GAA Infastructure

Pogue eile · 17-10-2020 12:08pm

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

These county grounds with 20/25k capacity are not in place, without researching, id say about 8 counties have them.

Maybe do some research so! I count 16, and it wouldn't take a lot to bring some of the others up to that level.

BloodyBill · 17-10-2020 12:44pm

threeball wrote: »

Yes that was the crux of my argument. I'm of the same belief as you, one central 40-45k stadium to Croke park specs and standards in each province and I think counties should really not be looking to develop anything over 10-15k as they're a waste of money. Small stadia to a high standard suitable for club and county is far preferable to empty monoliths which give atmosphere to nothing.

That ship has sailed. And each province has its own particular traditions . Munster is completely different than Connacht and with the round Robin in hurling is capable of having 4 or 5 30,000 plus crowds a season topped off with a 45,000 final. Connact can't do that and neither can any other province. Plus having one large stadium is tricky giving tbe size of the province. Its bigger than Wales.

threeball · 17-10-2020 1:57pm

BloodyBill wrote: »

That ship has sailed. And each province has its own particular traditions . Munster is completely different than Connacht and with the round Robin in hurling is capable of having 4 or 5 30,000 plus crowds a season topped off with a 45,000 final. Connact can't do that and neither can any other province. Plus having one large stadium is tricky giving tbe size of the province. Its bigger than Wales.

Wales has 3.15million people and doesn't have as many large stadia as Munster. In fact apart from the Principality Stadium they're all smaller than the major Munster stadia bar Ennis and Waterfords. But keep the superiority fantasy alive anyway.

roadmaster · 20-01-2021 11:13am

I see casement is in the news again the assembly have green lighted 20 million to it but it is well short of the required funds and ulster gaa have said they won't be giving any more funds to it. Will Antrim have a ground 10 years at this rate?

kksaints · 20-01-2021 12:17pm

roadmaster wrote: »

I see casement is in the news again the assembly have green lighted 20 million to it but it is well short of the required funds and ulster gaa have said they won't be giving any more funds to it. Will Antrim have a ground 10 years at this rate?

Estimated cost now of £110 million which is around €125 million. Ouch.

Coillte_Bhoy · 20-01-2021 3:12pm

Pogue eile wrote: »

Maybe do some research so! I count 16, and it wouldn't take a lot to bring some of the others up to that level.

Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipp, Galway, Mayo, Monaghan, Kilkenny, maybe Offaly and Laois at a push, dont see where you are getting 16 tbh

threeball · 20-01-2021 3:21pm

kksaints wrote: »

Estimated cost now of £110 million which is around €125 million. Ouch.

I'd love to see the ROI on a €125 million ground that will get one capacity attendance every 2yrs if lucky. What is their obsession with building an all singing, all dancing ground? Scale it back to 15,000 capacity or even twelve. Take the €20 million from the UA, add €5 million and you'd have a cracking ground with two stands and two covered terraces which is still a white elephant albeit a smaller white elephant that the other would be.

yabadabado · 20-01-2021 6:29pm

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipp, Galway, Mayo, Monaghan, Kilkenny, maybe Offaly and Laois at a push, dont see where you are getting 16 tbh

I'm fairly sure Cavan,Carlow,Derry,Down and Fermanagh are 20k + .

kksaints · 20-01-2021 6:42pm

yabadabado wrote: »

I'm fairly sure Cavan,Carlow,Derry,Down and Fermanagh are 20k + .

Cullen Park is nowhere near 20k plus, don't think it's even 10k under the revised capacity from a few years ago.

yabadabado · 20-01-2021 6:46pm

kksaints wrote: »

Cullen Park is nowhere near 20k plus, don't think it's even 10k under the revised capacity from a few years ago.

It was reduced to 10/11k about 5 years ago but I thought it was back up now to 20k.
Was at a game there in 2019 and the stand/terrace looked in decent shape.

Edit: Taking out Carlow ,there would still be 14/15 at 20k.
Roscommon is currently at 18k but will be increased once the work on the ground is completed. These aren't major developments (circa 2m)so I expect it to start this year.

kksaints · 20-01-2021 7:15pm

yabadabado wrote: »

It was reduced to 10/11k about 5 years ago but I thought it was back up now to 20k.
Was at a game there in 2019 and the stand/terrace looked in decent shape.

Edit: Taking out Carlow ,there would still be 14/15 at 20k.
Roscommon is currently at 18k but will be increased once the work on the ground is completed. These aren't major developments (circa 2m)so I expect it to start this year.

It was 11k after 2015 due to H&S. I haven't seen anything to suggest that it's back at its original capacity of 21k which from the last time I was there would be dangerously overcrowded.

Some of the Capacity figures for GAA grounds on wikipedia are badly out of date or ignore any kind of safe capacity levels. Wexford Park's capacity according to that is 25k. The Kilkenny vs Wexford Leinster round robin tie in 2019 had an attendance of 15,241. I was at this match and in no way whatsoever could you fit another 2k in safely let alone 10k. There was overcrowding issues at the league semi final there in 2018 which had an attendance of 16k

BloodyBill · 20-01-2021 9:49pm

I think Wexford Park is about 20,000 now,no more. And that wasn't even full for round Robin games in Leinster which I found strange. Really the round Robin fixtures showed the huge disparity in crowds between Munster and Leinster. But thats neither here nor there.
I see Croke Park is getting a face-lift. Thats needed,the seats are small and getting worn. Its aged well but certainly needs abit of Botox.

yabadabado · 20-01-2021 9:54pm

According to the reports its €71m they are spending on CP but its for conference,hospitality and the museum.

celt262 · 21-01-2021 1:02pm

yabadabado wrote: »

According to the reports its €71m they are spending on CP but its for conference,hospitality and the museum.

That is nice of them and on the other hand they don't think they can run the National leagues as the money isn't there.

beggars_bush · 21-01-2021 3:42pm

celt262 wrote: »

That is nice of them and on the other hand they don't think they can run the National leagues as the money isn't there.

Problem is, if you don't keep a stadium upgraded it gets old very quick

They make more off a few concerts than gate receipts

celt262 · 21-01-2021 4:03pm

beggars_bush wrote: »

Problem is, if you don't keep a stadium upgraded it gets old very quick

They make more off a few concerts than gate receipts

Yeah that's all well and good but they got millions in funding from the government last year to run the championships are mumbling that they may not be able to afford to run the leagues this year and have pulled 70 odd million from the back of the couch to upgrade Croke Park.

yabadabado · 21-01-2021 4:37pm

celt262 wrote: »

Yeah that's all well and good but they got millions in funding from the government last year to run the championships are mumbling that they may not be able to afford to run the leagues this year and have pulled 70 odd million from the back of the couch to upgrade Croke Park.

Would the 70m not be financed?
I doubt they spending cash on it .

Seth Brundle · 21-01-2021 5:44pm

Not sure if this has been posted here in the past but this is an interesting forecast on Croker from the Irish Indo 80 years ago...
https://twitter.com/tim_carey1/status/1352189470565662720

ArielAtom · 21-01-2021 8:55pm

Really the GAA should be looking at another capital expenditure project and allocate the 71M towards building a stadium in Dublin.

munchkin_utd · 22-01-2021 5:50pm

funny, i did actually think the article was a rehash of plans which were announced years ago, but there the figure was €60 million - and that seems to be the case

Also, croker has seen investment over the years. The premium level has gone posh with random foodtruck type carts, the other catering got a jazz up too, theres wifi all along the conference areas, the large tvs replaced at a massive cost and the roof got millions of euros in corrosion repairs, and theres probably more stuff that was done over the years aside from that.

https://twitter.com/officialgaa/status/1352649925616656384?s=20

Coillte_Bhoy · 23-01-2021 8:09pm

celt262 wrote: »

Yeah that's all well and good but they got millions in funding from the government last year to run the championships are mumbling that they may not be able to afford to run the leagues this year and have pulled 70 odd million from the back of the couch to upgrade Croke Park.

Care to back that up? Link?

roadmaster · 24-01-2021 5:43pm

I seen during the week louth are pushing on with the new dundalk stadium. I know the county board have said they will not entertain the notion of a groundshare with Dundalk but in this day and age in Ireland any new stadiums we build should be
municipal stadiums for several sports to use. If louth had more partners such as soccer and rugby they would not have to put as much funding in place and could better spend funds on underage team coach's and there senior county teams

threeball · 24-01-2021 9:40pm

roadmaster wrote: »

I seen during the week louth are pushing on with the new dundalk stadium. I know the county board have said they will not entertain the notion of a groundshare with Dundalk but in this day and age in Ireland any new stadiums we build should be
municipal stadiums for several sports to use. If louth had more partners such as soccer and rugby they would not have to put as much funding in place and could better spend funds on underage team coach's and there senior county teams

Those dual use stadiums never work for the sport with the smaller pitch. Place becomes soulless with all the space around the pitch. Especially where crowds like in LOI are sparse.

yabadabado · 24-01-2021 10:46pm

Also I think it's a a bad idea sharing a pitch with rugby. Remember a few teams in UK shared with rugby and the pitch would be in awful condition.

It's very hard do a stadium justice when one game needs a much larger pitch than the other.soccer was odd looking on the Croker pitch.
If building from scratch maybe a compromise could work ,the width of the pitch could be the same for GAA/Soccer but the length would have to be at least 10m longer for GAA .

threeball · 25-01-2021 12:25am

yabadabado wrote: »

Also I think it's a a bad idea sharing a pitch with rugby. Remember a few teams in UK shared with rugby and the pitch would be in awful condition.

It's very hard do a stadium justice when one game needs a much larger pitch than the other.soccer was odd looking on the Croker pitch.
If building from scratch maybe a compromise could work ,the width of the pitch could be the same for GAA/Soccer but the length would have to be at least 10m longer for GAA .

Minimum 35m longer and 10m wider so hard to see any compromise that works.

yabadabado · 25-01-2021 12:31am

threeball wrote: »

Minimum 35m longer and 10m wider so hard to see any compromise that works.

I thought it was min 10m longer but width could be the same?
Gaa pitch can be min 130m long, soccer max of 120m .
Soccer pitch max width 90m ,GAA pitch can be between 80m to 90m wide?

Pete_Cavan · 25-01-2021 11:35am

yabadabado wrote: »

I thought it was min 10m longer but width could be the same?
Gaa pitch can be min 130m long, soccer max of 120m .
Soccer pitch max width 90m ,GAA pitch can be between 80m to 90m wide?

Those may be the permitted max dimensions for a soccer pitch but in practice, nobody wants a pitch that big. If Dundalk were to have a pitch that big, they would be at a disadvantage every second week when they have to play on a smaller pitch. In GAA, you dont want a minimum sized pitch, with the fitness of players these days and the ground they cover, you want a big pitch. In real terms, the pitches are just not compatible.

No soccer club is going to give up their own stadium where they keep all the income to share a compromised stadium which is likely too big for their needs and has fans further from the pitch.

roadmaster · 25-01-2021 12:46pm

i just think we need to be sharing more facilities considering the size of the country , Dundalk them selves floated the idea of using the new county grounds. A tight pitch might be the only advantage a team like louth would have against Dublin

Pete_Cavan · 25-01-2021 1:40pm

roadmaster wrote: »

i just think we need to be sharing more facilities considering the size of the country , Dundalk them selves floated the idea of using the new county grounds. A tight pitch might be the only advantage a team like louth would have against Dublin

I'd be very surprised if Dundalk would seriously consider leaving their decent setup (which includes indoor pitches and an underground carpark) in order to share a pitch that has their fans further away and they'd have to schedule around GAA as both sports play over the summer.

It is unlikely the Louth senior team will ever play Dublin in a Championship game here so that ins't really a concern. Even if it was, they could bring in the sidelines on a larger pitch like Tyrone did (unbeknownst to Mickey!). Louth will build a 145m x 90m main pitch.

roadmaster · 25-01-2021 2:44pm

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if Dundalk would seriously consider leaving their decent setup (which includes indoor pitches and an underground carpark) in order to share a pitch that has their fans further away and they'd have to schedule around GAA as both sports play over the summer.

It is unlikely the Louth senior team will ever play Dublin in a Championship game here so that ins't really a concern. Even if it was, they could bring in the sidelines on a larger pitch like Tyrone did (unbeknownst to Mickey!). Louth will build a 145m x 90m main pitch.

at least louth are building an appropriate size stadium. One thing that needs to be done which i have said before is a minimum capacity for championship games needs to be set so in case the likes of louth or longford get dublin in a home draw the game can't be moved fir capacity issues

GAA Infastructure

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