Messages

One thing about that though would have been accessibility of the stadium to Antrim clubs. I played countless times in Casement as a kid. I doubt that'd have been possible with the IFA and IRFU.

Croker is open to other sports, hasn't stopped kids games.

I doubt the IFA will have any requirement and Ulster rugby are years off it.

There not a minor munster hurling semi/ final on tg4 sat past?, not rte I suppose!

Don't be bringing facts into it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9dg1v8ngevo

What an absolute mess.

Do we simply not have contractors capable of building complex facilities on time and in budget?

The problem with the NCH in Dublin is half greasy contractors, half bureaucrats changing specs mid stream.

I wouldn't watch this tournament if it was on at the bottom of the street. 
Probably the same with the Premier League tbh

It's only on a Saudi owned streamer who bid $1bn for the rights unopposed.

I see FIFA quietly dropped the anti racism messaging for this tournament.

US carriers are on route, they could bring larger GBU 57 bunker busters. IAEA thought Iran was a few months away in April, they've had long enough

I've been hearing Iran is months away from having nukes for 25 years.

Are we really falling for the WMD lie twice in a generation?

So he complained that there was no GAA on RTE over the weekend but RTE showed the other semi final in that rugby thing.

Problem is TG4 showed the rugby.

Sums him up. Nearly had a good point.

Shels v Linfield in the CL.

A resentful, bitter club playing Linfield. Should be a belter.

Belfast has multiple outdoor concerts per year, I work a lot of them, the likes of Belsonic has 10 or more alone, Féile an Phobail is Ireland biggest community arts festival.. The SSE has multiple gigs

So while I don't think it will be tearing the place up with a lot more concerts, it will have an opportunity to be in with a shout to bid for them or attract more people.

The capacity is too big, thought it at the time, I'd have settled for a 30,000 seater closed in type but sure lets see what happens eh? Hopefully I'll be still alive when it/if done

I get that. But what I was responding to is the notion that the only reason Taylor, AC/DC, the Stones and so on don't play Belfast is lack of a hall and they will queue up for Casement is ludicrous.

If you think concerts will make the place viable Thomond Park and PuC want a word.

People keep pointing to PuC and lack of concerts while forgetting Cork is much smaller than Belfast, less accessible and less attractive for major concerts.

Belfast is far more similar to Cork than compared to Dublin in terms of attracting concerts.

This is what the CEO of Cork GAA said a few month's back at a speech in PuC

"Concerts in this building are challenging because we're a mid size venue. We're too big for Live at the Marquee, we're too small for Coldplay. We talk to the promoters every day we are seeing now if we can move the dial a little bit and go into smaller events and use car parks and use 4G and put marquees up on the pitch and so on.

"So lest anyone think we are idle, you are at the discretion of the major acts' touring diaries; it's not your diary it's theirs, and we play games for a significant period of the year. Concerts are the only thing that will move the dial on debt here. Everything else really is to keep the lights on."

PuC has no concerts this year, one Bruce Springsteen concert last year and none the year before that.

There is the possibility that Casement is much more successful at attracting concerts compared to PuC but the possibility isn't that great. I haven't heard any sort of decent argument why the Ulster Council would be much more successful at convincing promoters to hold concerts in Casememt compared to the Cork County Board convincing promoters to pay to use PuC.

Belfast is much more attractive for concerts. The greater Belfast area is roughly triple that of Cork. It is closer to the "mainland" so plenty of Brits will and do come over for to see gigs as it is. Any new Casement stadium could face the exact same issue attracting the right acts though.

So why aren't Belfast getting the concerts now?

If Casement gets built as is, that is c45,000 capacity for gigs. So they are head to head with Croker and LR, who compete on price. Do you think they will be let freely eat Crokers lunch on gigs?

They lost their appeal. Rovers take their place in R2 and Rovers not replaced in R1. Disaster for coefficients.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/johnny-sexton-its-time-to-end-civil-war-over-ireland-no-10-selection/a680029207.html

Seriously.....a civil war.........with what is going on in the world at the minute some people need to catch themselves using language like that.  Outside of the D4 bubble who really gives a f@#k who the Ireland number 10 is?

Can you imagine a journalist in Kerry making reference to civil war in the context of who would be starting for the Kerry team in their next match. 

Much as I agree on the who really cares side, the GAA press are perfectly prone to bouts of silliness too. Remember about 20 years aho the Indo carried an article countering some rugby shite stating that the only sports Ireland were world class in were hurling and football?

https://m.independent.ie/regionals/monaghan/news/buck-mad-monaghan-mechanic-rammed-garda-car-inside-gaa-grounds-after-high-speed-chase/a491355105.html

What exactly do you need to do to be jailed? Even had the audacity to ask for his licence back.

Completely agree, get it built if GAA members were asked to contribute £1 each to make up the short fall I'm sure they would do it in a heart beat. The GAA community in the north need this stadium and they needed it yesterday.

I for one would not even contribute the steam off my piss.
If it goes ahead as planned, its hanging a massive millstone around the neck of the Ulster Council (UC) for decades, and that will have real connotations for UC coaching development etc.


When the ongoing maintenance costs of the ivory towers becomes clear in due course, the level of stupidity in calling for this stadium as currently designed will also become crystal clear.



I'd much rather put my money into any club looking to make a second pitch or changing rooms - something of far more benefit.

Unreal.....can you not see past the nose on your face, future generations should have this stadium.
The great days of going to Clones on Ulster final day are a thing of the past, and live only in our heads.
Why can we not have a stadium where you can get the same feeling of pride walking into it as you do when going into Croke Park and its only up the road.

Because we can't afford it.

Because it will be crippling to maintain.

Because Belfast simply doesn't need that sized stadium.

As if you care about the A5.

It was just one example, chosen because if you listen to Burns, it has a special place in the hearts of Gaels (though how he was going to stop non-Gaels using it beats me. Tolls?).

But then I suppose in your world using the money for anything rather than Casement would be great news.

Then you suppose wrong*.

I have been quite clear: the GAA deserves a new stadium in Belfast, using its £62.5m share of the Maze money. And if they're prepared to top that up with £15m of their own money, good for them. Ditto any money they can get from Dublin.

But the problem is, they fecked about looking to build a vanity project which even many GAA supporters accepted was overblown and unnecessary. Then, when the result of their own incompetence meant they suffered inflationary construction costs, instead of admitting responsibility and cutting their cloth accordingly, they blamed everyone else and then expected the Brits to bale them out.

Worse, when an extra £50m was found for them even in these straitened times, they complained that this wasn't enough. Which conveniently ignores two things. First, when the Maze money was to be divided equally between Soccer and GAA, why don't the IFA qualify for an equal payout now, too? And second, from their original £62.5m Maze payout, the IFA decided to spend £26m on Windsor, and £36.5m on regional stadia afterwards. Yet this latter sum has been held up by various Ministers on the basis that Casement needed to be sorted first i.e. Soccer effectively punished for the GAA's incompetence.

Worse still, when Burns complains that the GAA's original £62m has been eroded by inflation, would he accept that the IFA's £36.5m has been similarly eroded, through no fault of their own, and so deserves a cut of whatever extra may be available?

All of which merely argues for equality of treatment between the two codes, which was supposed to be the principle behind such funding all along. And just so you cannot twist it further, that means if Soccer receives X, then the GAA deserves X, too.


* - Btw it might be an idea to read what I actually post to ascertain what I think, rather than just projecting your own prejudices onto me.

Your point on schools and hospitals is old emotive nonsense.

Does that imply you don't care for such matters then, if someone who does is "emotive" or talking "nonsense"?

Schools and hospitals can put business cases to the Executive if they need resources for capital projects like everyone else.

There is a finite pot of money, meaning the more money goes to (the outrageous overspend on) one project, the less is available for other (more deserving) projects.

But you probably knew that, even if you don't care to acknowledge it.

Do you understand how inflation works? Why would the IFA, who received what they required at the time be subject to an inflationary increase now. An inflationary increase means the equivalent of what £60 million was at the time the money was allocated. It's like being in work and receiving £1100 a month in 2012. Then in 2025 you start work again after being inactive for a decade. You get paid £1100 a month.

Yeah so as I thought you were just using the A5 as a political football.

Of course I care about schools and hospitals. Who doesn't? But everytime something is built that benefits the Nationalist community we get the same emotive language about money for the NHS. It's tiresome. £60 million for an Ice rink in a Unionist area, no problem. £50 million for a GAA stadium in a Nationalist area- oh God won't someone think of the children!!

Finite money or not if capital projects need built then the business case will be brought forward by whoever requires that funding.

Why should the GAA get an inflationary increase?

He has a point. Soccer are due a second tranche which has been blocked until Casement is sorted. That amount is declining as inflation bites. Quite unfair on them.