Long Kesh Park takes another step forward

[his holiness nb]

God forbid you could ever leave anything without comment 

Quality Donagh!
[/quote]
And God forbid that either of you could "play the ball", rather than "the man"...
[/quote]

Will you stop with that "play the ball" catchphrase of yours 

It was a funny comment and I acknowledged it, jesus lighten up.

[Donagh]

So still no comment on what I actually posted, then. 

Told you before I don't read your long-winded inane bullshite posts.

[GweylTah]

Given that only 17,500 turned-up, when it was effectively free in for a lot of people, in gorgeous weather, for the Antrim v Derry gaelic match the weekend before last, wouldn't a stadium of over 40,000 seem a bit soulless?

Couldn't the GAA be persuaded to come on-board at a smaller venue in Belfast City Centre?

[Evil Genius]

God forbid you could ever leave anything without comment 

Quality Donagh!

And God forbid that either of you could "play the ball", rather than "the man"...
[/quote]

Will you stop with that "play the ball" catchphrase of yours 

It was a funny comment and I acknowledged it, jesus lighten up.

[/quote]

I'll replace "play the man" with "shoot the messenger" if you like. And, of course, I'll dispense with it entirely when/if you or Donagh bother actually to address my point...
(If that's not too hard, that is)

[Evil Genius]

So still no comment on what I actually posted, then. 

Told you before I don't read your long-winded inane bullshite posts.

To dismiss as "inane" or "bullshit" what you've not even read and to tell the writer to "f**k off" when you have no more proprietorial rights over this Board than anyone else is the very definition of bigotry (in my book).

So if you don't wish to appear an uncouth bigot, why don't you either address the issues, or move on to the next thread? After all, other posters manage one or the other perfectly well.

[ExiledGael]

Given that only 17,500 turned-up, when it was effectively free in for a lot of people, in gorgeous weather, for the Antrim v Derry gaelic match the weekend before last, wouldn't a stadium of over 40,000 seem a bit soulless?

Couldn't the GAA be persuaded to come on-board at a smaller venue in Belfast City Centre?

The majority of that crowd knew they were going to be standing in baking heat under no cover at a more than likely one sided match (which it was).
The weather was so good it may have taken a lot of people away from the game

As well as that where in Belfast would you count it safe for the average GAA fan from West Tyrone or South Armagh for example  to drive up and leave his car for a big GAA game in Belfast safely, with whatever little flags and ribbons hangiung from the car.
I've spent many years in Belfast and still wouldn't dare walk outside of the student area in a GAA top.
Have done in my day and got quite a bit of abuse.
Can you imagine the field day some people would have destroying cars, etc

[his holiness nb]

I'll replace "play the man" with "shoot the messenger" if you like. And, of course, I'll dispense with it entirely when/if you or Donagh bother actually to address my point...
(If that's not too hard, that is)

Ah for f**k sake, so I am not permitted to ackowledge a funny comment unless I give an in-depth commentary on the title topic??

I'll say it again Evil Genuis, lighten up. 

[his holiness nb]

Given that only 17,500 turned-up, when it was effectively free in for a lot of people, in gorgeous weather, for the Antrim v Derry gaelic match the weekend before last, wouldn't a stadium of over 40,000 seem a bit soulless?

Couldn't the GAA be persuaded to come on-board at a smaller venue in Belfast City Centre?

Yes Gweltyah you are correct, especially as Derry versus Antrim is the biggest drawing game in Ulster these days 

Still got more there than Northern Ireland get at their games 

[GweylTah]

The majority of that crowd knew they were going to be standing in baking heat under no cover at a more than likely one sided match (which it was).
The weather was so good it may have taken a lot of people away from the game

Oh, I see, the weather was TOO good.

Anyway, you obviously never go near the centre of Belfast, the place is coming down with GAA shirts, rugby tops and T-shirts and the usual assortment of football tops.  People seem to adopt a live and let live attitude to them.

[ExiledGael]

The weather was too hot in my opinion, I was one of the many who came home badly burnt on the day!
It seemed to be too much for the fans to take actually, there was a weird atmosphere.

I have spent a lot of time around the city centre, it may not be as bad as it once was but you're still likely to get a bit of abuse, if you meet a few scumbags drifting in from whatever side

Anyway the other proposed sites are not in the city centre, indeed they're verging on strongly protestant areas

[SammyG]

Anyway the other proposed sites are not in the city centre, indeed they're verging on strongly protestant areas

Sorry but which 'Protestant' areas are verging on any of the proposed Belfast sites? Of the 3 proposed sites 2 are completely neutral (Ormeau and Titanic) and the 3rd is a predominately Nationalist area (North Foreshore).

[Tyrone Dreamer]

With all the moaning from the soccer and rugby crowds I think the GAA should have pulled the plug on the idea long ago. We dont need a new stadium anyway. The soccer and rugby crowd could then have went alone and built there stadium in Belfast with much smaller Government assistance. It may not have been financially viable but thats there problem. I see someone is taking a dig about 17,500 people being at the Derry Antrim game. As I said on another thread the combined attendance at Tyrone games in 2005 was over half a million - how long would have taken to get this combined attendance at Ulster or NI matches? Thats only 1 county to as compared to 6 and 9 for NI and Ulster.

[ExiledGael]

The sites may be neutral but it's the immediate surrounding areas I would be concerned about.
The Titanic area is in East Belfast, no distance from the Newtownards Road, always seen as a protestant area to me, infact about as loyalist as you'd get, imagine GAA fans going through there. There's always potential for trouble near Short Strand.
The Ormeau Park area is just off the Ravenhill Road, again a very protestant area.
Unaware of the North Foreshore plan

Don't want the GAA to have anything to do with the stadium anyway.

[snatter]

Evil Genus,

Quote from: Donagh on Today at 04:26:08 PM
Quote from: Evil Genius on Today at 04:01:32 PM

So still no comment on what I actually posted, then.  Roll Eyes


Told you before I don't read your long-winded inane bullshite posts.

To dismiss as "inane" or "bullshit" what you've not even read and to tell the writer to "f**k off" when you have no more proprietorial rights over this Board than anyone else is the very definition of bigotry (in my book).

And the first words of your reply to my last post were......wait for it........

So much bullshit.

fascinatingly hypocritical

[snatter]

Given that only 17,500 turned-up, when it was effectively free in for a lot of people, in gorgeous weather, for the Antrim v Derry gaelic match the weekend before last, wouldn't a stadium of over 40,000 seem a bit soulless?

Evil Genus,

as already stated on this thread, the proposed capacity is a variable 35k / 42k.
I would imagine that the GAA would retain 35k capacity when it suited, and increase it to 42k partially seated when needed.

You're right - not all GAA matches attract capacity crowds, to illustrate here are the latest full year attendance figures that I could find:

You can see that two of the pre semi-final matches had crowds of over 42k.
                 four of the pre semi-final matches had crowds of over 30k.
                 eight of the pre semi-final matches had crowds of over 20k.

Imho, all these matches would be well suited to a new 35/42k multi sports stadium.

2005 Ulster Teams Championship attendances.
(NOTE that these exclude the qualifier series matches).

USFC: Armagh V Tyrone	61000
USFC: Replay Armagh V Tyrone	32000
USFC: Derry V Armagh	27633
USFC: Donegal V Armagh	25622
USFC: Tyrone V Cavan	23441
USFC: Armagh V Fermanagh	23107
USFC: Replay Armagh V Donegal	18227
USFC: Tyrone V Down	18200
USFC: Replay Tyrone V Cavan	16492
USFC: Monaghan V Derry	16314
USFC: Cavan V Antrim	10500
USFC: Replay Cavan V Antrim	3865
AIQF: Tyrone V Dublin	78514
AIQF: Armagh V Laois	32187
AISF: Tyrone V Armagh	65858
AIF: Tyrone V Kerry	82112

Note that these are official figures.
Earlier round games in particular will probably show figures lower than the real attendances - Non-paying kids aren't taken into account.

--------------------------------


Northern Ireland figures:

Competitve NI soccer matches played in the same period.

Northern Ireland V Azerbaijan   11909
Northern Ireland V England      14069
Northern Ireland V Wales      13451

JJB Irish Cup Final 2005 Portadown V Larne  5,431

---------------------------------

The new stadium factor for the first few years genberally leads to increased attendances (as seen at Croker and Millenium).
The extra capacity gives all three associations a valuable marketing tool in opening up their games to new audiences.

The NI soccer brigade in particular should have more confidence in their ability to draw a crowd.
Look at those soccer figures - they're pitiful.
A new stadium, in a new neutral location might draw out thousands of new fans who wouldn't want to go to the village.
Somebody on the board said recently that the NI jersey has sold 40k copies - surely the soccer marketing men should be able to translate that into bums on seats for you. If not, why not, what's the problem?

You should have more confidence in yourselves and stop sniping at an organisation that has managed to make their games attractive family days out.
Accept the reality that GAA is currently more popular, move on, and start taking a good hard look at yourselves.