Antrim Football Thread

[NAG1]

Have to agree with you on that DR. I cant see it ever happening. I cringe reading articles from Stephen McGeehan from Ulster GAA on the subject. What a mess Ulster GAA made of it all from the very start. In their strategic plan released just yesterday or the day before "there is renewed optimism work will finally commence in 2021". Even without the pandemic there is only 9 months left in the calendar year, and with all the various obstacles in the way what sort of idiots do they take people for ffs. Antrim should be calling this out!!!

Antrim should have called it out from the very word go and IMO have been treated poorly partly due to our own short comings at the time. The only winners in this so far are St John's.

I think it will be built, the GAA will find some money and so will Stormont, might mean a sop payment to the IFA and Ulster Rugby to balance things out but if that is what it takes then they will do it.

It was billed a fundamental building block in the renewal and growth of our games in the second city, so don't forget that element in all the bullsh*t. So if that means the GAA need to dig a bit deeper then that's what they will need to do, for too long they have neglected Belfast so they can look at it as retrospective payment if it makes it more palatable.

[JimStynes]

Haven't kept up to date with the whole Casement thing but what is stopping it from being built? Are the residents still the stumbling block?

[imtommygunn]

Have to agree with you on that DR. I cant see it ever happening. I cringe reading articles from Stephen McGeehan from Ulster GAA on the subject. What a mess Ulster GAA made of it all from the very start. In their strategic plan released just yesterday or the day before "there is renewed optimism work will finally commence in 2021". Even without the pandemic there is only 9 months left in the calendar year, and with all the various obstacles in the way what sort of idiots do they take people for ffs. Antrim should be calling this out!!!

Would be less impressed with his predecessor but wouldn't be too impressed by either in this regard. The nonsense being pedaled.

Jim planning and money too(in short).

[JimStynes]

Have to agree with you on that DR. I cant see it ever happening. I cringe reading articles from Stephen McGeehan from Ulster GAA on the subject. What a mess Ulster GAA made of it all from the very start. In their strategic plan released just yesterday or the day before "there is renewed optimism work will finally commence in 2021". Even without the pandemic there is only 9 months left in the calendar year, and with all the various obstacles in the way what sort of idiots do they take people for ffs. Antrim should be calling this out!!!

Would be less impressed with his predecessor but wouldn't be too impressed by either in this regard. The nonsense being pedaled.

Jim planning and money too(in short).

The longest planning application in history

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

Its very depressing to think that once great venue is now lying how it is.

Theres been lots of faults all along the way in this from the start of the process to now. Closing down Casement while we waited on a planning application to be done and submitted etc was silly. the ground should of been kept open until the last moments.

Was there a public consultation done on the project? Not sure if one was done at that time to gauge the local response to the scheme designs for the ground. I have always got the feeling that the money was there - we all took it and never for once though it all through at all. Just get it done and built seemed to be the thought process.

The balls up made with the health and safety side of things for the fire escapes, large crowd evacuations etc. All signs that the project was just being pushed through to get that public money spent and get it built.

The complete shambles made with the original planning decision. I mean ffs i have a handling sometimes trying to get a house passed for planning through my work and have to jump through hoops just for that to be done lol

The on going mess with the local residents and their concerns. Should of been sorted right back at the very start with a public consultation and meetings for have that all in place before it got into Planning.

There's little can be done with regards to the time and costs going up, thats just a reflection on how things are now, with the GAA being asked to foot more money into this as the money that was ring fenced isn't enough to cover the new costs. As time moves on and nothing happening the cost of construction will also keep rising.

Another smaller scheme would need to go back into Planning and that in itself would just add more years onto a delay in starting. I feel we are where we are now and it wont be changed or reduced down. It will be down to the GAA finding more money as the executive wont be stumping up anymore without a political row.

[drillsergeant]

Its very depressing to think that once great venue is now lying how it is.

Theres been lots of faults all along the way in this from the start of the process to now. Closing down Casement while we waited on a planning application to be done and submitted etc was silly. the ground should of been kept open until the last moments.

Was there a public consultation done on the project? Not sure if one was done at that time to gauge the local response to the scheme designs for the ground. I have always got the feeling that the money was there - we all took it and never for once though it all through at all. Just get it done and built seemed to be the thought process.

The balls up made with the health and safety side of things for the fire escapes, large crowd evacuations etc. All signs that the project was just being pushed through to get that public money spent and get it built.

The complete shambles made with the original planning decision. I mean ffs i have a handling sometimes trying to get a house passed for planning through my work and have to jump through hoops just for that to be done lol

The on going mess with the local residents and their concerns. Should of been sorted right back at the very start with a public consultation and meetings for have that all in place before it got into Planning.

There's little can be done with regards to the time and costs going up, thats just a reflection on how things are now, with the GAA being asked to foot more money into this as the money that was ring fenced isn't enough to cover the new costs. As time moves on and nothing happening the cost of construction will also keep rising.

Another smaller scheme would need to go back into Planning and that in itself would just add more years onto a delay in starting. I feel we are where we are now and it wont be changed or reduced down. It will be down to the GAA finding more money as the executive wont be stumping up anymore without a political row.

I doubt anything will ever happen at casement an it is such a pity. I always believed they didn't need this big fancy stadium, tell me why they couldn't of just tidied it up a bit? Surely that's all it needed?! Didn't get over why they didn't build something similar to Owenbeg at Dunsilly, surely that would of done the job.

[JimStynes]

Did casement not get the go ahead recently there?

[NAG1]

Yeah it did.

Pretty much all issues resolved with the residents from what I understand.
Simply now down to a shortfall on the money. So the GAA are going to have to pony up some more cash.

It was handled appallingly from the get go and Antrim were right royally shafted in the process and I am pretty sure will continue to be in the future when it comes to access to the actual place.

But it is at the stage now where this is a once in a lifetime opportunity not to be repeated to get a state of the art facility for our games in the second city. So it is a matter of suck it up and show some commitment to people of Antrim and the North and get it done.

[Cranfield]

It isn't a case of casement will go ahead now but rather when and who will pay for it.
Regardless of what both parties say there is clearly going to be a standoff between the GAA and the department of communities to see who will foot the bill. As for talk of scaling down etc wise the bap! There is not going to be any other show in town.

The best part of a decade on I still find it infuriating how and why casement was allowed to close in the first place before planning had been passed. But what people seem to forget is that a primary motive of the then county chairman to close Casement was to get the social club closed. A personal gripe. At the time it had to close once the stadium had been condemned due to H&S reasons. Casement could and should have remained open only for some fairly minor repairs.

Did you ever hear the story about the building contractor that told the lay man that if he gave him his 2 up 2 down house he would build him a big mansion but with the caveat that he wouldn't actually ever own it? Well that guy has been homeless now pushing on 8 years. Welcome to the casement park fiasco

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

Part of the problem in this wasn't caused by the GAA that caused such a massive delay which has had the knock on effect to leave it so far down the line and the costs go up.

The cost of steel, blocks, insulation, windows etc have risen due to the pandemic, inflation, natural rises and brexit. Of course what was ring fenced and agreed 10 years ago was never going to be in the same playing field as it is now so for the GAA to be asked to up their commitment for something that wasn't their fault is a bit laughable. I can see why the GAA arent forthcoming with any commitments to give anymore money into the project.

They already have commitments to other improvements in Meath and Kildare put on the back burner so Antrim will go the same way with that regards as well.

The DOC wont be forth coming with more money at the moment, the GAA either. Casement Park will be sitting as it is for a while longer.

[whatwillbwillb]

No accountability whatsoever, Antrim we not shafted NAG1 you need to do more digging on that one...Easy to blame UC need to look closer to home but hopefully the truth will come out eventually on who did what and why? You cannot just pick up whenever , it will have to be re-tendered or it could be JR'd to the days of amen with the other 5 bidders. External independent investigation needed to be initiated by the County, but then that would be Turkeys voting for Christmas as they say.

[Kidder81]

Yeah it did.

Pretty much all issues resolved with the residents from what I understand.
Simply now down to a shortfall on the money. So the GAA are going to have to pony up some more cash.

It was handled appallingly from the get go and Antrim were right royally shafted in the process and I am pretty sure will continue to be in the future when it comes to access to the actual place.

But it is at the stage now where this is a once in a lifetime opportunity not to be repeated to get a state of the art facility for our games in the second city. So it is a matter of suck it up and show some commitment to people of Antrim and the North and get it done.

Antrim will be somewhere behind Feile an Phobail for access and use

[Belfast GAA man]

Im not an architect or anyThing like that but cant you build a stadium in phases? all the stands dont have to be there on Opening day - cut your cloth acoording to what money u have - get the place in use and build more of it over time? more waiting onlY increase cost and now planning is approved crack on with it

[Milltown Row2]

There's more to it.. the infrastructure needs to be right, a busy road needing to be closed and so on..

So the planning id expect needs to be just right

[JimStynes]

I chuckled this morning when I seen promotional material for St Endas called Club 100.
They claim to be the biggest club in Antrim and Ulster and the  predominant club in South Antrim.  No mean feat.
There is a lot of competition with all the clubs in North Belfast.. Lol 😂😂
The last time I looked they had zero senior football and zero hurling championship medals.
They have a big membership, a growing nursery school and good size of land facilities but they  have also developed a BIG dose of DUP type arrogance as well.  Too soon to claim to be the biggest club in the world...

Listened to The Saffcast podcast this morning. Very impressive set up that St. Enda's have going on. A serious pick of schools and players feeding into their teams. Surely on numbers alone and with the sort of set up they have they'll be a championship winning club in a few years.