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

[johnnycool]

An Asbestos check the first thing you do. It been fair possible Asbestos was there.

Surely to fúck they knew years ago when this all kicked off that there was asbestos in the stand and its removal was priced into the job.

[BigGreenField]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmldymmnmjo.amp

£50m for the Ulster folk museum (not the transport but which is quite good) , that's a lot of griddled scones.

Based on that casement should be a shoe in.

(I still think casement is too big and a premium version of the athletic grounds would be much better).

[playwiththewind1st]

If the Executive is as 'cash strapped' as it claims, how is it that Lyons can find £40 million for Cultra & then they also found a spare £500,000, down the back of the sofa, to refurbish their own Blue Flax Restaurant at Stormont? Poots and his wife are always off on their taxpayer funded travels, as is the Assembly Chief Executive, Lesley Hogg. Meanwhile, they're putting more power points into hospital corridors, presumably so they can get even more overflow beds in. Projects like Cultra should have been on the 'nice to have' list, but it's far from a priority. Meanwhile, truly essential public services continue to collapse and it's all the fault of the British Treasury, for not giving us more money. We really do have a complete bunch of imbeciles running the show at Stormont. Trouble is, we can't get rid of them....our esteemed deputy first minister was rejected, twice, by the electorate in South Belfast. Yet, there she still is, face always tripping her, except for when she gets free tickets for Wimbledon.

[Milltown Row2]

Its a racket and unfortunately people still vote them in lol...

Its the biggest con trick known to man

But, what's the solution?

Nice guys come last, so anyone decent won't get a look in, there are bound to be like minded people on both sides that could band together and have a sensible solution, but they would get torn apart by tribal politics.

So even though there might be people that wouldn't vote for the two main parties, their fear of 'losing ground' in the All Ireland debate means going for the middle ground is not going to happen

No light at the end of the tunnel, certainly not in my life time.

[DaleCooper]

£50 million? Ive never been but trying to picture how that money would get spent. Sounds totally OTT.

Wasnt the Game of Thrones exhibition a huge white elephant?

Love the Ulster folk park near Omagh, but would imagine it struggles.

[twohands!!!]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwynprvk04jo

Definitely don't think the extra cash for Casement is a dead cert based on the noises Lyons was making in this piece.

The main problem in terms of getting this inflation money is that the Ulster Council have made such a mess of the whole project is that they've made it so easy for them lot to object to handing over more cash.

I could definitely see there being a possibility that the inflation money could end up being reduced some bit.
Even if somehow the full amount does get approved I can see it taking time to be confirmed. Given that there is a signifcant funding shorfall already for this version of Casement I don't think it's going to make a difference to the current version given there's only the remotest of chances this version gets built, but where it will come into play is what exactly the budget will be for the next version and what the Ulster Council will be able to afford to get built.

[playwiththewind1st]

The next Assembly election isn't due until May 2027 & the DUP have been deliberately throwing the toys out of the pram, about almost everything, since the middle of last year. The Executive is going to drift on, doing absolutely nothing, for the next 16 months, if it even lasts that long. If Ulster Council, or anyone else, thinks that a DUP Minister is going to allocate 1p extra to Casement, this side of the poll, then they've not been reading the room right. The DUP are going to be constantly trying to outdo the TUV in the sectarian stakes in the run up to the poll & any potential extra Casement funding forms a central part of that strategy.

[marty34]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/united-rugby-championship/2026/0122/1554592-lancaster-backs-connacht-to-thrive-in-new-surrounding/

Bit in here about work completed on Connacht rugby's ground in Galway.

Obviously not to same scale as Casenent Park but gives an idea on timescale. They build  high performance unit as well beside it so some of the money went there.

Could Casement not be done on a phased basis? Like, say, 2 quality stands. Then terracing at both sides that then could be changed to stands (without much change/work) and fit the way round to the two main stands?

[Wildweasel74]

Thats looks quite good

[RadioGAAGAA]

This is just demolition. Even the Ulster Council can't balls that up

For real? For example:

"We discovered undisclosed and unexpected Asbestos in the roof of the old stand. We now have to stop and reappraise how we perform the demolition in line with Health & Safety guidance.

I spoke too soon...

Sorry, sorry - just to clarify - that is only an example.

Not saying its actually happened. Or at least, it hasn't happened as far as I am aware of.

[RadioGAAGAA]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/united-rugby-championship/2026/0122/1554592-lancaster-backs-connacht-to-thrive-in-new-surrounding/

Bit in here about work completed on Connacht rugby's ground in Galway.

Obviously not to same scale as Casenent Park but gives an idea on timescale. They build  high performance unit as well beside it so some of the money went there.

Could Casement not be done on a phased basis? Like, say, 2 quality stands. Then terracing at both sides that then could be changed to stands (without much change/work) and fit the way round to the two main stands?

€40m Euro for 4,100 seats, 1600 terrace and 830 premium.


Do the same along the two sides at Casement.
Factoring for length of pitch (at say 1.35x), you'd be looking at something (very approximately) along lines of:

€110 million
11,000 seats
4,000 standing
2,200 premium.

Then for a few million more, you could refurbish the two end terraces to bring peak capacity up to probably far side of 23k.

Which would more or less be the perfect stadium for 99.99% of football or hurling matches played in Ulster.



and yes, of course it could be done in stages. Problem is that those in charge don't have a notion what they are doing.

[twohands!!!]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/united-rugby-championship/2026/0122/1554592-lancaster-backs-connacht-to-thrive-in-new-surrounding/

Bit in here about work completed on Connacht rugby's ground in Galway.

Obviously not to same scale as Casenent Park but gives an idea on timescale. They build  high performance unit as well beside it so some of the money went there.

Could Casement not be done on a phased basis? Like, say, 2 quality stands. Then terracing at both sides that then could be changed to stands (without much change/work) and fit the way round to the two main stands?

€40m Euro for 4,100 seats, 1600 terrace and 830 premium.


Do the same along the two sides at Casement.
Factoring for length of pitch (at say 1.35x), you'd be looking at something (very approximately) along lines of:

€110 million
11,000 seats
4,000 standing
2,200 premium.

Then for a few million more, you could refurbish the two end terraces to bring peak capacity up to probably far side of 23k.

Which would more or less be the perfect stadium for 99.99% of football or hurling matches played in Ulster.



and yes, of course it could be done in stages. Problem is that those in charge don't have a notion what they are doing.

I'm pretty sure I read before that building in stages for a stadium adds significantly to the overall cost. Also it seems that costs of building a stadium seem to be significantly higher if it's a knock it and rebuild job especially in a built up urban area. The relation between capacity and cost seems to be exponential as opposed to being linear which again leads me back to thinking the capacity should be cut back especially given the likely demand. Another thing is that I'm not exactly sure how building in stages would work for planning permission. Given the history of the objections already I can see it being potentially awkward having to get multiple stages of planning permission. Also given the Ulster Council are already currently looking for an inflation adjusted increase in funding before any building has started, I doubt they'd have much luck in getting a second increase if they were looking to "finish" the project doen the road so I could see the risk of the stadium not ever being fully finished to be too high.

The big red flag I'd be taking notice of in relation to the Connacht project is how the final cost ended up 33% over the initial budget. A similar over-run for a project the size of Casement would likely be absolutely catastrophic for the whole of the GAA.

However given how little notice the Ulster Council seems to have been taken of the Pairc Ui Chaoimh disaster to date, I have little to no confidence that much in the way of lessons from other projects will be taken on board. My hope currently is that the final funding shortfall will force the Ulster Council to revise the capacity down significantly mainly because no contractor will be willing to take on the job given the funds available and no financial institution will be willing to lend anything close to what would be needed to complete the current version.

[Ronnie]

PUC may be too big but a 20,000 seat stadium say wouldn't be much use to Ulster GAA & doesn't fit with their Strategic Plan.

[johnnycool]

PUC may be too big but a 20,000 seat stadium say wouldn't be much use to Ulster GAA & doesn't fit with their Strategic Plan.

PuC will be sold out for their 2 Munster round robin games.

What works against it is geographical isolation where none of the other counties want to play a semi-final or final there unless they really have to.
So, does it pay to have a stadium that size which will only be to capacity two, maybe three times a year at best?

Casement may suffer from the same geographical isolation when it comes to neutral football championship games post Ulster championship.

Would Wembley Stadium be to capacity much more than half a dozen times a year? Same for Twickenham or Cardiff's Millenium Stadium!

[Rossfan]

There won't be any neutral A I. football games any more if the system brought in this year remains.