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

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

IMHO if I was in charge of the Ulster Council and I was asked for a place to develop "premier" facilities for the province, then looking at a combination of general geographic location, population density, road links & the general spread of active GAA involvement at present, I'd had rather sought a site in Armagh or possibly Dungannon as a venue. But as it is, Belfast got the nod likely for other reasons. Personally, I never liked the "old" Casement Park that much - it always had a cold feeling to it at any games I was at there, probably because it was a very open stadium where the crowd was well away from the playing area. Contrast that to Clones where, for its faults, has its seating & standing areas closer to the pitch and benefits from a sort of "deep bowl" effect where noise from supporters doesn't escape as easily.
Nevertheless, the "new" Casement project is now too far ahead of itself for any alternative to be seriously reconsidered at least for the short term, so they better get it right from the start.

The old casement was awful. Good pitch . Awful location. Nightmare getting up to it , only fooling ourselves to say otherwise . Always took us 1.5 hours from Derry to Belfast and another hour to get to ground with traffic .

[Wildweasel74]

Previous revised cost was £77million, given the cluster f**k of UUJ campus in Belfast and what its ending up at, I say  £90 million u be lucky to get near.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

Previous revised cost was £77million, given the cluster f**k of UUJ campus in Belfast and what its ending up at, I say  £90 million u be lucky to get near.

Anything to make Belfast work. Feck the rest of us . Magee left to rot

[general_lee]

IMHO if I was in charge of the Ulster Council and I was asked for a place to develop "premier" facilities for the province, then looking at a combination of general geographic location, population density, road links & the general spread of active GAA involvement at present, I'd had rather sought a site in Armagh or possibly Dungannon as a venue. But as it is, Belfast got the nod likely for other reasons. Personally, I never liked the "old" Casement Park that much - it always had a cold feeling to it at any games I was at there, probably because it was a very open stadium where the crowd was well away from the playing area. Contrast that to Clones where, for its faults, has its seating & standing areas closer to the pitch and benefits from a sort of "deep bowl" effect where noise from supporters doesn't escape as easily.
Nevertheless, the "new" Casement project is now too far ahead of itself for any alternative to be seriously reconsidered at least for the short term, so they better get it right from the start.

The old casement was awful. Good pitch . Awful location. Nightmare getting up to it , only fooling ourselves to say otherwise . Always took us 1.5 hours from Derry to Belfast and another hour to get to ground with traffic .

Roads and railways have improved since then and will continue improving by the time it's built.
I'm sure they'll have something planned in terms of traffic management be that a glider stop or park and ride. Anyone know what transport provisions are offered at Linfields ground?

[p3427977]

IMHO if I was in charge of the Ulster Council and I was asked for a place to develop "premier" facilities for the province, then looking at a combination of general geographic location, population density, road links & the general spread of active GAA involvement at present, I'd had rather sought a site in Armagh or possibly Dungannon as a venue. But as it is, Belfast got the nod likely for other reasons. Personally, I never liked the "old" Casement Park that much - it always had a cold feeling to it at any games I was at there, probably because it was a very open stadium where the crowd was well away from the playing area. Contrast that to Clones where, for its faults, has its seating & standing areas closer to the pitch and benefits from a sort of "deep bowl" effect where noise from supporters doesn't escape as easily.
Nevertheless, the "new" Casement project is now too far ahead of itself for any alternative to be seriously reconsidered at least for the short term, so they better get it right from the start.

The old casement was awful. Good pitch . Awful location. Nightmare getting up to it , only fooling ourselves to say otherwise . Always took us 1.5 hours from Derry to Belfast and another hour to get to ground with traffic .

Roads and railways have improved since then and will continue improving by the time it's built.
I'm sure they'll have something planned in terms of traffic management be that a glider stop or park and ride. Anyone know what transport provisions are offered at Linfields ground?

It's a 10min walk from Adelaide Station. Casement would be a 27min walk from Balmoral. Casement would have the Glider which is far better than anything up Boucher.

[armaghniac]

IMHO if I was in charge of the Ulster Council and I was asked for a place to develop "premier" facilities for the province, then looking at a combination of general geographic location, population density, road links & the general spread of active GAA involvement at present, I'd had rather sought a site in Armagh or possibly Dungannon as a venue. But as it is, Belfast got the nod likely for other reasons. Personally, I never liked the "old" Casement Park that much - it always had a cold feeling to it at any games I was at there, probably because it was a very open stadium where the crowd was well away from the playing area. Contrast that to Clones where, for its faults, has its seating & standing areas closer to the pitch and benefits from a sort of "deep bowl" effect where noise from supporters doesn't escape as easily.
Nevertheless, the "new" Casement project is now too far ahead of itself for any alternative to be seriously reconsidered at least for the short term, so they better get it right from the start.

The old casement was awful. Good pitch . Awful location. Nightmare getting up to it , only fooling ourselves to say otherwise . Always took us 1.5 hours from Derry to Belfast and another hour to get to ground with traffic .

Roads and railways have improved since then and will continue improving by the time it's built.
I'm sure they'll have something planned in terms of traffic management be that a glider stop or park and ride. Anyone know what transport provisions are offered at Linfields ground?

There will be special trains from Cavan with stops at Clones, Monaghan and Armagh.

[Wildweasel74]

Casement always been awkard to get in and out off and like 2 pubs max for a ulster final crowd, that go down well

[Milltown Row2]

27 minutes walk from station at Balmoral? On the way into Clones you park your car at that car park and dander same distance but that's ok...

It'll be quicker walking to Casement than Croke from Connelly seems no probs either...

Pubs around Casement, I can think of ten within short distance

[Franko]

Sounds like nother white elephant like Pairce UI Caoimh that will never be filled.

Not to mention it's way out of the way for most of the province and Antrim have small support. Antrim could barely fill Corrigan Park for the Championship game again Cavan.

They're talking about hosting qualifiers there but like in Cork it isn't central enough for that. The biggest problem was that it was closed up in the first place, that was terrible leaving it falling down.

I won't pretend Clones isn't a dump that's really gone downhill but that's more the town than the stadium. It's not great either but for how much it gets used, a couple of big days a year it's surely adequate??

My main concern is the crowds aren't there anymore for this project and it sounds like it may not be used enough to justify it. I would have similar concerns about other big GAA infrastructure projects, such as Pairce UI Caoimhe.

There will be feck all up there by the looks of things outside of Ulster Championship semi finals and finals. If Cavan and Monaghan met in a Ulster Semi final or final that would be some trek to bring them all the way up there.

2 Northern teams in a qualifier would be a possibility but they are not going to be playing all Ireland quarter finals there it's to far out of the way unless again its two northern teams.

The GAA are putting £15 million towards this and that would have been better spent on some maintenance and lights in Clones and upgrades in other county grounds.

I though at least Antrim GAA were going to get good use out of it but that looks like it will be limited aswell.

To be fair, for most ulster teams, Clones is a trek. Derry and Donegal are neighbours but both had to trek down to Clones on Sunday.

That was the final though which is normal to play it in Clones.

I think that may change - Clones' number is up

In terms of travel, it's a total disaster for Derry, Antrim, Down and most of Donegal, so your argument about Cavan and Monaghan is pretty irrelevant

In the 6 counties, all roads lead to Belfast, so there's dual carriageway on all sides for a 30mile radius (roughly)

Some of the main roads into Clones have grass up the middle of them

I'd have been an advocate of having a stadium with a smaller capacity also - but that ship has sailed

The money is a one-time offer and the GAA is assuming less than 20% of the risk in terms of capital

So as trailer says - GET HER BUILT

Are you for real.  You obviously know nothing about the road that joins the 2 largest cities or anything about what unionism done to cut us adrift. Dual carriageway we wish. We aren't comparing clones to casement. we are saying it should be spent in the heartlands of mid Ulster where everyone gets a fair stab at travelling

A point of order.  The post I was replying to WAS comparing Clones to Casement.

And we've had the debate about Mid-Ulster.  It's nonsense to suggest planting a 35k stadium in the middle of an area with little or no infrastructure to support it.  Only an idiot would do that.

Why are you bringing up Derry again?  We all know what Unionism did to Derry.  It's a shambles of a City, and that's how they wanted it.  But the road you refer to will soon be over 70% dualled and to be fair, a lot of the people in the city do fcuk all to help themselves.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

Sounds like nother white elephant like Pairce UI Caoimh that will never be filled.

Not to mention it's way out of the way for most of the province and Antrim have small support. Antrim could barely fill Corrigan Park for the Championship game again Cavan.

They're talking about hosting qualifiers there but like in Cork it isn't central enough for that. The biggest problem was that it was closed up in the first place, that was terrible leaving it falling down.

I won't pretend Clones isn't a dump that's really gone downhill but that's more the town than the stadium. It's not great either but for how much it gets used, a couple of big days a year it's surely adequate??

My main concern is the crowds aren't there anymore for this project and it sounds like it may not be used enough to justify it. I would have similar concerns about other big GAA infrastructure projects, such as Pairce UI Caoimhe.

There will be feck all up there by the looks of things outside of Ulster Championship semi finals and finals. If Cavan and Monaghan met in a Ulster Semi final or final that would be some trek to bring them all the way up there.

2 Northern teams in a qualifier would be a possibility but they are not going to be playing all Ireland quarter finals there it's to far out of the way unless again its two northern teams.

The GAA are putting £15 million towards this and that would have been better spent on some maintenance and lights in Clones and upgrades in other county grounds.

I though at least Antrim GAA were going to get good use out of it but that looks like it will be limited aswell.

To be fair, for most ulster teams, Clones is a trek. Derry and Donegal are neighbours but both had to trek down to Clones on Sunday.

That was the final though which is normal to play it in Clones.

I think that may change - Clones' number is up

In terms of travel, it's a total disaster for Derry, Antrim, Down and most of Donegal, so your argument about Cavan and Monaghan is pretty irrelevant

In the 6 counties, all roads lead to Belfast, so there's dual carriageway on all sides for a 30mile radius (roughly)

Some of the main roads into Clones have grass up the middle of them

I'd have been an advocate of having a stadium with a smaller capacity also - but that ship has sailed

The money is a one-time offer and the GAA is assuming less than 20% of the risk in terms of capital

So as trailer says - GET HER BUILT

Are you for real.  You obviously know nothing about the road that joins the 2 largest cities or anything about what unionism done to cut us adrift. Dual carriageway we wish. We aren't comparing clones to casement. we are saying it should be spent in the heartlands of mid Ulster where everyone gets a fair stab at travelling

A point of order.  The post I was replying to WAS comparing Clones to Casement.

And we've had the debate about Mid-Ulster.  It's nonsense to suggest planting a 35k stadium in the middle of an area with little or no infrastructure to support it.  Only an idiot would do that.

Why are you bringing up Derry again?  We all know what Unionism did to Derry.  It's a shambles of a City, and that's how they wanted it.  But the road you refer to will soon be over 70% dualled and to be fair, a lot of the people in the city do fcuk all to help themselves.

Really think you should consider deleting that post

[marty34]

Sounds like nother white elephant like Pairce UI Caoimh that will never be filled.

Not to mention it's way out of the way for most of the province and Antrim have small support. Antrim could barely fill Corrigan Park for the Championship game again Cavan.

They're talking about hosting qualifiers there but like in Cork it isn't central enough for that. The biggest problem was that it was closed up in the first place, that was terrible leaving it falling down.

I won't pretend Clones isn't a dump that's really gone downhill but that's more the town than the stadium. It's not great either but for how much it gets used, a couple of big days a year it's surely adequate??

My main concern is the crowds aren't there anymore for this project and it sounds like it may not be used enough to justify it. I would have similar concerns about other big GAA infrastructure projects, such as Pairce UI Caoimhe.

There will be feck all up there by the looks of things outside of Ulster Championship semi finals and finals. If Cavan and Monaghan met in a Ulster Semi final or final that would be some trek to bring them all the way up there.

2 Northern teams in a qualifier would be a possibility but they are not going to be playing all Ireland quarter finals there it's to far out of the way unless again its two northern teams.

The GAA are putting £15 million towards this and that would have been better spent on some maintenance and lights in Clones and upgrades in other county grounds.

I though at least Antrim GAA were going to get good use out of it but that looks like it will be limited aswell.

To be fair, for most ulster teams, Clones is a trek. Derry and Donegal are neighbours but both had to trek down to Clones on Sunday.

That was the final though which is normal to play it in Clones.

I think that may change - Clones' number is up

In terms of travel, it's a total disaster for Derry, Antrim, Down and most of Donegal, so your argument about Cavan and Monaghan is pretty irrelevant

In the 6 counties, all roads lead to Belfast, so there's dual carriageway on all sides for a 30mile radius (roughly)

Some of the main roads into Clones have grass up the middle of them

I'd have been an advocate of having a stadium with a smaller capacity also - but that ship has sailed

The money is a one-time offer and the GAA is assuming less than 20% of the risk in terms of capital

So as trailer says - GET HER BUILT

Are you for real.  You obviously know nothing about the road that joins the 2 largest cities or anything about what unionism done to cut us adrift. Dual carriageway we wish. We aren't comparing clones to casement. we are saying it should be spent in the heartlands of mid Ulster where everyone gets a fair stab at travelling

A point of order.  The post I was replying to WAS comparing Clones to Casement.

And we've had the debate about Mid-Ulster.  It's nonsense to suggest planting a 35k stadium in the middle of an area with little or no infrastructure to support it.  Only an idiot would do that.

Why are you bringing up Derry again?  We all know what Unionism did to Derry.  It's a shambles of a City, and that's how they wanted it.  But the road you refer to will soon be over 70% dualled and to be fair, a lot of the people in the city do fcuk all to help themselves.

Derry GAA should have sold Celtic Park for housing at the boom time and built another stand at Owenbeg.

A great opportunity lost.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

Sounds like nother white elephant like Pairce UI Caoimh that will never be filled.

Not to mention it's way out of the way for most of the province and Antrim have small support. Antrim could barely fill Corrigan Park for the Championship game again Cavan.

They're talking about hosting qualifiers there but like in Cork it isn't central enough for that. The biggest problem was that it was closed up in the first place, that was terrible leaving it falling down.

I won't pretend Clones isn't a dump that's really gone downhill but that's more the town than the stadium. It's not great either but for how much it gets used, a couple of big days a year it's surely adequate??

My main concern is the crowds aren't there anymore for this project and it sounds like it may not be used enough to justify it. I would have similar concerns about other big GAA infrastructure projects, such as Pairce UI Caoimhe.

There will be feck all up there by the looks of things outside of Ulster Championship semi finals and finals. If Cavan and Monaghan met in a Ulster Semi final or final that would be some trek to bring them all the way up there.

2 Northern teams in a qualifier would be a possibility but they are not going to be playing all Ireland quarter finals there it's to far out of the way unless again its two northern teams.

The GAA are putting £15 million towards this and that would have been better spent on some maintenance and lights in Clones and upgrades in other county grounds.

I though at least Antrim GAA were going to get good use out of it but that looks like it will be limited aswell.

To be fair, for most ulster teams, Clones is a trek. Derry and Donegal are neighbours but both had to trek down to Clones on Sunday.

That was the final though which is normal to play it in Clones.

I think that may change - Clones' number is up

In terms of travel, it's a total disaster for Derry, Antrim, Down and most of Donegal, so your argument about Cavan and Monaghan is pretty irrelevant

In the 6 counties, all roads lead to Belfast, so there's dual carriageway on all sides for a 30mile radius (roughly)

Some of the main roads into Clones have grass up the middle of them

I'd have been an advocate of having a stadium with a smaller capacity also - but that ship has sailed

The money is a one-time offer and the GAA is assuming less than 20% of the risk in terms of capital

So as trailer says - GET HER BUILT

Are you for real.  You obviously know nothing about the road that joins the 2 largest cities or anything about what unionism done to cut us adrift. Dual carriageway we wish. We aren't comparing clones to casement. we are saying it should be spent in the heartlands of mid Ulster where everyone gets a fair stab at travelling

A point of order.  The post I was replying to WAS comparing Clones to Casement.

And we've had the debate about Mid-Ulster.  It's nonsense to suggest planting a 35k stadium in the middle of an area with little or no infrastructure to support it.  Only an idiot would do that.

Why are you bringing up Derry again?  We all know what Unionism did to Derry.  It's a shambles of a City, and that's how they wanted it.  But the road you refer to will soon be over 70% dualled and to be fair, a lot of the people in the city do fcuk all to help themselves.

Derry GAA should have sold Celtic Park for housing at the boom time and built another stand at Owenbeg.

A great opportunity lost.

Unrelated. Different thread

[Franko]

Sounds like nother white elephant like Pairce UI Caoimh that will never be filled.

Not to mention it's way out of the way for most of the province and Antrim have small support. Antrim could barely fill Corrigan Park for the Championship game again Cavan.

They're talking about hosting qualifiers there but like in Cork it isn't central enough for that. The biggest problem was that it was closed up in the first place, that was terrible leaving it falling down.

I won't pretend Clones isn't a dump that's really gone downhill but that's more the town than the stadium. It's not great either but for how much it gets used, a couple of big days a year it's surely adequate??

My main concern is the crowds aren't there anymore for this project and it sounds like it may not be used enough to justify it. I would have similar concerns about other big GAA infrastructure projects, such as Pairce UI Caoimhe.

There will be feck all up there by the looks of things outside of Ulster Championship semi finals and finals. If Cavan and Monaghan met in a Ulster Semi final or final that would be some trek to bring them all the way up there.

2 Northern teams in a qualifier would be a possibility but they are not going to be playing all Ireland quarter finals there it's to far out of the way unless again its two northern teams.

The GAA are putting £15 million towards this and that would have been better spent on some maintenance and lights in Clones and upgrades in other county grounds.

I though at least Antrim GAA were going to get good use out of it but that looks like it will be limited aswell.

To be fair, for most ulster teams, Clones is a trek. Derry and Donegal are neighbours but both had to trek down to Clones on Sunday.

That was the final though which is normal to play it in Clones.

I think that may change - Clones' number is up

In terms of travel, it's a total disaster for Derry, Antrim, Down and most of Donegal, so your argument about Cavan and Monaghan is pretty irrelevant

In the 6 counties, all roads lead to Belfast, so there's dual carriageway on all sides for a 30mile radius (roughly)

Some of the main roads into Clones have grass up the middle of them

I'd have been an advocate of having a stadium with a smaller capacity also - but that ship has sailed

The money is a one-time offer and the GAA is assuming less than 20% of the risk in terms of capital

So as trailer says - GET HER BUILT

Are you for real.  You obviously know nothing about the road that joins the 2 largest cities or anything about what unionism done to cut us adrift. Dual carriageway we wish. We aren't comparing clones to casement. we are saying it should be spent in the heartlands of mid Ulster where everyone gets a fair stab at travelling

A point of order.  The post I was replying to WAS comparing Clones to Casement.

And we've had the debate about Mid-Ulster.  It's nonsense to suggest planting a 35k stadium in the middle of an area with little or no infrastructure to support it.  Only an idiot would do that.

Why are you bringing up Derry again?  We all know what Unionism did to Derry.  It's a shambles of a City, and that's how they wanted it.  But the road you refer to will soon be over 70% dualled and to be fair, a lot of the people in the city do fcuk all to help themselves.

Really think you should consider deleting that post

Why?

[marty34]

Sounds like nother white elephant like Pairce UI Caoimh that will never be filled.

Not to mention it's way out of the way for most of the province and Antrim have small support. Antrim could barely fill Corrigan Park for the Championship game again Cavan.

They're talking about hosting qualifiers there but like in Cork it isn't central enough for that. The biggest problem was that it was closed up in the first place, that was terrible leaving it falling down.

I won't pretend Clones isn't a dump that's really gone downhill but that's more the town than the stadium. It's not great either but for how much it gets used, a couple of big days a year it's surely adequate??

My main concern is the crowds aren't there anymore for this project and it sounds like it may not be used enough to justify it. I would have similar concerns about other big GAA infrastructure projects, such as Pairce UI Caoimhe.

There will be feck all up there by the looks of things outside of Ulster Championship semi finals and finals. If Cavan and Monaghan met in a Ulster Semi final or final that would be some trek to bring them all the way up there.

2 Northern teams in a qualifier would be a possibility but they are not going to be playing all Ireland quarter finals there it's to far out of the way unless again its two northern teams.

The GAA are putting £15 million towards this and that would have been better spent on some maintenance and lights in Clones and upgrades in other county grounds.

I though at least Antrim GAA were going to get good use out of it but that looks like it will be limited aswell.

To be fair, for most ulster teams, Clones is a trek. Derry and Donegal are neighbours but both had to trek down to Clones on Sunday.

That was the final though which is normal to play it in Clones.

I think that may change - Clones' number is up

In terms of travel, it's a total disaster for Derry, Antrim, Down and most of Donegal, so your argument about Cavan and Monaghan is pretty irrelevant

In the 6 counties, all roads lead to Belfast, so there's dual carriageway on all sides for a 30mile radius (roughly)

Some of the main roads into Clones have grass up the middle of them

I'd have been an advocate of having a stadium with a smaller capacity also - but that ship has sailed

The money is a one-time offer and the GAA is assuming less than 20% of the risk in terms of capital

So as trailer says - GET HER BUILT

Are you for real.  You obviously know nothing about the road that joins the 2 largest cities or anything about what unionism done to cut us adrift. Dual carriageway we wish. We aren't comparing clones to casement. we are saying it should be spent in the heartlands of mid Ulster where everyone gets a fair stab at travelling

A point of order.  The post I was replying to WAS comparing Clones to Casement.

And we've had the debate about Mid-Ulster.  It's nonsense to suggest planting a 35k stadium in the middle of an area with little or no infrastructure to support it.  Only an idiot would do that.

Why are you bringing up Derry again?  We all know what Unionism did to Derry.  It's a shambles of a City, and that's how they wanted it.  But the road you refer to will soon be over 70% dualled and to be fair, a lot of the people in the city do fcuk all to help themselves.

Derry GAA should have sold Celtic Park for housing at the boom time and built another stand at Owenbeg.

A great opportunity lost.

Unrelated. Different thread

Stadiums and Derry City in previous comment.

Point still stands.

[JoeSoap]

I think people are over-egging the difficulty of getting in and out of Casement... it's a match day, you're gonna have trouble getting to nearly any stadium in the country. The Glider goes over West Belfast already and I would imagine they would put more buses on for matchday. Finaghy or Balmoral train stations aren't a million miles from Casement either.

You hardly drive all the way into Croke Park on matchday and expect it to be plain sailing with parking and traffic.