GAA Infastructure

threeball · 18-06-2015 01:01PM

munchkin_utd wrote: »

firstly you have a 20 or 30 million euro stadium. You are not making a profit any time soon out of the stadium.
So, the naming rights would go to pay for the stadium and not the coffers of any county board in a split use arrangement.
Pitchside advertising might be sold on the tripple, but again theres a massive debt to be paid back so the cash goes into the stadium holding company.
Same for boxes, whether they are sold once or per county, the cash goes to pay the debt.

when the debt is paid, you start getting into the question of who pays what, but you'd simply have the counties paying a "rent" or % of the gate as a contribution to upkeep.

It wouldnt be the first stadium in the world to have shared use or ownership.

You couldn't have 3 counties owning the stadium even from a games logistics standpoint. For league games you would end up with Dublin Footballers, Dublin Hurlers, Meath footballers, Kildare Footballers all looking to play games there on the same weekends which no pitch would stand up to. Not to mention that fact that most Kildare and Meath games outside of the championship would have tumbleweeds blowing through the stands of a 25,000 seater stadium.

J Cheever Loophole · 18-06-2015 01:16PM

ardmacha wrote: »

Whatever the attendance was on Sunday last........

18,156.

That is definitely the biggest attendance since the AG redevelopment was completed.

ardmacha · 18-06-2015 01:21PM

J Cheever Loophole wrote: »

18,156.

That is definitely the biggest attendance since the AG redevelopment was completed.

If the team doesn't put up a better fight there won't be as many again...

Fianna Fowl · 18-06-2015 03:20PM

Now if it was a 25-30K indoor stadium like the one planned for DCU...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/dcu-plans-10000-capacity-indoor-gaa-stadium-78621.html

ardmacha · 18-06-2015 03:22PM

Fianna Fowl wrote: »

Now if it was a 25-30K indoor stadium like the one planned for DCU...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/dcu-plans-10000-capacity-indoor-gaa-stadium-78621.html

2008 is a while ago and I don't recall this stadium being built.

munchkin_utd · 18-06-2015 03:23PM

threeball wrote: »

You couldn't have 3 counties owning the stadium even from a games logistics standpoint. For league games you would end up with Dublin Footballers, Dublin Hurlers, Meath footballers, Kildare Footballers all looking to play games there on the same weekends which no pitch would stand up to. Not to mention that fact that most Kildare and Meath games outside of the championship would have tumbleweeds blowing through the stands of a 25,000 seater stadium.

firstly, you're forgetting that croke park still exists so bigger Dublin games or double headers will still happen there.
Hurling and football happen on different weekends, and hurling in Meath and Kildare is something suited to the 2nd or 3rd stadium in the county, so would not be in the newer stadium.
You can make a case that the stadium would be overran with games, but in reality its manageable.
Croke park has sometimes 2 double headers on the same day, so to have a single game in the new stadium on 2 consecutive days is not too ambitioius.

Regarding it being empty for games outside of the championship, it wouldnt be too bad.
Thomond park is a good example of how to do a stadium of this size for Ireland. Its 25000 capacity. 15000 seated in covered stands and 10,000 on the open terraces.
So if you got between 5 and 10 thousand for a Kildare or Meath league game, thats the stands half or 2/3 full and behind the goal empty. Looks wise, you can see below that away from the centre the seats are multicoloured so it doesnt look too empty even when it is.

Godge · 18-06-2015 03:30PM

munchkin_utd wrote: »

the only thing might be that they could finance it by offloading Parnell park for residental re-development seeing as it'd likely be surplus to requirements.

theres no mention of it but something like that would make sense seeing as they'd be playing very few high profile games in Parnell park if their second stadium becomes a 25,000 capacity southside stadium complimented by Croke park on the northside.

in my eyes whats needed is a joint effort between Kildare and Dublin (if not meath too) for a proper state of the art 25,000 seater between them - but that doesnt seem to be on the cards.

Abbottstown, where Bertie planned the National Stadium would be an ideal site for a 25,000 capacity stadium, very near to Meath being on the border and not too far from Kildare.

J Cheever Loophole · 18-06-2015 03:36PM

ardmacha wrote: »

If the team doesn't put up a better fight there won't be as many again...

Look on the bright side - the Donegal ones will fill it!!

klairondavis · 18-06-2015 03:38PM

munchkin_utd wrote: »

the only thing might be that they could finance it by offloading Parnell park for residental re-development seeing as it'd likely be surplus to requirements.

theres no mention of it but something like that would make sense seeing as they'd be playing very few high profile games in Parnell park if their second stadium becomes a 25,000 capacity southside stadium complimented by Croke park on the northside.

in my eyes whats needed is a joint effort between Kildare and Dublin (if not meath too) for a proper state of the art 25,000 seater between them - but that doesnt seem to be on the cards.

You're not going to get any crowd at 'home' league games for Kildare or Meath in some souless stadium up in Dublin. Kildare moved three league games to Croke Park in recent years: Tyrone in 2012, Donegal and Dublin in 2013. There was a very poor Kildare following at the three of those fixtures and they were at a time when the Kildare team was going well in the league.

If Dublin County Board went ahead and built a new stadium on the M50 it would be to replace Parnell Park. It's not going to be a replacement for Newbridge or Navan no matter how run down they are.

ArmaniJeanss · 18-06-2015 03:52PM

munchkin_utd wrote: »

firstly you have a 20 or 30 million euro stadium. You are not making a profit any time soon out of the stadium.
So, the naming rights would go to pay for the stadium and not the coffers of any county board in a split use arrangement.
Pitchside advertising might be sold on the tripple, but again theres a massive debt to be paid back so the cash goes into the stadium holding company.
Same for boxes, whether they are sold once or per county, the cash goes to pay the debt.

when the debt is paid, you start getting into the question of who pays what, but you'd simply have the counties paying a "rent" or % of the gate as a contribution to upkeep.

It wouldnt be the first stadium in the world to have shared use or ownership.

Sounds ill thought out to be honest - the bulk of the income from the likes of naming rights is coming in because of the presence of Dublin, not the other two counties. So you really can't wait until the debt has been paid (by Dublins marketing power) to decide who pays what or owns what.
Your plan is basically Dublin subsidising other counties to give them a nice 25K ground, I cant see that being acceptable.

CrabRevolution · 19-06-2015 07:08PM

The idea of every single Meath fan having to leave the county to watch a "Home" league/championship match just doesn't seem right to me.

I'd also imagine it would get very messy for fixtures, who has final say over what gets played there?

Do county finals get moved there or do we keep the old county grounds for club matches while letting them crumble to the ground?

randd1 · 19-06-2015 08:35PM

Why don't the GAA just do up Tullamore to 30,000? Say what you want about that notion, but its a cracking venue as it is with good facilities, and the town does be buzzing with any type of decent crowd.

If the GAA went about it, they could do up the terrace side to a seated stand, which would hold about 10,000, and have two covered terrace ends about 5,000 each end. There's already one good stand in it already built, and the space is there for the building already, no need for buying land.

It would be fully covered stadium 30,000 stadium. And the reason I would pick Tullamore is because its in an area of Offaly which is generally both hurling and football so there would be some sort of a buzz in the town, and it has good roads going into it in general especially with the roads leading off the Galway and Cork/Limerick motorways.

Most of all, it would service basically every county in North Leinster/ possibly even Leinster as a while. Westmeath, Meath and Kildare are all neighbours, most of, though not all, of Meath, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wicklow and Longford are within 90 minutes drive of it and that's not a bad drive for a big match. The Galway/Dublin motorway would service Dublin. Its about the same distance to there from Wexford as it is to Dublin. Louth would probably draw the short straw, but then they could always have games played in Dublin.

And in the Leinster hurling championship, Galway are more than well served by Tullamore as neutral venue.

I've been up there plenty of times over the years following Kilkenny, and I've always liked it as a venue and as a town for a match buzz. No point in building a 25-30,000 stadium in Dublin from scratch when the raw materials are already in place for Leinster counties to have a perfectly good sized second stadium for the province.

threeball · 19-06-2015 08:36PM

CrabRevolution wrote: »

The idea of every single Meath fan having to leave the county to watch a "Home" league/championship match just doesn't seem right to me.

I'd also imagine it would get very messy for fixtures, who has final say over what gets played there?

Do county finals get moved there or do we keep the old county grounds for club matches while letting them crumble to the ground?

Meath and Kildare should build an identical ground to armaghs except with an even lower capacity. 12k would be perfect. €4million and a revamped high quality pitch and counties like this would be set for the next 20yrs. Same should go for Clare, Westmeath and other counties planning renovating or building county grounds.

threeball · 19-06-2015 08:50PM

randd1 wrote: »

Why don't the GAA just do up Tullamore to 30,000? Say what you want about that notion, but its a cracking venue as it is with good facilities, and the town does be buzzing with any type of decent crowd.

If the GAA went about it, they could do up the terrace side to a seated stand, which would hold about 10,000, and have two covered terrace ends about 5,000 each end. There's already one good stand in it already built, and the space is there for the building already, no need for buying land.

It would be fully covered stadium 30,000 stadium. And the reason I would pick Tullamore is because its in an area of Offaly which is generally both hurling and football so there would be some sort of a buzz in the town, and it has good roads going into it in general especially with the roads leading off the Galway and Cork/Limerick motorways.

Most of all, it would service basically every county in North Leinster/ possibly even Leinster as a while. Westmeath, Meath and Kildare are all neighbours, most of, though not all, of Meath, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wicklow and Longford are within 90 minutes drive of it and that's not a bad drive for a big match. The Galway/Dublin motorway would service Dublin. Its about the same distance to there from Wexford as it is to Dublin. Louth would probably draw the short straw, but then they could always have games played in Dublin.

And in the Leinster hurling championship, Galway are more than well served by Tullamore as neutral venue.

I've been up there plenty of times over the years following Kilkenny, and I've always liked it as a venue and as a town for a match buzz. No point in building a 25-30,000 stadium in Dublin from scratch when the raw materials are already in place for Leinster counties to have a perfectly good sized second stadium for the province.

This is kind of along the mini crokers idea I proposed a while back. Mid sized well appointed grounds for high attendence championship games and small quality smaller county grounds to cover all other games both league and championship.
I,d like to see Tullamore 30,000, Thurles 45,000, Claremorris 30,000 and Clones 30,000 as really high quality grounds for big championship games up to all ireland quarter finals. (Omagh would actually be logistically better than Clones but revenue should be kept in the republic). All other grounds should be along the lines of armaghs or smaller depending on requirements.

salmocab · 19-06-2015 09:07PM

randd1 wrote: »

Why don't the GAA just do up Tullamore to 30,000? Say what you want about that notion, but its a cracking venue as it is with good facilities, and the town does be buzzing with any type of decent crowd.

If the GAA went about it, they could do up the terrace side to a seated stand, which would hold about 10,000, and have two covered terrace ends about 5,000 each end. There's already one good stand in it already built, and the space is there for the building already, no need for buying land.

It would be fully covered stadium 30,000 stadium. And the reason I would pick Tullamore is because its in an area of Offaly which is generally both hurling and football so there would be some sort of a buzz in the town, and it has good roads going into it in general especially with the roads leading off the Galway and Cork/Limerick motorways.

Most of all, it would service basically every county in North Leinster/ possibly even Leinster as a while. Westmeath, Meath and Kildare are all neighbours, most of, though not all, of Meath, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wicklow and Longford are within 90 minutes drive of it and that's not a bad drive for a big match. The Galway/Dublin motorway would service Dublin. Its about the same distance to there from Wexford as it is to Dublin. Louth would probably draw the short straw, but then they could always have games played in Dublin.

And in the Leinster hurling championship, Galway are more than well served by Tullamore as neutral venue.

I've been up there plenty of times over the years following Kilkenny, and I've always liked it as a venue and as a town for a match buzz. No point in building a 25-30,000 stadium in Dublin from scratch when the raw materials are already in place for Leinster counties to have a perfectly good sized second stadium for the province.

your probably right but to be fair the 25000 stadium proposed is by the Dublin county board.

threeball · 19-06-2015 09:14PM

salmocab wrote: »

your probably right but to be fair the 25000 stadium proposed is by the Dublin county board.

I don't think there's any doubt that dublin need a county ground of that size. Their league games would be electric in a stadium of that size as would smaller championship games

salmocab · 19-06-2015 09:18PM

threeball wrote: »

I don't think there's any doubt that dublin need a county ground of that size. Their league games would be electric in a stadium of that size as would smaller championship games

I agree, although I don't think stadiums out of town lend much to atmosphere.

threeball · 19-06-2015 09:27PM

salmocab wrote: »

I agree, although I don't think stadiums out of town lend much to atmosphere.

I'm with you there but donnycarney is a bit of a damp squib as is and croker is just too big for all but dublin v the ai champs when it comes to league

LeoB · 20-06-2015 02:11AM

munchkin_utd wrote: »

the only thing might be that they could finance it by offloading Parnell park for residental re-development seeing as it'd likely be surplus to requirements.

theres no mention of it but something like that would make sense seeing as they'd be playing very few high profile games in Parnell park if their second stadium becomes a 25,000 capacity southside stadium complimented by Croke park on the northside.

in my eyes whats needed is a joint effort between Kildare and Dublin (if not meath too) for a proper state of the art 25,000 seater between them - but that doesnt seem to be on the cards.

Im inclined to agree with you re sharing grounds. Every county feels they need to have a state of the art ground when they clearly dont. Huge money is being put into grounds that will never see a capacity crowd unless they have a big championship match. With the developments Meath and Louth have undertaken at Darver and outside Navan with lots of pitchs and proper facilities which I feel is the way to go maybe they could look at sharing a ground around Duleek/ Slane or Donore.

What it could save county boards would hugely beneficial as they could invest properly in coaching and playing facilities/changing rooms at club grounds. What would be wrong with say Westmeath or Laois sharing a ground? It does not have to be in Mullingar or portlaoise but in a Border town. Could not see it working in Cork/Kerry/ Tipp as these have massive geographical spread like Galway and Mayo. But Roscommon/Leitrim, Louth Meath, Wexford Wicklow or Meath Kildare.If you look at somewhere like Clonee Dublin and Meath could share a ground but I cant see it happening. Dublin could fill a 25,000 capacity ground for a few league games and it could get rid of Parnell park.

While it has been mentioned playing a county final outside of one's home county would not sit right what is the attendance at county finals around the country? Some get as low as 1,500 to 2,500. Majority get between 3,500 and 7-8,000 with the exceptions being Dublin 10,000, Cork and Tipp get massive crowds for hurling finals 15,000-20,000 and Kerry for the football get very big crowds so why are we building so many big grounds. Politics. And it is costing many counties way to much and they cant invest the money where its needed.

The Athletic grounds should be used as a Template for other counties to follow.

CrabRevolution · 20-06-2015 01:24PM

LeoB wrote: »

Im inclined to agree with you re sharing grounds. Every county feels they need to have a state of the art ground when they clearly dont. Huge money is being put into grounds that will never see a capacity crowd unless they have a big championship match. With the developments Meath and Louth have undertaken at Darver and outside Navan with lots of pitchs and proper facilities which I feel is the way to go maybe they could look at sharing a ground around Duleek/ Slane or Donore.

What it could save county boards would hugely beneficial as they could invest properly in coaching and playing facilities/changing rooms at club grounds. What would be wrong with say Westmeath or Laois sharing a ground? It does not have to be in Mullingar or portlaoise but in a Border town. Could not see it working in Cork/Kerry/ Tipp as these have massive geographical spread like Galway and Mayo. But Roscommon/Leitrim, Louth Meath, Wexford Wicklow or Meath Kildare.If you look at somewhere like Clonee Dublin and Meath could share a ground but I cant see it happening. Dublin could fill a 25,000 capacity ground for a few league games and it could get rid of Parnell park.

While it has been mentioned playing a county final outside of one's home county would not sit right what is the attendance at county finals around the country? Some get as low as 1,500 to 2,500. Majority get between 3,500 and 7-8,000 with the exceptions being Dublin 10,000, Cork and Tipp get massive crowds for hurling finals 15,000-20,000 and Kerry for the football get very big crowds so why are we building so many big grounds. Politics. And it is costing many counties way to much and they cant invest the money where its needed.

The Athletic grounds should be used as a Template for other counties to follow.

You'd have trouble finding the Westmeath/Laois border, never mind building anything on it

.

Pete_Cavan · 20-06-2015 09:19PM

Building stadiums in a village just because it is on the border between two counties is not a good idea. It is very unlikely that such a village will have the necessary road connections, availability of parking or the shops/bars/restaurants to service a crowd of 10,000 or more. The last thing the GAA should be doing is building stadiums on greenfields and surrounding them by thousands of parking spaces as it would kill any kind of match day atmosphere. And this in the name of saving money, buying several acres of land, negotiating our arduous planning system (and no doubt plenty of objections and protests), and building a stadium and new pitch from scratch is not cheap. In reality, a long term plan for improvements and redevelopment of existing grounds would be cheaper and make attending matches a more enjoyable experience.

The GAA already owns good sized, well located sites in the main town in most counties, the quality of the stadium just has to be improved. The difference between O'Connor Park in Tullamore or Athletics Ground in Armagh, which everyone is raving about, and many county grounds is the main stand. Pairc Tailteann, for example, needs a new main stand and then it will be a good 12-15k stadium. The new stand would cost around €5m, building a new stadium around Slane would cost a lot more than that.

threeball · 21-06-2015 05:48PM

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

The new stand would cost around €5m, building a new stadium around Slane would cost a lot more than that.

I don't get how building a stand can cost €5m when armagh built a whole stadium for that. A stand is precast concrete, a roof,seats and lights. Entire office buildings with expensive M&E are built for €5m. The Gaa has been getting absolutely screwed on costs when it comes to stadiums. Just at small stadiums in the uk and elsewhere to see what they are building for €15m with corporate hospitality and all the bells and whistles.

I agree with the rest of your point btw.

LeoB · 21-06-2015 09:15PM

CrabRevolution wrote: »

You'd have trouble finding the Westmeath/Laois border, never mind building anything on it .

Very good. Think you get my idea. Think I should have Longford Westmeath.

I was in Cusack Park Mullingar on Saturday and it is a grand ground, or was 20years ago. There is no chance of developing it as there is simply no space and limited parking around it. Yet because of it location along M4 and close to M.6 Mullingar is a great location.

Carlow would also be a good location with I.T there already a sports campus of sorts and let Carlow C.L.G. invest in coaching and development

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Building stadiums in a village just because it is on the border between two counties is not a good idea. It is very unlikely that such a village will have the necessary road connections, availability of parking or the shops/bars/restaurants to service a crowd of 10,000 or more. The last thing the GAA should be doing is building stadiums on greenfields and surrounding them by thousands of parking spaces as it would kill any kind of match day atmosphere. And this in the name of saving money, buying several acres of land, negotiating our arduous planning system (and no doubt plenty of objections and protests), and building a stadium and new pitch from scratch is not cheap. In reality, a long term plan for improvements and redevelopment of existing grounds would be cheaper and make attending matches a more enjoyable experience.

The GAA already owns good sized, well located sites in the main town in most counties, the quality of the stadium just has to be improved. The difference between O'Connor Park in Tullamore or Athletics Ground in Armagh, which everyone is raving about, and many county grounds is the main stand. Pairc Tailteann, for example, needs a new main stand and then it will be a good 12-15k stadium. The new stand would cost around €5m, building a new stadium around Slane would cost a lot more than that.

I wouldnt put a phone box into Slane;)

If Meath do develop Pairc Tailteann I would hope they build some office space that can be rented out to small companies. I saw a small ground in Italy a few years ago and it had an Accountancy firm, a quick fit tyre place, all revenue for the club.

Was not talking about a greenfield site as such in a remote village. Look at towns like Portarlington with a rail connection, a big enough town or select either Portlaoise or Tullamore with decent secondary club grounds for staging big club games.

I also think we are screwed when it comes to cost of G.A.A developments compared to grounds in UK that have been developed. Even taking into account we need far more space with our bigger pitchs but look at the Aviva and the costs there.
That said we are possibly the most over regulated country in Europe, jobs for the boys like!!

Pete_Cavan · 18-07-2015 04:37PM

The Casement redevelopment has turned into a right fiasco and I would be surprised if this isnt the final nail in the coffin;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-33464797

Stadium safety expert Paul Scott has made new claims about pressure allegedly put on him behind the scenes over the Casement Park project.

He told a Stormont committee that Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) official Ryan Feeney told him he could persuade senior police officers to drop concerns on safety at the new stadium.
Mr Feeney is a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Meanwhile, the folks in Monaghan seem to be trying to protect Clones as an (the) Ulster Final venue;

http://www.northernsound.ie/news/plans-in-place-for-the-redevelopment-of-st-tiernachs-park/

I would hope the works to St. Tiernachs Park is just replacement of the bench seats with proper stadium seats and new facilities built on the back of the existing main stand, possibly with a new roof. Knocking down and rebuilding the main stand would be too expensive imo.

babybuilder · 18-07-2015 08:54PM

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

The Casement redevelopment has turned into a right fiasco and I would be surprised if this isnt the final nail in the coffin;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-33464797

Meanwhile, the folks in Monaghan seem to be trying to protect Clones as an (the) Ulster Final venue;

http://www.northernsound.ie/news/plans-in-place-for-the-redevelopment-of-st-tiernachs-park/

I would hope the works to St. Tiernachs Park is just replacement of the bench seats with proper stadium seats and new facilities built on the back of the existing main stand, possibly with a new roof. Knocking down and rebuilding the main stand would be too expensive imo.

Going to the Ulster Final tomorrow. Season ticket holder and no doubt will get soaked. If clones is to continue as the Ulster final venue then they need to put a roof over the hill. Modernise four provincial stadia and ensure that there is at least half of the seating covered

zetecescort · 01-11-2015 02:03PM

EU investigating 30 million grant for Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/shock-as-30m-pirc-u-chaoimh-grant-facing-eu-probe-34158532.html

weasel your way out of this Frankie boy!

threeball · 01-11-2015 09:52PM

zetecescort wrote: »

EU investigating 30 million grant for Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/shock-as-30m-pirc-u-chaoimh-grant-facing-eu-probe-34158532.html

weasel your way out of this Frankie boy!

Good I hope it gets squashed and Cork end up with a sensible sized ground round the 15-20k mark.

Boom__Boom · 01-11-2015 11:59PM

Statement from Cork County Board

The Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium re-development project meets all the conditions for State funding under the Public Spending Code.

The Board has been made aware of a process that has to be undertaken by Government with the EU with regard to State aid.

The Board and the Department of Transport Tourism and Sport are working closely together and the Board anticipates a speedy and successful conclusion to the process.

http://gaacork.ie/news/368070/Pairc_Ui_Chaoimh_Project_Statement_from_Cork_GAA_Board

The statement issued by Cork GAA.

I googled the Public Spending Code and that's an Irish government process and looks to be entirely separate to the EU Issue mentioned in the Independent report. This seems to relate to the previous issue where some of the Irish civil service wouldn't sign off on paying the money because of the lack of a business plan.

The EU issue sounds like it is a far more difficult and tricky kettle of fish to ensuring that some Irish civil servant signs off on giving money to the GAA.

Looks like a very carefully worded statement. The first line says everything is grand in relation to a different issue entirely. The second sentence makes it sound like the government have to fill out some forms to take care of some bureaucracy with the EU. The third sentence says that they expect
everything to be sorted quickly and successfully (you'd love to hear someone ask the board why exactly they think this or is it a case of just crossing their fingers and hoping for the best) and whatever about the odds of things being resolved successfully, the odds of the EU sorting out something of this sort quickly are absolutely tiny I'd imagine.

The EU is a different animal to anything that the Cork County Board have had to do any dealings with - there is a world of difference between dealing with the Irish civil services/bodies (where a serious chunk of the folk would have strong positive feelings towards the GAA) and dealing with some French/German bureaucrats.

This is just another one in the long list of issues in relation to this project.

In terms of costs, the stadium roof which was to be-used, but was found to be in too poor a condition, while the terraces and some stands which were supposed to be left standing were found to be in too bad a condition too and had to be knocked. That's only some of the stuff that has added extra cost to the budget. The County Board Draw has gotten a terrible response from the clubs/club members which means the €10m contribution from clubs to the budget looks to be utter pie in the sky.

The fact that the special meetings scheduled to bring the county board delegates up-to-speed on the status of the project were cancelled at short notice twice recently plus the rumours about some of the County Board executive quitting a few weeks is surely a massive red flag. That's before you go near the awful location of the stadium and the farce that is the centre of excellenceuselessness. There's no way Frank is getting out of this alive.

On the positive side at least the County Board statement didn't blame the weather in this statement - I'd imagine they're saving that for a while down the road when they are months/years behind schedule and will try and blame the fact that it rained in Ireland at some point during construction for the delay.

DragonKhan · 02-11-2015 10:23AM

threeball wrote: »

Good I hope it gets squashed and Cork end up with a sensible sized ground round the 15-20k mark.

So you want the biggest County in Munster to have one of the smallest grounds. A ground so small that they would never again be able to host any Munster finals again and would leave people struggling for tickets for county Hurling finals?

blue note · 02-11-2015 11:33AM

This isn't a particularly good development for the GAA. Lots of people refer to the organisation as the grab all association and in this instance it's quite accurate. To the tune of €30m. I haven't heard any reasonable justification for the stadium. Some have reminded us that it's costing the GAA nothing - it's state funding and Cork money. Cork can do what they like with their own money, but it's hard to justify taking €30m in tax payer money. The probably most common argument is that they should have it because it's Cork. But as a tax payer I'd rather see €30m go into something that will actually benefit people rather than a few egos.

But the supporters the organisation have in government to help secure funding might find things a little more difficult after this. It's bad press for us nationally and it's a headache no-one needs. It will also be a stick to beat us with for a while. Because at the end of the day, there's an element of us trying to swindle this money from the government coffers for something that doesn't deserve it. It also doesn't seem like reasonable value actually.

GAA Infastructure

Comments