Limerick Rugby Experience Closure Discussion

I dont think anyone would like to see services being cut to fund this billionaires vanity project. JP has an obvious talent at gambling but his business acumen is very questionable. I really cant understand how a man of his huge (unaccounted for) wealth can not continue to throw a couple of million a year at this white elephant rather than shut it down. He is in deep enough as it is and it surely is small change for him to just keep throwing money at it. Or is he struggling for money now or other reasons?

I know lots of agencies won't touch it but something must be worth a try . Anyway i hope someone tackles the challenge without incurring heavy financial penalties .

Im still in shock about this since i heard this morning...

What an absolute omnishambles...

Such a bad fùck up its hard to know where the blame lies....

Its difficult to blame JP because of all the good he does but he has to take a good deal of it.…

My feeling is that he needs to continue to take a hit on this vanity project until an alternative and sustainable solution can be found....

I always thought that the Adare Manor was another vanity project/charitable way of giving back to Limerick...i cannot for the life of me see how he makes much money on that hotel....the money he must pump into that place is frightening....

it would make a fine monorail station!

I wonder would the building be suitable for UL’s School of Architecture.

It goes without saying that the building is an architectural statement.

The tower would make great working studios / labs.

I don’t know what numbers are studying / working there so I can’t judge if the building is too big or small for their purposes.

Maybe the good people involved there will make their pitch for it.

100%

30 million spent there where an indoor arena somewhere in the city would have made so much sense.

Newcastle have this - cost 6.5million pounds in 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertu_Motors_Arena

Basketball - 2800 capacity

Boxing - 3500 capacity

Concerts - 3300 capacity.

Capable of hosting conferences, shows, exhibitions, whatever you want. 30 million spend on a Rugby themed museum and activity centre is was and always will be a rediculous waste.

If JP wanted to give something to the city, that would have been a much better investment.

We don't have an indoor venue for 'big'concerts in the winter-I'm thinking Arcade Fire,Foo fighters whoever.

The harsh reality(and I say this as someone who grew up here went to JFK,Ardscoil Ris) is that there just isn't enough for people to come to the city-the retail offering is poor and the city (despite improvements) still looks grubby.

Having a concert or conference or whatever would mean people would gravitate towards the city.

I came down from Dublin the day of the Liam Gallagher concert and there was people getting on at Limerick Junction who were from everywhere-they wouldn't be coming g to Limerick otherwise-that's just the reality.

We need to wrap events around the city to entice people into the city.

In addition we need more apartments,jobs in the city centre.

Compare it to Galway or cork of a Friday/Saturday. The difference is stark

I think the city has made great strides but I stand by my comment that it could be less grubby.The new paving on O'Connell St is discoloured and has chewing gum on it.

Even when you get off the green bus you pass that boarded up tourist office-looks awful.Surely they could have a cafe there like previously.

I love my city but some people are seriously blinkered to how well it looks.

I do think down by the river has improved immeasurably and hopefully further improvements will happen on NicholasSt.

Obviously also The Opera Centre will help lift that part of town also.

They should have just knocked and paved that fekin tourist office once the cafe closed. I know redevelopment is finally in the works but it's a long way away.

By the way I never said it looks well. I said it looks the same as everywhere else. The blinkered view is how good people pretend everywhere else looks. Like people thinking only Limerick has chewing gum.

Limerick really isn't that different to other Irish cities. But then again Irish cities are generally of a dreadfully poor standard and are an extremely low bar for comparison purposes. Dublin has an enormous amount of social and crime problems. The north inner city is riddled with dereliction and its public transport infrastructure is atrocious. Cork city centre has a terrible problem with the prevalence of drug addicts and aggressive beggars. It also has a huge amount of dereliction and vacancy. The quays are filthy and clogged with traffic. Galway as always is vastly overrated. People are blinded by one pedestrianised street filled with kitsch twee tourist traps. Take a few steps off to the side streets and it tapers off to small town scale streetscapes. Its footprint is tiny and there's hardly a building of significance in the city centre.

Limerick's fundamental problem is the absence of a permanent city centre population of scale. Unfortunately the city centre is never going to thrive until we repopulate it to the extent that it can support the viability of businesses and the associated footfall can attract new retailers etc. The appearance of the city centre is another massive issue. Our streets are undeniably ugly. The centre is clogged with cars and a totally disproportionate amount of space is given over to traffic lanes and parking bays. The footpaths are miserably narrow and generally surfaced with poor quality materials. Rusty ESB poles and heavy spiders web cables are everywhere. The amount of other poles, signs, bollards and general clutter is off the charts. Addressing this, upgrading the public realm and planting more trees and greenery along with providing basic amenities will dramatically improve both the perception and appearance of the city centre. Most importantly it'll provide a vastly improved environment for existing residents and make the city centre a far more attractive location for prospective new residents.

People live in or near city centres mostly because it's cheaper to rent in such areas.

Once they become upwardly mobile and have families they gravitate toward the suburbs where there is better housing and better amenities.