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Well they fooled me.  I figured that Dublin & Kerry would play Saturday so that all four teams would have an equal 7 days rest.  It was the only sensible way to determine when each played.  Also the most fair way.  Who is in charge of scheduling, RTE or the GAA?

I'm more puzzled by Donegal not being drawn against Meath.  Donegal have already played Armagh, Tyrone and Monaghan.  This makes no sense to me at all.  Were the GAA that afraid of an all Ulster Semi Final?

Seriously does this organisation actually have any rules or do they just make things up on the spur of the moment?  Donald Trump for GAA President!

There are rules alright. And they have been stuck to. Both in terms of who can play who and when. Whatever the complaint is, it can't legitimately be the absence or non-application of the rules.

An NFL game

Maybe he meant IPL?

Don't know enough about insurance, but I'd say public liability insurance runs for the whole year, not on an individual basis.

Plus, open to correction but maybe you get an extra 10k into a stadium, especially if the main pitch is being used. That's a lot of £.

Given what can wrong at concerts I don't believe that part time venues (whether that be Boucher playing fields or Casement) are going to pay the premia to have that cover all year round.

The issue is that Boucher is a big, flat area with a secure fence around it and as isolated from residential areas as you are going to get in the city. In terms of damage to existing uses of Boucher there isn't much to insure.

Casement potentially offers seats and cover for part of the crowd. But does the crowd really want that? Extra insurance and security costs will be passed on. The number of concerts would surely be limited by balancing planning with the needs/demands of residents but most crucially of all is there any evidence whatsoever that there is a concert demand to be met here? What is the gig what will come to Casement and won't currently come to Belfast? I'm not sure there is one never mind a pipeline that could be relied upon.


The thing Belfast has in common with Cork is that neither is Dublin. Stadium concerts that come to Ireland are coming to Dublin. Appetite of acts/promoters to multiple venues on an island with 6m population? To the nearest round number I'd say it's zero. But the thing we are relying on here is that someone within the Project Team is checking this out. And the GAA have relationships with all these promoters. They will also be working out the knock on implications (if any and I suspect there aren't) on Croke Park should a new venue pop up in Belfast.

And first cheap to insure. There comes a point when a shiny new stadium becomes a negative in the concert game.

Casement could host:

Antrim MFC/MHC finals
Antrim club JFC/IFC/SFC semifinals and finals
Ulster club matches and finals
AI club quarter & semi finals
MacRory and other schools competition  finals
Antrim football & hurling league fixtures
Ulster SFC matches, semi-finals & final
Joe McDonagh/Leinster hurling/AI hurling fixtures

Those alone are not enough and you'd be trying to incorporate as many double headers as possible.

I'd be exploring every single avenue at this stage, major sponsorship, naming rights, partnership with BCC, Féile, etc.

I think NFL is a non runner but there's still potential with concerts. 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.

There's always scope for soccer, rugby, Aussie/international rules down the line.

I agree with you that the GAA fixture opportunity could be limited. I agree that every other revenue line should be explored. I agree that NFL is a pipe dream.

The opportunity for concerts should not be presumed. If you are going to rely on it you need some basis of confidence. What is the confidence on concerts? Has a promoter indicated that something could be brought to Casement that isn't otherwise being brought to Belfast? I haven't seen any evidence of this. Happy to be directed to it.

The soccer and rugby angles are very channeling.


Someone mentioned the athletic grounds in Armagh. I think that is the template we will (and should) end up with. A very good stand, max out the standing capacity (which will be much bigger than Armagh) and a roof down one side. If the attendance exceeds the seated capacity more than 4 times a year I'd be amazed.

I don't understand how anyone can think this new stadium is just gonna magically fall out of the money tree. It will consume millions of the GAA's revenue for years to come. That means less coaches for underage teams, increased ticket prices, fewer development grants for clubs, dilapidated county grounds because there's no money to repair or replace them.

A 250 mil Casement is a financial millstone that will weigh around the neck of every club in Ulster for years and years and years. And the only f**king reason you and illdecide can come up with for building it is "to stick it to the f**king Prods".

I actually had the thought yesterday that if Unionists in Stormont were smart they would actually agree to a deal to cover a significant chunk of the funding shortfall - if they gave enough that it would basically give the GAA no choice but to make up the rest of the shortfall ,which would mean the GAA would be forced to overextend itself financially which would likely end up doing significant damage to the long-term finances of the GAA as a whole. My only consolation is that they aren't smart enough to manage a move like this.

But you hit on the very valid point that the average unionist wakes up everyday thinking about how to get one in the eye of the GAA.

I would imagine that the project team have fleshed out every angle of the "large concerts, soccer, rugby, NFL and GAA". It may not amount to that much.

Peak attendance drive the specification but its average audiences that make the thing viable. How many games will Antrim play in it and what sort of crowds/ticket revues will they pull in over say 30 years?

How many concerts will Casement actually get? I fear the answer might be none unless we get some Irish country "star". And any talk of that is likely to create a spike in local objections.

NFL coming to Ireland but not one of the 2 large Dublin stadia is a low probability play. I'm calling it as a zero probability play.

Rugby. That's possible but it would need a serious upturn in Ulster's fortunes (and some commercial agreement) or the IRFU to turn down the revenue spinner of say an autumn international against a 2nd tier nation in Dublin or another rugby stadium. We should definitely be aiming for these but their incremental impact maybe small.

And then there is the GAA. It has the power to drive games with large attendances to Belfast. How many would depend on the championship structure and the teams involved.

Fundamentally the stadium is in the wrong place but there is money on the table that is specific to that site so I think we are in the build what we can afford stage of this debacle.

[It's off the table now]

Until someone says how much money is available from all sources GAA, Irish Government, Stormont and UK the GAA won't know what it can or cannot build.
3 uncovered stands and one side of covered seating seems to be a wasted opportunity and would show a lack of ambition. Doesn't have to be an all seater mega stadium but lets hope Ulster and Antrim end up with something we actually want to attend, not another set of concrete steps to stand out in the rain on.

It's already known the Stormont has £62m, GAA £15m, 26 Co taxpayers €50m.
Only unknown is will the Brits give anything and how much.
Ambition is a great yoke but the real world needs you to pay for it.

That €50m from Dublin was for the Euro's build. It's off the table now. It's now soccers turn for stadium upgrades and academies.

Incorrect.

I'm fairly sure I am not. Why would Dublin put that level of money into a Belfast white elephant? Politically it would be toxic to bump a couple of years worth of needed infrastructure in other sports into this debacle.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/taoiseach-simon-harris-says-he-stands-by-50m-pledge-for-casement-park-after-uk-government-pulls-out/a1288434909.html

Have you seen an update on this?

I'll have a dig for the link, but I definitely read it had quietly been dropped, at least from the Sport budget. Fine Gael now have the department so can't see it as a priority for them.

Didn't they do some switcheroo on the grant for the NY ground? It went in under an emigrant culture thing as opposed to a sports grant as the Department of Sport objected on various grounds?

Why do you have to dig for a link that someone has sent you?

Also can you provide for a link for some of the stuff you are posting eg the allocation for the RoI sports budget. If that was ever a thing then it must have been good number of years ago. The RoI money for this project is from the Shared Island Fund. That has been on the table for years and is on the table today.

I hear the Brits have stomped up the cash, it will be released in such a way that it will not send the bitter, catholic hating, sectarian, racist, twisted brethren into a meltdown.

How are they planning to do that?

I've no idea, just what I think. But if there's a way of hiding things and doing it illegally then the Brits are experts at it.

I know the loyalist knuckle draggers aren't the brightest but even they'll notice a big stadium. Not sure how the Brits spin it unless they're giving them even more money for something else at the same time.

Even if they don't notice it, Stephen Nolan and Sam McBride will make sure they hear about it.

Is that the same Sam who attends GAA games to watch his kids play?

Rafferty
P Burns
McCambridge
McGrane
McQuillan
Kelly
J Burns
Duffy
Crealy
McMullan
R O'Neill
Conaty
Grugan
Murnin
O O'Neill

Do Louth and Down share a land border or does Armagh come in between?

A border yes. A land border no.

It was clearly a head injury not a blood stoppage, although there was plenty of blood too

Ref stopped the game, quite rightly for a potential head injury to 2 players. But the protracted stoppage was to address the blood scenario. That is supposed to happen off the field.

Hurson decided to abandon the blood substitution rules today. It seems the current rule to is stop the play and treat the player on the field for however long it takes. Must say the announcement of that rule change had escaped me.

Rumours Rian O'Neill back for Armagh - I presume these are false?

Starting in goals

They helped Kildare too. But they also got us back on track in the longer term which costs less.

See the issue is that if the GAA didn't get involved and stood off, allowing vultures in, the same man would be SCATHING of the GAA.

But in this case the GAA are the vulture fund.

Guaranteeing the debt from county boards that have over extended themselves. There's no one getting a big bankers bonus where they go and buy a yacht and holiday home on a European riviera.

But they're calling in more repayments than they're owed. They're screwing over one of their own county boards.

Well that directly contradicts McKenna's story. He claims the amount that Mayo are to repay is exactly the amount to the debt that HQ bought. Well, plus the interest at the original agreed rate.

The amount that Mayo are being asked to repay is the amount they borrowed plus the interest they agreed. Anyone that thinks Mayo are being shafted doesn't understand shopping.