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

[aontroim]

well i am no genius when it comes to figures but surely it would make more sense to use the 63 million to fully develope 4 grounds instead of one. Having four grounds in different parts of Ulster would surely be a better venture for the social structures of them areas. The problem with these decisions is that the ordinary GAA man/woman doesn't know the debates that go on during such meetings. Maybe there are channels were you can gain access to minutes etc?? I would like to know why my own club cannot receive the Million it needs to finish the ground, at the minute we are left with a brand new pitch and 3g facility with no stand. It's a disgrace but typical of the management structures within the GAA. We still haven't seen the money generated from the rugby internationals that was to be filtered down through the clubs. talk of centres of excellence have all seemed to be blowing white smoke up our asses

Not trying to stir the pot here (being from Antrim) but why should any club feel they are owed £1 million to finish any works these days?  Was this money promised or was the work started when grants were more readily accessible?  Corrigan Pk (St. John's) in Belfast used to be the county second ground until the stand was condemned and surely they would feel they should received some of this money to make improvements if that were the case?

[illdecide]

Aontroim the way it worked this time was that the Ulster Council nominated 3 grounds in Ulster to be graded as 2nd county ground status and that their grounds are in need of repair and therefore qualified for a Stadia Safety grant within Sport NI, Davitt Park in Lurgan was one of these grounds nominated. Davitt Park had met the criteria and had been passed to the next stage (whatever process Sport NI use), a business case and the cash were the only two matters left as full planning permission was already in place.

Now whilst waiting on this grant to come through £500,000 was spent on the ground giving it a new pitch and county standard floodlighting put in place along with a small 3G pitch, now this development was based on the stadia safety grant and things were done differently like no dugouts (subs were to go into new stand) there was not path around the pitch as it would only have been dug up again for the stands, there was the fencing put in at 900mm high to suit stands (this would have been 1200mm high). There are more but I'm only giving an example of what happened.

Now, what i was saying was if there was already £500,000 spent on it and £1,000,000 from the £63 million allocated to Ulster Council would have made it into a first class mini stadium capable of holding McKenna cup matches, Leagues games and College football then it's a no brainer

[RadioGAAGAA]

There are already enough big and good enough stadiums in Ulster. How many more while elephants do we need?


The money would be much better spent investing in improving club facilities around the province.


Look - how many times a year is Casement used (to anything like capacity)? Contrast that with the amount of times clubs are in dire straits for a lack of pitches for their numerous teams.


Time to strengthen the foundations instead of working on the penthouse suite of the ivory towers.

[ONeill]

What club in Antrim do you think will get the couple of million for an upgrade to host the county games whilst Sir Roger is being done up?

[The Worker]

What club in Antrim do you think will get the couple of million for an upgrade to host the county games whilst Sir Roger is being done up?

none

[Dougal Maguire]

Have any plans or computer assisted drawings of the proposed new stadium emerged yet

[WeeDonns]

No sign of plans for this yet? has anyone been able to get the images that were in the IN a while back?

I see Ulster Rugby have applied for planning for the upgrades to Ravenhill;

here is what the new Ravenhill is going to look like

http://epicdocs.planningni.gov.uk/ViewDocument.aspx?uri=116763&ext=PDF
http://epicdocs.planningni.gov.uk/ViewDocument.aspx?uri=116764&ext=PDF

Plan of the stadium
http://epicdocs.planningni.gov.uk/ViewDocument.aspx?uri=116749&ext=PDF

18,000 but quite a lot of standing.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Anybody got any news, any plans? At this rate it will ready in 40 years time. The same for parc ui chaoimh. Why the silence?

[ziggysego]

UTV did a piece on falling attendance at the Ulster Championship. They said that the new Casement Park will have open air Pop concerts.

[armaghniac]

They said that the new Casement Park will have open air Pop concerts.

Getting a major gig for Casement might help open things up. Perhaps the likes of U2 would oblige.

Some sort of management structure for the stadium is needed to remove it slightly from GAA politics and some of the Westie carry on that it has been associated with.

[Hardy]

No sign of plans for this yet? has anyone been able to get the images that were in the IN a while back?

I see Ulster Rugby have applied for planning for the upgrades to Ravenhill;

here is what the new Ravenhill is going to look like

http://epicdocs.planningni.gov.uk/ViewDocument.aspx?uri=116763&ext=PDF
http://epicdocs.planningni.gov.uk/ViewDocument.aspx?uri=116764&ext=PDF

Plan of the stadium
http://epicdocs.planningni.gov.uk/ViewDocument.aspx?uri=116749&ext=PDF

18,000 but quite a lot of standing.

Are they going to name it "Meccano Stadium"?

[The Worker]

Any initial plans of the new look casement available?

[drici]

http://www.antrimgaa.net/guestbook/

[Maguire01]

http://www.antrimgaa.net/guestbook/

Another one:

Name : Philip          26 September 2011
Was yesterday the last match at Casement?

No.

[Milltown Row2]

We play the Armagh Champions (Cross ) This Halloween, could be scary