of such an investment, Mr Callaghan considers, would be generational in its return".
Again does he have that information and if so why is he not presenting it? If he has it surely that would help the case for obtaining funding? I'm guessing there is no CBA.
There is no way that all that work has gone into the planning application without a detailed analysis been done on the costings, obvioulsy it is a massive outlay and that's why he is keeping quiet on it for now.
The polo grounds develoopment is what needs to be concentrated on and would be far more benifical to the people in the county.
The ambition is great and all but even developing those pitches will be expensive. There is a big level change there and it will require a lot of earthworks, you can see the retaining wall around Pitches 3 and 4 there. I don't think they own that land either, unless it was bought relatively recevntly. They have already spent money on a different pitch layout. I think they'd be doing well to get two pitches on the far side of the river., if they had that plus the 3G and the "Back training pitch" it would be similar to most similar sized county's COE.
Kildare have St Conleths back in use now
https://m.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/kildare-gaa-to-officially-re-open-state-of-the-art-st-conleths-park-this-month-after-major-facelift/a592414005.html
I hear it’s state of the art. To confirmation in the piece though 😕
Its still a fine job between the Stand and bigger pitch. I taught they might try and extend the terrraces but you can at the end of the day only do what your budget allows you
Unless youre Cavan and you unveil a pie in the sky project that's so unattainable that you can't even guess how much its going to cost!
They've done a decent job in kildare,as you say it's whatever their budget allows.You would think a big county like kildare could build bigger and maybe they will develop the other sides when budgets etc allow.
Does the new pitch go right up to the terraces which were bizarrely set back behind a road ?
it is. State of the art is more spurs stadium or the sofi stadium though. It’s pushing credulity a bit.
Video of St Conleth's;
https://twitter.com/KildareGAA/status/1844099457929052355
It looks great.
Super facilities,its a bit on the small side with only 3k capacity but that's probably the nicest stand in any county ground.
Well done to all involved.
A total capacity of 15k seems small for a big County like Kildare.
Its a County Ground which will have at most on a good year maybe 10 games between league & Championship i would say its big enoght. I would also say they are hoping to sell 3k in season tickets every year.
In the videos it looks like all the terraces are still the same but if they have a bigger pitch they must of taken some of the space between the terraces and the old pitch
Unambitious. This is 5% of the population of the county, some counties could get 10% of their population at a league game.
The Kildare population is small. It's the population of Kildare that is big.
It is something Kildare GAA will eventually need to come to terms with and tap into though.
This statement may be philosophical or there is something missing!
Basically Kildare are offering a dry seat to 1% of its people, which suggests that they are not planning to get to grips with the numbers any time soon.
I think a stand of that quality to hold 5k or 6k would have been better but its still a great job
Also outside of Mayo (population 150k,regularly get 15k) what county get 10% of their population at league games?
I assumed your own cryptic post was complaining that the stadium was too small which it is not.
But in a few generations Kildare should have a population advantage.
Monaghan, Armagh, maybe Kilkenny hurlers.
What I specifically said, which was not at all cryptic, was that the stadium was not ambitious.
Kildare has the 6th biggest potential audience, but little interest in attracting it. There is no part of Kildare more than 40 minutes drive from Newbridge, you can even go on a train there. In Donegal many parts of the county are twice as far and there is no chance of a train, Cork, Antrim have areas more than an hour from the city venue of the ground. If 70 people came from each club in Kildare, they wouldn't fit in the stand.
So that's a no,no and regularly no...
Ok,cool.
That 70 people from each club in Kildare couldn't fit in the stand is the most bizarre criticism of anything I think I have ever heard. More than 10,000 people can be accommodated in the rest of the stadium, including on a covered terrace on the other side of the pitch.
there is no covered terrace on the other side of the pitch. Unless they’ve built one and not put it on the launch video which would be unlikely
