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

[Walter Cronc]

A5 not delivered
Irish Language Act not delivered
Casement not delivered
Maze Prison not delivered
DUP and Civil Servants running rings round SF

These are all ticks in the boxes for Jim Allister, Jamie Bwyson and Carla Loveheart

What actually has been delivered post GFA? You can add the debacle around a proper university in Derry to that list.

Could a form of crowd funding and private investment help raise the funds? Say an additional 100 million?

[Sportacus]

Very few come out this saga looking well including but not limited to successive GAA presidents, Ulster Council, the Casement residents and Sinn Fein.

Why Sinn Fein didn't take Communities when Stormont was restored is beyond me. The GAA and Irish language are getting an absolute kicking and there's nothing SF can do about it.

A farce for all concerned!!

Bunch of amateurs, and throw in an ample amount of 'big talk' as well along the way, with nothing to back it up only farcical photoshoots.
Please use every last penny available to build the best atmospheric stadium for whatever number of seats money will buy these days, and hand it back to Antrim GAA.

That's fine, but why should money from Stormont only go to Antrim? Are each of the 6 counties not entitled to a shake, although not necessarily an equal one.

If it's ever built it'll be a recipe for bad blood - the fall out is inevitable when Ulster GAA lock the gates when there's a fixture clash with an Antrim club game. They can have all the protocols they want, but mark my words it'll inevitably happen.

It'll be a good ground for colleges, Ulster Club etc, just like the Athletic Grounds, but the rightful owners should be Antrim. It was a dreadful move by some individuals in Antrim to hand over the keys, sold a pup, time to put that right.

Provided that Antrim have it for large county games and perhaps club finals, then a better plan is to build another pitch to have routine club games.

"And perhaps club finals" - says it all really.
Every kid in Armagh can aspire to play in the Athletic Grounds in an underage final, whether they're Division 1 or Division 4. And it's a memory they'll never forget if they do.

[Baile Brigín 2]

A5 not delivered
Irish Language Act not delivered
Casement not delivered
Maze Prison not delivered
DUP and Civil Servants running rings round SF

These are all ticks in the boxes for Jim Allister, Jamie Bwyson and Carla Loveheart

What actually has been delivered post GFA? You can add the debacle around a proper university in Derry to that list.

Could a form of crowd funding and private investment help raise the funds? Say an additional 100 million?

How would the investors get their money back?

[LC]

A5 not delivered
Irish Language Act not delivered
Casement not delivered
Maze Prison not delivered
DUP and Civil Servants running rings round SF

These are all ticks in the boxes for Jim Allister, Jamie Bwyson and Carla Loveheart

What actually has been delivered post GFA? You can add the debacle around a proper university in Derry to that list.

Could a form of crowd funding and private investment help raise the funds? Say an additional 100 million?

A gravy train for a crowd of incompetents and all their associated hanger ons.

To think that people made the ultimate sacrifice for this farce is very sad.

[playwiththewind1st]

Michelle & her team of 4 Stormont ministers.

All in post, but with absolutely no power to change anything, in any meaningful way, because the DUP simply torpedo everything that doesn't suit them.

So, the end game was to get to this point & all for the sake of a few social media posts every day just to say "aren't I doing an absolutely wonderful job"?

The whole thing's a complete farce.

[Sportacus]

Michelle & her team of 4 Stormont ministers.

All in post, but with absolutely no power to change anything, in any meaningful way, the DUP simply torpedo everything that doesn't suit them.

So, the end game was to get to this point & all for the sake of a few social media posts every day just to say "aren't I doing an absolutely wonderful job"?

The whole thing's a complete farce.

And vice versa to be fair.

[Orior]

A5 not delivered
Irish Language Act not delivered
Casement not delivered
Maze Prison not delivered
DUP and Civil Servants running rings round SF

These are all ticks in the boxes for Jim Allister, Jamie Bwyson and Carla Loveheart

What actually has been delivered post GFA? You can add the debacle around a proper university in Derry to that list.

Could a form of crowd funding and private investment help raise the funds? Say an additional 100 million?

A gravy train for a crowd of incompetents and all their associated hanger ons.

To think that people made the ultimate sacrifice for this farce is very sad.

Was there any other option on the ballot paper?

[playwiththewind1st]

Michelle & her team of 4 Stormont ministers.

All in post, but with absolutely no power to change anything, in any meaningful way, the DUP simply torpedo everything that doesn't suit them.

So, the end game was to get to this point & all for the sake of a few social media posts every day just to say "aren't I doing an absolutely wonderful job"?

The whole thing's a complete farce.

And vice versa to be fair.

I totally agree with you; the zero sum game that goes on each day in TEO has only ended up in total political paralysis.


Sinn Féin were obviously intent on grabbing the First Minister's position, only to find out that it only means that O'Neill gets to speak first to the media, while the DUP woman stands there & rolls her eyes in disagreement [when she even turns up, that is].

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

We digress.

This was the GAA's project and the GAA's failure. Unionists didn't enter the stage until about Year 13 and all they did was rightfully object to giving any additional funding to this utter farce. I mean, the GAA themselves also objected to giving a single dime of additional funding to it ffs.

[upmonaghansayswe]

[Killala]

I see this thread started back in 2010, that's hard to believe. Ulster GAA have been working on this project that long and spent millions to date. The money was there and they couldn't even get planning sorted. I don't really see where politics plays any part in the mismanagement of the project. The other two sporting codes have their stadiums long finished.

[Brendan]

I see this thread started back in 2010, that's hard to believe. Ulster GAA have been working on this project that long and spent millions to date. The money was there and they couldn't even get planning sorted. I don't really see where politics plays any part in the mismanagement of the project. The other two sporting codes have their stadiums long finished.

Stadium finished, fell apart and fixed up again in the case of Windsor Park

[Evil Genius]

Very few come out this saga looking well including but not limited to successive GAA presidents, Ulster Council, the Casement residents and Sinn Fein.

Why Sinn Fein didn't take Communities when Stormont was restored is beyond me. The GAA and Irish language are getting an absolute kicking and there's nothing SF can do about it.

A farce for all concerned!!

Bunch of amateurs, and throw in an ample amount of 'big talk' as well along the way, with nothing to back it up only farcical photoshoots.
Please use every last penny available to build the best atmospheric stadium for whatever number of seats money will buy these days, and hand it back to Antrim GAA.

That's fine, but why should money from Stormont only go to Antrim? Are each of the 6 counties not entitled to a shake, although not necessarily an equal one.

Building a small Antrim/county-sized stadium of, say, 15k capacity would very possibly not qualify for government funding, Westminster or Stormont.

You need to go back to the origins of the whole scheme, whereby Westminster's £62.5m funding was the GAA's share of the Maze Stadium money after that project collapsed.

So that instead of a shared National Stadium for all three codes, the money was to be divided up for each to build their own "national" stadium. (I say "national", though when the GAA objected to the term, it became "regional").

Anyhow, this was the basis for the GAA's whole plan for Casement, even though it was a bit of a stretch to demonstrate that the GAA actually needed such a stadium, since Clones was considered adequate for Ulster purposes (back then, at any rate), meaning Belfast/Antrim didn't really need something so big and shiny. Which latter point was reflected in the GAA's own plans, whereby they envisaged that a 34k stadium would be filled for precisely ONE game a year, the Ulster Mens Football Final.

Nonetheless, the new Casement could (just about) be represented as the equivalent of the IFA's Windsor and UR's Ravenhill, thereby justifying their share of the Maze money distribution.

Then as we know, Westminster later came up with an additional £50m (I think) to try to get things going after it became bogged down.

Anyhow, I suspect that while a fudge might get the original £62.5m from Stormont over the line, Westminster could well argue that the additional £50m is no longer needed/justified, on the basis that the new, scaled-down plan could still be built for £127.5m (i.e. original £62.5m + £15m GAA's original contribution + £50m* Irish Government grant).


* - Or was it €50m? (Unsure)

[Rossfan]

€

[Tony Baloney]

I see this thread started back in 2010, that's hard to believe. Ulster GAA have been working on this project that long and spent millions to date. The money was there and they couldn't even get planning sorted. I don't really see where politics plays any part in the mismanagement of the project. The other two sporting codes have their stadiums long finished.

Stadium finished, fell apart and fixed up again in the case of Windsor Park

Around that time Ravenhill had a full redevelopment for approx. *£20 million* to expand existing capacity to approx 18000. They redeveloped it with minimal disruption and >10 later have a fit for purpose stadium. Casement should have been a redevelopment delivering another Ravenhill rather than a major urban infrastructure project. I said at the start and I stand by it that this was and is a vanity project overseen by people with egos significantly larger than either intellect or ability.