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

[Sportacus]

The amount of times funding and breakthroughs have been tee'd up to a frenzy during this project (to no avail) is one of its many embarrassing features. No doubt the usuals were on standby for the photo shoot. Amateur hour to the bitter end.

[Two Hands FFS]

What a mess

[Gabriel_Hurl]

No funding

[armaghniac]

Now there is a surprise.
Who is going to pay for all the work dicking around about this?

[RedHand88]

Well done Stormont. Well done.

[Milltown Row2]

Someone please just cut the grass and get her open ffs!

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Lads stop worrying we at least got the ice bowl delivered

It's a joke but oh so predictable. I mean the statements ridiculous, basically the excuse that there is no time to build it, shame about the previous 15 years of dicking around over this and the Maze.

[twohands!!!]

No funding

No real surprise that they pulled funds for the Euros project.

However I thought there would at least be some sort of reduced funding announced for a non-Euros Casement project to soften the blow.

The fact that there was not even the vaguest mention of any sort of funding for a smaller scale project is a sign that the current plan is completely dead in the water.

The big question is what is the Ulster Council's contingency plan?

This has been the likeliest outcome for months now so surely they should have some sort of basic plan B in place for how they are going to proceed with Casement.

[p3427977]

Gordon Lyons gets his funding for local soccer clubs that are dying a death anyway so he'll be over the moon. Throwing money into the bin for that scheme.

[armaghniac]

The fact that there was not even the vaguest mention of any sort of funding for a smaller scale project is a sign that the current plan is completely dead in the water.

This. They could have said that there was a real chance that it wouldn't be ready for the Euros, and a rush job was no good, but that time had been wasted and here was some money in recognition of that.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

If the Dublin government stepped in now it would be some stunt, we keep hearing about being part of the 5th largest economy but yet we can't afford a stadium our drinking water is fucked and the health service is about to collapse, that will go down well come border poll.

[armaghniac]

At this stage
Stormont and the GAA should pay an amount indexed to current prices, if not necessarily current construction costs.
Dublin could make a case for paying one half the amount Stormont does, as it is an Ulster stadium and it has 3 of 9 Ulster counties.

What that would build is another question.
Ulster needs a stadium bigger than the Athletic grounds. If the end result is a piddly wee stadium for Antrim then Dublin should spend the money in Clones.

I don't see how Dublin can just build a giant stadium in Antrim, the people trying to build stadiums in Kildare or Louth or trying to improve other ones would expect at least as much.

[Brendan]

So the Free State government are willing to put more money into Casement than the Brits, what about that old excuse "the south can't afford us"

[tintin25]

I mean, is anyone seriously surprised?  People running this project from the start hadn't a clue.  I'm sure plenty of Antrim people and beyond would happily take a £25-28k state of the art stadium without the Euro 2028 nonsense.

[twohands!!!]

If the Dublin government stepped in now it would be some stunt, we keep hearing about being part of the 5th largest economy but yet we can't afford a stadium our drinking water is fucked and the health service is about to collapse, that will go down well come border poll.

The Irish government isn't going to step in.

This is completely delusional pie in the sky fantasy stuff. 

Anyone who thinks there is any sort of remote possibility that the Irish government will swoop in and save the day should read Harris's comments in July when he was asked about the possibility of increasing the €50 million. The overall vibe then was putting the ball and responsibility for the project being completed firmly back in the Brits court.

In fact it's far more likely that the €50 million promised is pulled or if not completely pulled "put in review pending a re-evaluation of the Casement project" or something similar because all the statements made about providing the €50 million seemed to be linked with the Euros taking place.