GAA Infastructure

Despite what others have said you're right about the place being a bit of a kip.

I can't imagine any rugby fan leaving MacHale Park being wildly impressed. Lets be honest rugby fans rightly expect a lot more in terms of stadium comfort and experience than what it, or indeed most GAA stadiums, offers.

Yes most stadiums in Ireland are kips.

Even good stadiums have people standing out in the rain. What they don't have is stupid concrete benches covering what should be terraces.

Most GAA stadiums in the country are kips where the majority of supporters have to sit outside uncovered despite it being a considerably wet country.

Yes, rugby fans do expect more not just the Ballsbridge crowd. Ravenhill and RDS are far better than all GAA stadiums with the exception of Croker for crowd comfort and facilities. Thomond Park is only beaten by Croke Park and PUC.

While the Sportsgrounds may be small it at least has two covered stands at the moment. An alien concept in the GAA for most. Their plans for a new stadium are brilliant - small but with spectator comfort at the heart of them. The Mayo county board would have been far better off taking a similar approach when they redeveloped Castlebar when all they seemed to care about was having the biggest stand possible. If poles and blue seats enabled them to realise that ambition so be it.

I'm saying all of this as someone who isn't a rugby supporter. I just think we're too quick to accept shite stadiums as GAA supporters.

Did you miss the bit where I explained in detail that MacHale Park has the 4th or 5th (depending on what criteria you're using) modern bucket seats in the country?

Seems like you flew in with an angry misinformed post last night and are doubling down now.

Also,have you ever been to the sport ground in Galway? I have 100s of time as I'm a big Connacht fan.It would compare in the bottom 10 -20% of county grounds.

The article was about a TD saying he would like to see games there and you assumed everyone from outside Mayo would know what you were talking about. It gave no information about an actual potential match or contact between the organisations.

Wow bucket seats. Ever heard of mutton dressed as lamb. The majority of the stadium is a dump and unless I missed them it has no spectator facilities.

Never been to Ravenhill and only the RDS for concerts. I wouldn't have thought they are better than PUC. I can't see anything really that I would take marks off PUC for.

Anger issues there definitely. OTT reactions to reasonable posts.

I don't necessarily disagree with you.

The poster in question was moaning about concrete benches in MacHale Park.I simply pointed out it has more modern plastic bucket seating than any other ground in Connacht and most grounds countrywide.

If you're using the term "modern high quality stadium" then no GAA ground except maybe Croker and possibly PUC fall into that category.

If you want to have a moan about the colour of the seats in MacHale Park I'd suggest taking it to the Mayo forum.

I don't know if you've been to the Sportsground in Galway....you said it has two fully covered stands at the moment.It doesn't,it had one covered terrace running 80% of the side line (the Clan) and one covered terrace opposite running 50% of the sideline.There is a small seated paddock called the Grant Thorton with a capacity of 200.

It would compare to the like of westmeath or wicklow in terms of county grounds (except they have more seating)

If you go to MacHale Park and the Sportsground regularly (like i do) you'd know which one you are guaranteed to get wet in.

Having a Connacht game in MacHale Park is a win win for everybody involved.

As many supporters can go as want to go.No problem with tickets or capacity

Gets Connacht out of a bind as solves the problem of reduced capacity at one of the biggest games of the year.

Huge novelty factor

Spreads the rugby experience around the province.

Revenue for Mayo GAA

Revenue for Castlebar and surrounding towns.

If you're trying to pull negatives out of that I can't help you.

"Doesn't matter how many positives are listed. Its pretty clear that the moaners here haven't been involved much in GAA clubs or county level fundraising. Collecting money, selling lotto tickets and membeship is a tough and thankless job and I've done my fair share over the years"

Oh we're just not true Gaels like yourself. We didn't pull the rocks out of the field with our bare hands. Go away to fuk.

People who actually push the GAA by not accepting rubbish are doing more than those pretending muck is gold. People like you would have blocked Croke Park because "ah Shure isn't it grand"

You edited the post to include the CoE article afterwards which is why I missed it and didn't say anything nice about it.

Of course I am happy Mayo got land for it.

British government refusing to even commit to making a financial contribution to a new Casement Park it seems.

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024/1119/1481874-casement-park/

It seems there are a few who have alerts set up for any mention of Mayo in anything other than a negative context and immediately swing into action

It is clear to see who in this thread has never been involved in a GAA club in their life and thinks money for these stadiums grow on trees. McHale park is a perfectly adequate stadium and serves its purpose adequately.

It needs improvements for sure but trashing fundraising attempts and calling it a kip is the language of those who do little or nothing positive for the GAA.

I'm forever disappointed with the debt on the venue and Id prefer 2 smaller stands of similar size but it meets the needs of connacht rugby so that's all that matters in this instance.

If it was all terrace and just the stand would that increase capcity or would the capcity still be the same due to the surrounding streets?

I imagine it would be the same,as mentioned it's overkill to do with how quickly it can be evacuated. It's the same criteria that saw capacities nearly halved on lots of county grounds about 10 years ago.

Although less than 10 years ago there was 34k in MacHale Park for Mayo Galway and there was still room for more (2018)

I took this pic on the day