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

[Armamike]

Just a shortfall of 100 million.  The one thing that can't happen is for this to drag on indefinitely. If that means scaling it back to get a stadium built then that needs to be done.  The GAA should be looking at some fundraising at home and abroad!

[Saffrongael]

"GAA president Jarlath Burns has welcomed the British Government's pledge to provide £50m towards the redevelopment of Casement Park but warned that more may be needed to finally see ground broken on the project."


 

[LC]

The longer this whole circus drags on the less buying power they will have with their £150 - £200m.  What that will build you today will be different from what you can build for that in a years time. 

[Saffrongael]

The longer this whole circus drags on the less buying power they will have with their £150 - £200m.  What that will build you today will be different from what you can build for that in a years time.

Burns said the cost increases by £140k per month

[Sportacus]

Please cut your cloth and get on with it. 

[Evil Genius]

Build whatever can with the money available and get feckin on with it.

If only they had heeded that advice a decade or more ago... 

If only the IFA had a little ambition and realised that when they built their stadium that it wouldn't even fit for purpose for any potential tournament, but hey ho.

Let's hope the GAA are a little more ambitious even if it has taken this shambles to get there.

I agree completely that 18k was far too small. But whether or not that is so, they used £26m of their allocation to build the stadium they wanted, within budget and on time (subject to a delay which was not their fault), as did Ulster Rugby for Ravenhill, so neither the government or the taxpayer could complain.

But then, having decided to keep £36m back for Regional stadia, they found that that has been delayed over a decade, with the concomitant loss of value due to inflation etc, while we were forced to wait for Casement to be completed.

And now, when Westminster finds yet more money for Casement, there is no sign of any extra money for Soccer, despite the original 'Maze Money' supposed to be divided equally between the two codes.

Fact is, through absolutely no fault of our own, Soccer has been shafted here - never mind the poor sods stuck on hospital waiting lists, or watching schools crumble round them etc.

Wonder when that would be thrown up. But there's plenty of money for Dundonald Ice Bowl and cleaning up after Twelfth parades and bonfires. 

If only Whataboutery could be monetised, this place would be the richest place in the world.

Or are you saying that just because a whole lot of public money has been wasted on batsh1t projects before now, then we should merrily go on creating ever more colossal wastes of money, even as essential services are more deprived than ever?

Or is it a simple case of "Themmuns"? For if it is, then if/when the (Nationalist) Casement Superdome finally gets completed as a cost of gazillions, then that will be the cue for Unionists to say: "Now it's our turn to get our nose into the trough" for the next crazy scheme.

[Evil Genius]

Please cut your cloth and get on with it. 

Careful now.

For you should know what happens to Blasphemers...

[SaffronSports]

I don't give a shit if it never hosts a concert but give the youngsters a place they can aspire to play in. Whatever can be built asap, get it done.

[twohands!!!]

Burns warns 'time is money' over Casement Park project

Updated / Wednesday, 11 Jun 2025 15:15

GAA president Jarlath Burns has welcomed the British Government's pledge to provide £50m towards the redevelopment of Casement Park but warned that more may be needed to finally see ground broken on the project.

The stadium, the home of Antrim GAA, has been derelict for over a decade and, with the current likely final cost currently sitting around £270m and rising, Burns has challenged the Stormont Executive to bump up their 2010 promise of £62.5m in line with "inflationary uplift".

"On behalf of the GAA we welcome this decision. We welcome the funding that has been given by the British government. We welcome funding from wherever it comes from. We worked very hard along with Ulster GAA and the executive to receive that funding," Burns told RTÉ Sport.

"We still don't have enough for Casement Park, and we're now really just waiting to see what the [Stormont] Executive does in terms of its inflationary uplift to the £62m that was promised in 2010," he added.

"We don't want to get into specific figures as to what inflationary uplift looks like now," Burns cautioned. "We're now back into the position of spectator because the British government have said what they're giving. The Irish government have said what they're giving.

"The executive now have to meet, and it's between really the two government parties to decide how they are going to make up the deficit that still exists between Casement Park not being built and Casement Park being built."

Burns was coy on whether any of the GAA's own coffers could help further bolster the Casement Park fund, pointing to projects elsewhere in the country as evidence of the association's pressing financial commitments.

"It is not for me as an ordinary member of the GAA – even though I'm president – to make a comment on that at the moment. We have to see exactly how close we get to the figure that we need," Burns explained.

"We have a lot of other infrastructure priorities. We're building a stadium from scratch in Louth. We have to spend almost 10 million on Thurles at Semple Stadium and all around the country.

"So we have to be very strategic in how we invest our money, but certainly we will be very interested to see what the executive does and how close that gets us to the figure we need."

As to the final figure needed to build the new jewel in the Ulster GAA crown, in a time of spiralling costs, that seems to be a moveable feast.

"You are really well over £270m at this stage, bearing in mind that the cost goes up by about £140,000 every month if we don't do anything because of the rising cost of infrastructure and building. Time literally is money here," Burns pointed out.

"It is so difficult to put a cost on that stadium because it rises every month and if you're going to be needing upwards of £270m at this stage to build a stadium where we can comfortably house 32 or 33,000 people who want to attend Ulster finals.

"Every penny that we get puts us a little bit closer, but every month that goes by pushes it a little further away. We owe it to Ulster GAA, we owe to Antrim GAA – who have been so patient for all of these years without a ground of their own – to get this stadium built as quickly as possible."

Michael Geoghegan, President of Ulster GAA added: "With this announcement there is now growing momentum and belief that Antrim's home and Ulster's provincial stadium is a step closer.

"We look forward to the project getting started and hosting some of the largest, most exciting and significant games on the island of Ireland while also significantly adding to economic recovery and regeneration in Belfast and beyond."

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2025/0611/1517877-burns-warns-time-is-money-over-casement-park-project/

Jarlath's statement basically puts the onus on Stormont to up their contribution is superb work by him in terms of  kicking the can down the road. No better lads than the crowd at Stormont to drag this out and make sure that the deadline for planning permission runs out in July 2026. Jarlath going out of the way to outline why the GAA doesn't want to increase their contribution. Also zero mention of Irish government increasing their contribution - Jarlath doesn't want to annoy Dublin and the beancounters there who contributed £43 million thinking that some of the Euros game would be held in Northern Ireland and Casement would be a 34,500 capacity stadium.

Michael Geoghegan's comments are utter nonsense - he can't be that deluded that he actually thinks £100 million + is just going to drop out of the sky.

I think this is the second last nail in the coffin for the current version of Casement - the last nail will be when the planning permission expires next year and Jarlath and the Ulster Council shrug their shoulders and go "opps back to the drawing board - We'll be trying to build a stadium with the funds we have available"

I can't see there being any chance the capacity for the next version of Casement will hold more than Clones currently holds. The Ulster Council will probably try to fudge this capacity issue and talk about developing the project in stages down the line to increase capacity but that will never come to pass.

[johnnycool]

any new funding is welcome, but surely the fúck Jarlath, yer man from the Ulster Council heading this up, Steven whatever he's called and Brian McEvoy have a contingency plan to start the build in a phased approach or are the going to continually going to keep making the same mistakes all the while the funding they have secured loses value in real terms.

Get er built so that the wee wanes from Antrim can call it home. (If the Ulster Council allow them)

Oh, and a big bronze statue of Sambo at the gates.

[Rossfan]

Hardly be any more from the 26 Co taxpayers with Thurles and Killarney looking to upgrade.
Badly needed in Killarney anyway with a Stand like the 1960s.

[Stickittotheman]

Build whatever can with the money available and get feckin on with it.

If only they had heeded that advice a decade or more ago... 

If only the IFA had a little ambition and realised that when they built their stadium that it wouldn't even fit for purpose for any potential tournament, but hey ho.

Let's hope the GAA are a little more ambitious even if it has taken this shambles to get there.

I agree completely that 18k was far too small. But whether or not that is so, they used £26m of their allocation to build the stadium they wanted, within budget and on time (subject to a delay which was not their fault), as did Ulster Rugby for Ravenhill, so neither the government or the taxpayer could complain.

But then, having decided to keep £36m back for Regional stadia, they found that that has been delayed over a decade, with the concomitant loss of value due to inflation etc, while we were forced to wait for Casement to be completed.

And now, when Westminster finds yet more money for Casement, there is no sign of any extra money for Soccer, despite the original 'Maze Money' supposed to be divided equally between the two codes.

Fact is, through absolutely no fault of our own, Soccer has been shafted here - never mind the poor sods stuck on hospital waiting lists, or watching schools crumble round them etc.

Oh great. Another poster who can't understand long term capital spend projects and day to day Governmental spending.

[tonto1888]

I don't give a shit if it never hosts a concert but give the youngsters a place they can aspire to play in. Whatever can be built asap, get it done.

Fully agree with this but the way things are going it's never gonna happen

[armaghniac]

I can't see there being any chance the capacity for the next version of Casement will hold more than Clones currently holds. The Ulster Council will probably try to fudge this capacity issue and talk about developing the project in stages down the line to increase capacity but that will never come to pass.

The current version may not fly, but I do not see why a version of it, two good seated stands with terraces at either end, should not be manageable and hold 30,000.

It is fine to talk about bean counters in Dublin, but it is rather difficult for the GAA to argue that Dublin should pay for a fancy ground for Antrim when the GAA also want it to pay for projects all over the 26 counties.

No doubt Stormont will delay, but we really need to get this work started.

[snoopdog]

How big a stadium do these muppets in the Ulster council want?
The fact is this stadium will be empty for 360 days a year. That's factoring in a generous 3 sell outs for ulster semis ( as rare as hens teeth) and final.
It's not central enough for all Ireland series neutral games.
It might get 3 concerts year.
Jarlath Burns has been very poor here.