Sale of County Grounds

[Captain Scarlet]

once again with reporters bored and no matches on, the sale of county grounds is on the agenda. as a kildare man i have no love for st conleths and the proposed sale would see an unbelievable new 23,000 capacity stadium within walking distance of the town as well as greatly improved training facilities.
bar the likes of semple and pairc ui caomh most would be sold without much fuss id say.
what do ye reckon bout any whispers of sales within your county or plans for that matter.

[AZOffaly]

There's a couple up for grabs I think.

Clare, Ennis is supposed to be for sale.
I think Cusack Park in Mullingar might be as well.

There are others.

[Kerry Mike]

John Mitchels in Tralee are rumored to be movin out of town too. Prime bit of property close to the middle of town. John Joe Sheehy is spinning in his grave.

[dublinfella]

Kilarney and Tralee as well, one seems destined to go.

Isnt Fitzgerald Stadium not actually owned by the GAA but a group of locals?

[Pangurban]

Im with you fivetimes, lets sell the Marshes and keep Newcastle

[Fionntamhnach]

I can't see Healy Park being sold any time soon, especially with the new seated stand. Ditto Brewster Park in Enniskillen.

[From the Bunker]

Looking at it from the point of view of usage. Are some of these venues a hindrance to the County boards. Most have if they are lucky one championship game a year and possibly 3 low key League Matches. Ok, so they have county finals, but the crowds at these in some counties can be overbeared by the size of the venue. The maintenance and upkeep are hard to weigh against such a turnover.

[Over the Bar]

Best thing they could do with the Athletic Grounds in Armagh would be to sell it before any more is spent on it.  I would doubt that it would be worth much as a building site.

I'd tend to agree with you about its value compared to other grounds as it's set in a right dump, howeve developers will build on anything these days.

[Bogball XV]

Kilarney and Tralee as well, one seems destined to go.

Isnt Fitzgerald Stadium not actually owned by the GAA but a group of locals?

no, tis owned by gah, this was bandied about by some munster rugby lads though.

[realredhandfan]

I tell ye what might be interesting.  The Old Arsenal Stadium Highbury is now marketed and sold as apartments designed in the true spirit of the old stadium.  In that case if county grounds were to be sold off for development could these developers in turn market and design these appartments in the spirit of the old ground very much keeping everybody happy.  Almost like a Dubai appartment.
ie. Sligo Markievich Park Plaza could have lots and lots of snow
A Leitrim appartment block could have outdoor toilets
An Omagh Development could have lots of underage facilities reflecting Tyrones domination of the younger ages.
The Mayo development could be weak in structure though stay clear...

[Mid Mon]

GAA keep building — but the fans won't be coming
Christy O'Connor
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2094-2496197,00.html

The Forum
 
IN 2003, two academics from University College Cork conducted a study about the demand for bigger GAA stadiums. They argued that, on economic grounds, there was a need for only one larger ground per province. John Considine and Seamus Coffey also examined the quantity of senior championship games played over a 10-year period between 1993 and 2002. In a week in which yet another plan for a new multi-million-euro stadium was revealed, their findings deserve to be revisited.

During that period, 129 of the 567 championship matches had attendances of 5,000 or less and 50% of all games had attendances under 20,000. Considering that matches in Leinster with potential attendances greater than 30,000 had to be played in Croke Park, Considine and Coffey concluded two new stadiums with capacities between 25,000 and 40,000 should be built. This was in line with the findings of the Strategic Review Committee of 2002.


Leinster is now flush with newly redeveloped stadiums like Portlaoise, Tullamore and Wexford Park and it looks set for two completely new stadiums in Kildare and Westmeath. Two weeks ago, the Kildare county board announced that they are set to sell off St Conleth's Park in Newbridge and move to a purpose-built stadium outside the town.

At a Westmeath county board meeting on Tuesday night, it was decided that Cusack Park in Mullingar is to be replaced by a spectacular new 26,000 stadium outside the town. Chairman Seamus Whelan confirmed that the proposal to allow for the development of Cusack Park — thought to be worth over €25m — was given the go-ahead by officials from the county's clubs.

Similar to the proposed development in Kildare, developers are to provide the Westmeath board with a new stadium just outside the town in exchange for Cusack Park, a prime piece of real-estate in the centre of Mullingar. The indications are that a similar deal is soon to be agreed for Cusack Park in Ennis and the GAA is being met now with a new double-edged challenge. Certain grounds are being strangled by urban development and traffic congestion, but the need to move to a new greenfield site just adds to the fact that the GAA already has excess capacity.

Building completely new GAA stadiums needs careful and strategic planning. No county board can act without consulting with the GAA's National Infrastructure and Safety Committee. That committee was established to co-ordinate the devising of integrated plans at county, provincial and national levels for the development of major grounds. Although they work in conjunction with the GAA's National Financial Management committee, this new challenge requires a serious level of strategic expertise.

In a cost-benefit analysis, removing existing GAA grounds involves a host of associated and secondary costs. It would take business out of the town and dilute the feel-good factor that is associated with town centres like Thurles and Clones on big match-days. The presence and position of the GAA in those communities would also be at risk but those factors would be offset by less traffic restrictions, better ground access and parking.

The bottom line, though, is that building new stadiums makes no sense unless you pack them — and that will not happen. When Cusack Park in Mullingar hosted Westmeath's only championship game in 2002, only 6,128 turned up. This was a year after Westmeath had made a historic run to an All-Ireland quarter-final.

Some GAA people see a stadium as a legacy and a showpiece for their games in a county but reality needs to dictate here. When a valuable piece of GAA real estate is up for sale, county boards need to look at the bigger picture and realise that a new county ground should be a lot more than just a venue. There are numerous examples of other models. Auxerre's football stadium is a modest development situated a couple of miles outside Paris. Their youth system though, is regarded as one of the best in France and all of their youth academy players train in the huge complex surrounding the stadium.

That is a perfect example for the GAA because €25m or €30m could build a modest 15,000 capacity stadium and a state-of-the-art academy and centre of excellence around the venue. It could provide Astroturf pitches, floodlit pitches, gyms and recovery rooms. If it had proper catering facilities and accommodation, club teams could avail of those facilities at certain weekends of the year.

Those types of centres are seriously lacking. In one of the top football counties, the training grounds are located across three large floodlit fields. The facilities are so basic that one player said it was like training "in Beirut".

With the proper strategic location and planning too, a new stadium on the edge of a town or city could generate funds in many different ways. The Ajax Arena in Amsterdam, for example, acts as the best park-and-ride facility in the city.

Building large new stadiums within striking distance of already existing large stadiums is a waste of money. The trends continue to prove that point. Limerick and Clare is one of the fiercest rivalries in hurling but they hadn't met in the championship for 10 years until this season. Weather conditions were poor on the day, but a crowd of just 12,408 turned up at Cusack Park in June.

Property developers are not in the business of charity or losing money — clearly their focus is on profit, not the good of the GAA. When one prominent property developer in Dublin was contacted last week, he felt that the construction of a 26,000 stadium in exchange for a prime piece of real estate was a great deal for the developer.

Those leading the GAA need to realise what is best for them. They should understand that, in this new game of cards, they are the ones holding the aces.

Visit the Leinster GAA web site at http://www.gaa.ie/leinster

[youbetterbelieveit]

Portlaoise sell club grounds

15/01/2007 13:11:46
The Portlaoise GAA club has pulled off one of the biggest commercial coups in the history of the association by selling their current grounds for a staggering EUR19 million.

Despite various reports of other grounds being sold, Portlaoise are the first to seal a deal for their 18-acre club headquarters located just behind O'Moore Park in Portlaoise.

And the club were quick to splash out on new facilities by spending EUR6million to buy a 38-acre site just a mile away from the ground.

The club hope to purchase land from Laois County Council, and will then pump EUR10 million into making it a modern GAA ground with all the trimmings.

There will be five playing pitches, an astro turf pitch, training area (including running track), hurling and football skills' walls, two spectator stands and a 300-capacity carpark.

"We are satisfied that the proposed redevelopment cost figure of EUR10m is accurate and more importantly can be adhered to," according to the Relocation Development sub-committee.

"Even if we have to cut our cash to suit the measure, this will ensure that we will have sufficient capital from this deal, about EUR3m, to invest in the future of the club.

"The income from this investment will be sufficient to cover the day-to-day running of the new facility."

[paddypastit]

Sligo Markievich Park Plaza could have lots and lots of snow

Snow me arse... but now if you said rain, then you'd be on the button.

Interestingly enough, about 15 years ago I remember having a conversation with current Sligo team manager T Brehony at training one night in said park about the merits of flogging that sitre and moving out to a green field site somewhere out in the direction of Owenmore territory - around the time Collooney was bypassed with the new N4 / N17 junction.  Don't know if he had the current business career in mind at the time mind!!