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

[Antrim Coaster]

There's no money for it.
There's no room for it.
There's no need for it.
It's gone on too long.
It has seen Antrim's greatest monetary asset removed from them.
It has left us with no county ground.

There is money and plenty of it. The longer it delays the more it will cost. Sooner it is built the cheaper it'll be.
There's no room for it. ? Doesn't make sense
There is of course a need. There's not a decent GAA stadium in the North capable of hold USFC SF & Finals.
Yes it's gone on too long, more reason to get it done.
Antrim gave it up
And your solution to having no county ground is not to build one?

If we took this attitude to everything nothing would ever be built. Everything has a cost. Sometimes the cost isn't relevant.

Bullshit

[johnnycool]

There's no money for it.
There's no room for it.
There's no need for it.
It's gone on too long.
It has seen Antrim's greatest monetary asset removed from them.
It has left us with no county ground.

There is money and plenty of it. The longer it delays the more it will cost. Sooner it is built the cheaper it'll be.
There's no room for it. ? Doesn't make sense
There is of course a need. There's not a decent GAA stadium in the North capable of hold USFC SF & Finals.
Yes it's gone on too long, more reason to get it done.
Antrim gave it up
And your solution to having no county ground is not to build one?

If we took this attitude to everything nothing would ever be built. Everything has a cost. Sometimes the cost isn't relevant.

Bullshit

Well you did give it up quite easily as the Ulster Council had your CB mesmerised by the bright and shiny new things on offer.

[illdecide]

Hardstation are you Nelson McCausland?...Sorry couldn't resist

[Rossfan]

Get permission and build what ye can for the money available.

[Art Mc Crory’s Sofa]

We need to acknowledge these white elephant projects are achieving f**k all. Pairc Ui Choamh is the same clusterfuck. It's time the top brass reeled in the provinces and county boards over their spending. The amount of cash being pissed up the wall currently is no joke.

If we all leave county bias at the door it's centrally located stadia we need in each province that can facilitate neutral matches. Building large, resource sucking stadiums on the periphery of the country with little in the way of appeal to facilitating neutral games is pointless. PUC, casement and McHale in reality are large vanity projects for those involved which have been a hangman's noose for the county and provincial (casement) boards that pushed them.

Semple and Limerick host a large number of matches each year and have obvious benefits of being close to major road infrastructure. Yet both are rotting into the ground whilst an inaccessible 100million stadium in cork city lies empty. Casement will be the exact same. A lovely looking stadium that will be full once a year at best, maybe only once every 2 but will lie idle the vast majority of the time. Really the home of Ulster GAA should be at Dungannon or Armagh. Centrally located in province and close to good road infrastructure. Clones is the home of the GAA because at the time it was the central point in the northern rail network, making it an accessible site for fans to travel too. It was a logical, rational choice to have it as the home of the Ulster GAA. Now once again a rational and logical decision should be made to abandon the large scale casement project and invest the 60 odd million in a centrally located stadium that can accommodate both a county's home matches and a large number of neutral club and county, womens, underage and hurling matches that means unlike the cork debacle we can actually get some use out of the damn thing.

It's news to me that both Semple and the Gaelic grounds are "rotting into the ground"

When Thurles has the best sod in the country outside of croke park and there's been nearly €15m spend on it in the last 5 years as well being the only stadium outside of CP to have Hawkeye,The Gaelic Grounds is also fit for purpose,held a Munster final last year and is well able to cater for attendances,far in excess of what is ever needed in Ulster.

I went too far saying that "they're rotting into the ground" but they are dated stadiums that really look every bit of their age. They're cold/unwelcoming stadiums in inclement weather and when you look at the quality and appearance of rugby stadiums in the Champions Cup or even Championship soccer they don't compare well at all. An outsider looking in would hardly believe that Thurles is the home of hurling and the GAA's second flagship stadium.

The general point is that the GAA should exercise more oversight on county boards and 100m would have been better spent on a 30/30/40 split between PUC/Limerick and Thurles.

[clonadmad]

We need to acknowledge these white elephant projects are achieving f**k all. Pairc Ui Choamh is the same clusterfuck. It's time the top brass reeled in the provinces and county boards over their spending. The amount of cash being pissed up the wall currently is no joke.

If we all leave county bias at the door it's centrally located stadia we need in each province that can facilitate neutral matches. Building large, resource sucking stadiums on the periphery of the country with little in the way of appeal to facilitating neutral games is pointless. PUC, casement and McHale in reality are large vanity projects for those involved which have been a hangman's noose for the county and provincial (casement) boards that pushed them.

Semple and Limerick host a large number of matches each year and have obvious benefits of being close to major road infrastructure. Yet both are rotting into the ground whilst an inaccessible 100million stadium in cork city lies empty. Casement will be the exact same. A lovely looking stadium that will be full once a year at best, maybe only once every 2 but will lie idle the vast majority of the time. Really the home of Ulster GAA should be at Dungannon or Armagh. Centrally located in province and close to good road infrastructure. Clones is the home of the GAA because at the time it was the central point in the northern rail network, making it an accessible site for fans to travel too. It was a logical, rational choice to have it as the home of the Ulster GAA. Now once again a rational and logical decision should be made to abandon the large scale casement project and invest the 60 odd million in a centrally located stadium that can accommodate both a county's home matches and a large number of neutral club and county, womens, underage and hurling matches that means unlike the cork debacle we can actually get some use out of the damn thing.

It's news to me that both Semple and the Gaelic grounds are "rotting into the ground"

When Thurles has the best sod in the country outside of croke park and there's been nearly €15m spend on it in the last 5 years as well being the only stadium outside of CP to have Hawkeye,The Gaelic Grounds is also fit for purpose,held a Munster final last year and is well able to cater for attendances,far in excess of what is ever needed in Ulster.

I went too far saying that "they're rotting into the ground" but they are dated stadiums that really look every bit of their age. They're cold/unwelcoming stadiums in inclement weather and when you look at the quality and appearance of rugby stadiums in the Champions Cup or even Championship soccer they don't compare well at all. An outsider looking in would hardly believe that Thurles is the home of hurling and the GAA's second flagship stadium.

The general point is that the GAA should exercise more oversight on county boards and 100m would have been better spent on a 30/30/40 split between PUC/Limerick and Thurles.

There was €15m spent on Thurles and your calling it dated and sub par

You now want to spend €30/40m on it to bring it up to top end rugby stadiums?

You'd want to be spending multiples of that to bring up it to those standards.

Thurles and the Gaelic Grounds more than does the job for what it's intended

[trailer]

We need to acknowledge these white elephant projects are achieving f**k all. Pairc Ui Choamh is the same clusterfuck. It's time the top brass reeled in the provinces and county boards over their spending. The amount of cash being pissed up the wall currently is no joke.

If we all leave county bias at the door it's centrally located stadia we need in each province that can facilitate neutral matches. Building large, resource sucking stadiums on the periphery of the country with little in the way of appeal to facilitating neutral games is pointless. PUC, casement and McHale in reality are large vanity projects for those involved which have been a hangman's noose for the county and provincial (casement) boards that pushed them.

Semple and Limerick host a large number of matches each year and have obvious benefits of being close to major road infrastructure. Yet both are rotting into the ground whilst an inaccessible 100million stadium in cork city lies empty. Casement will be the exact same. A lovely looking stadium that will be full once a year at best, maybe only once every 2 but will lie idle the vast majority of the time. Really the home of Ulster GAA should be at Dungannon or Armagh. Centrally located in province and close to good road infrastructure. Clones is the home of the GAA because at the time it was the central point in the northern rail network, making it an accessible site for fans to travel too. It was a logical, rational choice to have it as the home of the Ulster GAA. Now once again a rational and logical decision should be made to abandon the large scale casement project and invest the 60 odd million in a centrally located stadium that can accommodate both a county's home matches and a large number of neutral club and county, womens, underage and hurling matches that means unlike the cork debacle we can actually get some use out of the damn thing.

It's news to me that both Semple and the Gaelic grounds are "rotting into the ground"

When Thurles has the best sod in the country outside of croke park and there's been nearly €15m spend on it in the last 5 years as well being the only stadium outside of CP to have Hawkeye,The Gaelic Grounds is also fit for purpose,held a Munster final last year and is well able to cater for attendances,far in excess of what is ever needed in Ulster.

I went too far saying that "they're rotting into the ground" but they are dated stadiums that really look every bit of their age. They're cold/unwelcoming stadiums in inclement weather and when you look at the quality and appearance of rugby stadiums in the Champions Cup or even Championship soccer they don't compare well at all. An outsider looking in would hardly believe that Thurles is the home of hurling and the GAA's second flagship stadium.

The general point is that the GAA should exercise more oversight on county boards and 100m would have been better spent on a 30/30/40 split between PUC/Limerick and Thurles.

There was €15m spent on Thurles and your calling it dated and sub par

You now want to spend €30/40m on it to bring it up to top end rugby stadiums?

You'd want to be spending multiples of that to bring up it to those standards.

Thurles and the Gaelic Grounds more than does the job for what it's intended

Was in Semple a few years ago and I did find it a bit dated but functional.

[trailer]

There's no money for it.
There's no room for it.
There's no need for it.
It's gone on too long.
It has seen Antrim's greatest monetary asset removed from them.
It has left us with no county ground.

There is money and plenty of it. The longer it delays the more it will cost. Sooner it is built the cheaper it'll be.
There's no room for it. ? Doesn't make sense
There is of course a need. There's not a decent GAA stadium in the North capable of hold USFC SF & Finals.
Yes it's gone on too long, more reason to get it done.
Antrim gave it up
And your solution to having no county ground is not to build one?

If we took this attitude to everything nothing would ever be built. Everything has a cost. Sometimes the cost isn't relevant.

1. There is a £33m deficit.
2. One of the major hold ups is that the GAA are insistent on putting a huge structure in a small area. This is why they have had problems with both residents & h&s.
3. We've been through this. I can't see why it is required.
4. A reduced sized stadium would have games on it this weekend.
5. Ulster took it/Antrim gave it up - Either way, Antrim no longer own or control what was theirs.
6. Build one. By Christ - build one! If we choose a smaller stadium, we could have it sooner. Or we wait...and we balls about....and we beg for £33m....and we don't get it...and we wait....and we hope that some day it'll be built...and we wait.

Look you don't want it and that's a perfectly valid position. But it's going to be built. On the Andersonstown rd in Belfast. It going to be a 33 or 34k state of the art stadium. I think you should get on board with the project. The time for arguing is over. It is now a time for action.

[Art Mc Crory’s Sofa]

We need to acknowledge these white elephant projects are achieving f**k all. Pairc Ui Choamh is the same clusterfuck. It's time the top brass reeled in the provinces and county boards over their spending. The amount of cash being pissed up the wall currently is no joke.

If we all leave county bias at the door it's centrally located stadia we need in each province that can facilitate neutral matches. Building large, resource sucking stadiums on the periphery of the country with little in the way of appeal to facilitating neutral games is pointless. PUC, casement and McHale in reality are large vanity projects for those involved which have been a hangman's noose for the county and provincial (casement) boards that pushed them.

Semple and Limerick host a large number of matches each year and have obvious benefits of being close to major road infrastructure. Yet both are rotting into the ground whilst an inaccessible 100million stadium in cork city lies empty. Casement will be the exact same. A lovely looking stadium that will be full once a year at best, maybe only once every 2 but will lie idle the vast majority of the time. Really the home of Ulster GAA should be at Dungannon or Armagh. Centrally located in province and close to good road infrastructure. Clones is the home of the GAA because at the time it was the central point in the northern rail network, making it an accessible site for fans to travel too. It was a logical, rational choice to have it as the home of the Ulster GAA. Now once again a rational and logical decision should be made to abandon the large scale casement project and invest the 60 odd million in a centrally located stadium that can accommodate both a county's home matches and a large number of neutral club and county, womens, underage and hurling matches that means unlike the cork debacle we can actually get some use out of the damn thing.

It's news to me that both Semple and the Gaelic grounds are "rotting into the ground"

When Thurles has the best sod in the country outside of croke park and there's been nearly €15m spend on it in the last 5 years as well being the only stadium outside of CP to have Hawkeye,The Gaelic Grounds is also fit for purpose,held a Munster final last year and is well able to cater for attendances,far in excess of what is ever needed in Ulster.

I went too far saying that "they're rotting into the ground" but they are dated stadiums that really look every bit of their age. They're cold/unwelcoming stadiums in inclement weather and when you look at the quality and appearance of rugby stadiums in the Champions Cup or even Championship soccer they don't compare well at all. An outsider looking in would hardly believe that Thurles is the home of hurling and the GAA's second flagship stadium.

The general point is that the GAA should exercise more oversight on county boards and 100m would have been better spent on a 30/30/40 split between PUC/Limerick and Thurles.

There was €15m spent on Thurles and your calling it dated and sub par

You now want to spend €30/40m on it to bring it up to top end rugby stadiums?

You'd want to be spending multiples of that to bring up it to those standards.

Thurles and the Gaelic Grounds more than does the job for what it's intended

Thomond Park was redeveloped for 40 million. Ravenhill for 20 million. Even allowing for the extra capacity of Thurles the economy of scale would certainly keep it under 50 or 60.

[Art Mc Crory’s Sofa]

What was the 15mill spent on at Thurles?

[clonadmad]

We need to acknowledge these white elephant projects are achieving f**k all. Pairc Ui Choamh is the same clusterfuck. It's time the top brass reeled in the provinces and county boards over their spending. The amount of cash being pissed up the wall currently is no joke.

If we all leave county bias at the door it's centrally located stadia we need in each province that can facilitate neutral matches. Building large, resource sucking stadiums on the periphery of the country with little in the way of appeal to facilitating neutral games is pointless. PUC, casement and McHale in reality are large vanity projects for those involved which have been a hangman's noose for the county and provincial (casement) boards that pushed them.

Semple and Limerick host a large number of matches each year and have obvious benefits of being close to major road infrastructure. Yet both are rotting into the ground whilst an inaccessible 100million stadium in cork city lies empty. Casement will be the exact same. A lovely looking stadium that will be full once a year at best, maybe only once every 2 but will lie idle the vast majority of the time. Really the home of Ulster GAA should be at Dungannon or Armagh. Centrally located in province and close to good road infrastructure. Clones is the home of the GAA because at the time it was the central point in the northern rail network, making it an accessible site for fans to travel too. It was a logical, rational choice to have it as the home of the Ulster GAA. Now once again a rational and logical decision should be made to abandon the large scale casement project and invest the 60 odd million in a centrally located stadium that can accommodate both a county's home matches and a large number of neutral club and county, womens, underage and hurling matches that means unlike the cork debacle we can actually get some use out of the damn thing.

It's news to me that both Semple and the Gaelic grounds are "rotting into the ground"

When Thurles has the best sod in the country outside of croke park and there's been nearly €15m spend on it in the last 5 years as well being the only stadium outside of CP to have Hawkeye,The Gaelic Grounds is also fit for purpose,held a Munster final last year and is well able to cater for attendances,far in excess of what is ever needed in Ulster.

I went too far saying that "they're rotting into the ground" but they are dated stadiums that really look every bit of their age. They're cold/unwelcoming stadiums in inclement weather and when you look at the quality and appearance of rugby stadiums in the Champions Cup or even Championship soccer they don't compare well at all. An outsider looking in would hardly believe that Thurles is the home of hurling and the GAA's second flagship stadium.

The general point is that the GAA should exercise more oversight on county boards and 100m would have been better spent on a 30/30/40 split between PUC/Limerick and Thurles.

There was €15m spent on Thurles and your calling it dated and sub par

You now want to spend €30/40m on it to bring it up to top end rugby stadiums?

You'd want to be spending multiples of that to bring up it to those standards.

Thurles and the Gaelic Grounds more than does the job for what it's intended

Thomond Park was redeveloped for 40 million. Ravenhill for 20 million. Even allowing for the extra capacity of Thurles the economy of scale would certainly keep it under 50 or 60.

Thomond Parks capacity is 26,500 with 2 stands and 2 open terraces

Are you seriously suggesting this for Thurles

Explain to me what your suddenly revised upwards budget of "under 50 or 60" million euros would be spent on ?

Considering there's already no shortage of stadia already in Munster and there's not one of comparable size in Ulster.

I'm here looking at your opening post,you don't seem to be in anyways consistent.

[clonadmad]

What was the 15mill spent on at Thurles?

Actually the total upgrade cost €18m done in 2 tranches starting in the late naughties

[trileacman]

What was the 15mill spent on at Thurles?

Actually the total upgrade cost €18m done in 2 tranches starting in the late naughties

And what was it spent on?

[clonadmad]

What was the 15mill spent on at Thurles?

Actually the total upgrade cost €18m done in 2 tranches starting in the late naughties

And what was it spent on?

Phase one involved repairing the structure of the Kinane Stand and upgrading the area underneath the stand to incorporate 4 dressing rooms, 2 referees rooms, drug testing room, first aid room, counting room, ticketing room, stewards room and kitchen. Other works included:

Construction of permanent ticket sales outlets at the approaches to the Stadium
Upgrading the ladies and gents toilets
Providing outlets for concession and hot food sales at the rear of the stand
Upgrading the turnstiles to incorporate bar code readers facilitating automatic access.
Levelling and upgrading the floors of the concourse area at rear of stand
Providing a toilet and kitchenette in the high level press area
Creating a theme at the rear of the stand and its approaches, using flags, banners and graphics, capturing the history and tradition of Semple Stadium
The erection of the Dome (Multipurpose Sports Building) behind Ardán Ó Riain
Phase 2 of the project, involved upgrading Ardán Uí Riain and terracing, improving access to the pitch, providing VIP and corporate facilities, floodlighting,Pitch relay,underground irrigation and installation of Hawkeye.


I suppose,your now going to tell us all

It should have been done for a third of the price?

[Rufus T Firefly]

What was the 15mill spent on at Thurles?

Actually the total upgrade cost €18m done in 2 tranches starting in the late naughties

And what was it spent on?

I'm open to correction, but I believe the bulk went on the roof over the main stand, which is the side where the TV cameras are based. If that is the case, I always felts it looked like a pretty poor return for such an investment.