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

[SaffronSports]

Whatever money is available should just be spent on land somewhere around Antrim or Ballymena and gradually build a facility there somewhere. Probably faster than this Casement crap anyway

[rodney trotter]

Could they build a reduced capacity ground of 20k with the money that is availabe? They are 90 million short and are messing around to get a vanity ground that will rarely be filled. The crowds are down in the championship.

[twohands!!!]

Kevin O'Donovan trying to sell the future of Pairc Ui Chaoimh as a municipal stadium which is basically code for taxpayers money.

Also yet more confirmation that there is basically no way to turn a profit on ordinary operations of the stadium due to the running costs.

When you consider how the current version of Casement has the scope to be an even bigger financial disaster than PuC it's mind-boggling that there is anyone still speaking publicly about being in favour of the current version.

"My vision is for it to be a municipal stadium. I think stadiums are expensive public goods that need public support and funding and need to be multi-sport. SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh wasn't built for that, but this is our way of maybe retrofitting a little bit of that. Building multi-sport training facilities in the future will be harder.

"This stadium is actually used far more than people actually know because we've all the club programmes, several inter-county teams and the camogie and ladies football are in here now. But, is it used 365 days a year? No, should it be used 365 days a year? It kind of has to be to pay the bills, the rates, the energy costs and so on.

https://www.echolive.ie/corksport/arid-41662664.html

[Rossfan]

Casement won't be repaying a huge debt.
Wouldnt naming rights cover a good bit of annual running costs?

[p3427977]

Casement won't be repaying a huge debt.
Wouldnt naming rights cover a good bit of annual running costs?

The total figure for the build includes running costs. The civil service price for the life of the project I think so the actual build isn't near the stated figure.

[Wildweasel74]

To cut even at Croke park, they used to talk about having to get it half full.

[marty34]

At Croke Park etc. on match days. Just wondering do the young programme sellers etc. get paid?

I presume the stewards are all volunteers? Or do they get paid also.

Security are an outside company?

[Rossfan]

To cut even at Croke park, they used to talk about having to get it half full.

That oul chestnut.
That was based on the total cost (incl the debt repayments back then) divided by the number of matchdays.

An AI Final must bring in about €6m in ticket sales.
Add in programmes, drink, food....
Other end of the scale the junior/inter Club Finals or the Ring/Rackard/Meagher Finals must bring in €50k each.

[Baile Brigín 2]

To cut even at Croke park, they used to talk about having to get it half full.

Wasn't that debunked?

Opening the whole stadium under lights costs x, but you don't need to do that for every event.

You can open one section of the Hogan for kids games at a token cost.

[twohands!!!]

Some info from last year's financial accounts regarding Croke Park.

Contribution from our match day activities was disappointing. Total contribution at €1.69m in 2024 was down €140K on 2023 at €1.83m. We hosted 31 match days in 2024, compared to 36 in 2023, with match day attendances falling from 948,000 in 2023 to 865,000 in 2024

So basically Croke Park made a profit of €1.69m in terms of its core business of hosting GAA games in 2024 off the back of 31 match days with a total attendance at those matches of 865,000.

When you compare the attendances of those games at Croke Park versus the absolute best case scenario for annual match attendances at Casement [The attendances for the whole of the Ulster Championship has been around the 100k for a good few years] the capacity for the core operations to turn a profit look severly challenging.

As referenced at the outset, our non-core activities, generated a contribution of €8.3m in 2024. In comparison we had no non-core events in 2023. In May we hosted the legendary Bruce Springsteen and in August, Coldplay delivered one of the great series of evenings held in the stadium, a concert sequence, that put us in the Top 10 worldwide stadium venues in 2024, as listed by Polestar. Not to disappoint, Leinster brought a full house to the stadium for their Champions Cup semi-final

The difference between the two years is obviously stark - 2024 was probably cost to a perfect year for non-core activites compared to 2023 which was a complete zero - the issue is that none of these activites are in any way reliable. I'm convinced that Casement would be a lot closer to Pairc Ui Chaoimh compared to Croke Park in terms of attracting events.

I only took a fairly quick look at the accounts and I definitely don't feel like I have a full handle on the exact nature of the business of Croke Park. Frankly this would take more time that I'm willing to spend looking at previous years' financial reports and looking at the various subsidary companies that make up the Páirc an Chrócaigh Group of Companies.

These are all the companies that make up the Páirc an Chrócaigh Group of Companies

- Páirc an Chrócaigh CTR. The principal stadium trading company. PCT posted an operating surplus before interest,
distributions, and exceptional items, at €15.1m for the period 2024 an increase of €3.3m on 2023 at €11.8m, a
27.9% improvement.
- Brindare Ltd. This company is responsible for income and expenditure associated with our meeting and events
business. The business recorded a 77.8% improvement in room hire and food and beverage revenues.
- Gambetto / Mercury Investments/ Croke Park Motors – are vehicles we use to hold our property assets. As
expected, rental income for the 12-month period 2024 is largely unchanged on prior year.
- Lauris Ltd. This entity accounts for our pitch farm which is located in North County Dublin.
- Clonliffe Property Investments – this company holds our new hotel which is currently under construction.
- National Handball and Croke Park Community Centre CLG – we hold a 50% interest in this JV in respect of the
handball centre to the East of the stadium. During the period, PCT's share of the of the joint venture, NHCPCC,
losses for the year were €124K.
- For completeness two other companies Le Cheile Promotions Ltd and Musaem CLG CTR, are related by common
directors but do not form part of the consolidated figures.

I'm not really sure how that Brindare in particular fits into things.

Also I'm a bit suspicious when I see something like

The business recorded a 77.8% improvement in room hire and food and beverage revenues.

when there's no actual Euro amount provided.

There could be some intra-group transfers and stuff like that going on - this was very much a quick and dirty look to see what sort of basic info I could find out about how Croke Park is doing.

What I couldn't figure out is how these core and non-core activites ended up contributing to a situation where the Group of Companies had a profit, before interest, tax, CLG distribution and exceptional items, for 2024 of €21.3m and contributed a dividend of €16m to CLG (the overall main GAA financial company) especially when the profit increased so much compared to 2023 but the dividend only increased by €1million compared to 2023.

The directors of the Páirc an Chrócaigh Group of Companies are pleased to report a strong set of results for 2024. PCT Consolidated Group turnover, for 2024, at €59.7m represents an increase of €17.7m, or 42% on 2023 at €42m. A significant contribution to the results was from non-core activities, emphasising the importance, in particular, of concerts to the overall stadium performance.

PCT Consolidated Group profit, before interest, tax, CLG distribution and exceptional items, for 2024 was €21.3m, an increase of 85% on 2023 at €11.5m. The strong performance facilitated a dividend payment of €16m to CLG, marginally up on 2023 at €15m and underlines the importance of the stadium  in the furtherance of CLG ambitions.

My overall thoughts looking at this limited information is that spending £270 million plus on Casement is just an absolutely terrible idea, bordering on criminal neglience.

[DaleCooper]

I dont think anyone has mentioned it yet but for the people of Glencolumbkille its a 3 hour and 16 minute drive to Casement Park.

[Saffrongael]

I dont think anyone has mentioned it yet but for the people of Glencolumbkille its a 3 hour and 16 minute drive to Casement Park.

It's west Donegal, it's a fair trek to any location for a match

[clarshack]

To cut even at Croke park, they used to talk about having to get it half full.

Back in the noughties it was something like 31,000 people to break even.

[Rossfan]

See my post above