Casement Park in line for major overhaul - 40,000 all seater Stadium.

[ONeill]

It was Halloween last year too. It wasn't scary.

[rrhf]

The plans are definitely being kept close to the chest.  Am I right that one end of the stadium is shaped like an upright banana?

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Still no sign of any plans. If work is to start in April then Im already worried by the lack of planning or forward thinking. Similar problem with Pairc ui Chaoimh. A couple of so called plans in the Cork Echo but to say they were sketchy was an understatement and this was compounded by a member of the county council on TG4 who was only able to confirm that the stadium was going to have a capacity of 40-60000 will cost 30-70 million, may or may not have terracing and maybe opened to other sports - Is this serious how can you not know more details when you are hoping to start digging in a few months. Half hearted uninspired gaelic grounds limerick style mark 2 and 3 stadia on the way. I hope Im proved wrong

[Maguire01]

Does it have planning permission?

[optimus cheese]

Still won't be able to get into the control tower I imagine

[muppet]

Still no sign of any plans. If work is to start in April then Im already worried by the lack of planning or forward thinking. Similar problem with Pairc ui Chaoimh. A couple of so called plans in the Cork Echo but to say they were sketchy was an understatement and this was compounded by a member of the county council on TG4 who was only able to confirm that the stadium was going to have a capacity of 40-60000 will cost 30-70 million, may or may not have terracing and maybe opened to other sports - Is this serious how can you not know more details when you are hoping to start digging in a few months. Half hearted uninspired gaelic grounds limerick style mark 2 and 3 stadia on the way. I hope Im proved wrong

That is hilarious, any clips?

[ziggysego]

UTV's Ken Reid has just said on Twitter, that Martin McGuinness says the redevelopment of Casement Park will start 2013.

[armaghniac]

Will this have implications immediately for the ulster final?

Not if Derry are playing!

More seriously, I expect some limited work could restore a large part of this capacity.

[WeeDonns]

That's an interesting one!
Any idea what sections of the ground are having capacity reduced? Up to 15000 must mean all stands affected?

Could it to be to do with access to the stands rather than the condition of the actual stands? E.g. the majority of people leaving the Pat McGrane & the hill come out at the one point which could be a problem in an emergency. I'd think the actual stands, seating/ barriers on terracing etc are fine

[RadioGAAGAA]

I see Ravenhill got the go ahead yesterday, 3 new stands to be built, capacity up from ~12K to ~18K.

I note also that terracing will be maintained on at least 3 sides of the (Ravenhill) ground.


What is the latest on casement? Are the top-brass still insisting on an all-seater?

[whitegoodman]

Maybe this has been answered before but why is rugby getting 15mil and the soccer and gaelic are getting 60 odd mil?

It may only take this to finish Ravenhill but could they not use the money elsewhere to develop other facilities throughout the provence?

[Ulick]

Maybe this has been answered before but why is rugby getting 15mil and the soccer and gaelic are getting 60 odd mil?

It may only take this to finish Ravenhill but could they not use the money elsewhere to develop other facilities throughout the provence?

Rugby only needed the £15m, soccer wanted £30m odd and the GAA said they needed £90m or so. Rugby got what they wanted, the GAA got most of what they wanted and soccer got more than they wanted because the Fenians couldn't be seen to be getting more than soccer.

[Evil Genius]

Maybe this has been answered before but why is rugby getting 15mil and the soccer and gaelic are getting 60 odd mil?

It may only take this to finish Ravenhill but could they not use the money elsewhere to develop other facilities throughout the provence?

Rugby only needed the £15m, soccer wanted £30m odd and the GAA said they needed £90m or so. Rugby got what they wanted, the GAA got most of what they wanted and soccer got more than they wanted because the Fenians couldn't be seen to be getting more than soccer.

Not true, indeed very misleading (as I'm sure was your intention).

The IFA applied for £25m (approx) for the re-building of Windsor to the latest FIFA minimum requirements, however this was only part of an overall plan for development of the game in NI. For unlike the GAA, who appear to be putting all their eggs in the one (Casement) basket, they plan to spend the remaining £30m-odd on developing other facilities throughout NI, including a major part on a new National Training/Development Centre (Blanchflower Park).

And as for your allegation that they "got more than they wanted because the Fenians couldn't be seen to be getting more than soccer", are you seriously implying that if the GAA hadn't been getting so much, that the IFA would have been happy to forego an extra £30m which was available to them from the Stormont sports budget? 

The simple fact is that following the collapse of the Maze project, Stormont had a sum in excess of £100m in its sports stadia budget which they would have lost entirely, unless they came up with an alternative scheme. The then Sports Minister, Nelson McCausland managed to get this ring-fenced, and after extensive consultation and negotiation, came up with a £50m/£50m/£15m (approx) split between the 3 sports. This was effectively based on a number of factors, primarily need and participation/size.

Indeed, had he divided the total on crude sectarian* lines, as you suggest, this would almost certainly have been challenged as unlawful and an abuse of his powers.

Instead, it was broadly accepted as fair by all parties, including specifically by his Sinn Fein successor, Caral Ni Chuillin, who was quoted earlier this week at Ravenhill as saying:
"Having secured up to £110m earlier in the year for the development of regional stadiums for rugby, gaelic games and football, I am delighted that a point has been reached which will enable us to begin to see progress on the ground."


* - How curious the implication in your post, to which you did not object, that GAA is for "Fenians" (only)...

[DuffleKing]

Jeez EG - arm yourself with a bit of common sense. Its so far off the mark to say the GAA put all of their eggs in one basket while the IFA are somehow have greater vision to develop other stadia. The reality is that the GAA already have 9 other stadia around Ulster with capacities varying from 12 - 30k.

This money is funding that was not anticipated and given the choice, the GAA would have renovated the stand at casement and invested the rest in other programs, including reinvestment in club initiatives and the Belfast Rising project. The government directive was that the total amount was available but only as a whole for one project - it could not be spread around. Given those parameters, of course they would empty the government offer into Casement (even though its not needed).

Odd that the IFA were allowed to divvy the money up on various projects when noone else was. I guess they have to find a way to throw Linfield a few quid somehow...

[Milltown Row2]

Have we answered the initial question from all that shite talk then?

when will Casement get the go ahead and where are the plans for it?