Croke Park and non-Sunday Matches

Imposter

Taken from the indo.

Saturday night live not music to residents' ears
THE latest series of Saturday games at Croke Park has put the GAA on a major collision course with furious local residents which could have major repercussions down the road.

The residents' escalating dissatisfaction will not help the GAA when, as expected, it eventually opens up its HQ for lucrative non-GAA sporting fixtures and wants to use the stadium on Saturdays or midweek.

Next weekend's Leinster SFC final replay and the decision to split the football quarter-finals over two weekends and move two of them back to Saturday, August 14 because of the drawn finals in Munster and Leinster, has exacerbated a thorny problem which refuses to go away.

The changed schedule means that there will be big games in Jones Road for four out of five Saturdays running.

Residents say this is in direct contravention of an agreement they signed with the GAA in January 2003 in which their firm objection to Saturday games is clearly outlined.

Two of these coming Saturdays, like last weekend, also involve big matches in Croker the following day and the Dublin venue also hosted the Ulster SFC final.

The local residents' association - the Croke Park Area Residents' Alliance (CPARA) - are up in arms at these latest developments.

They have already leafleted everyone in the area with a two-page letter outlining their grievances and looking for their support. And the amalgam, which comprises nine different local residents' associations, is meeting next Monday night "to see what our options are," according to CPARA Chairman Patrick Gates.

And while the CPARA did not try to block the GAA's hotel plans, Gates indicated that the residents will try to block any other sporting fixtures coming into the stadium.

"In the case of soccer games they could be midweek, or Saturdays if it was either soccer and rugby and we have said it all along. We put up with an awful lot on Sundays every summer and we will do what we can to keep others sports from being played there."

He said they have monthly meetings with Croke Park but feel their feelings are being increasingly ignored.

Gates conceded they have seen improvements in one area of their many concerns; street cleaning after games.

But in all others - parking, crowd-control, street drinking and public order issues - he said there has been a deterioration because of more and more games and the increased capacity.

"We are not completely rigid in our opposition to Saturday games. In cases of a replay or emergencies where the GAA has no other venue that can take over 50,000 we are prepared to be reasonable," he said.

"But we are firmly opposed to Saturday games on the Masters Fixture," Gates added. "The GAA had four Saturdays in this year's Master fixture and now there are more," he added.

"We sit down with them and have reasonable discussions but all our suggestions seem to fall on deaf ears. It feels like they gain while we take all the pain.

"We will be taking legal advice on the status of our agreement with them, something which all the local politicians including the Taoiseach signed," he pointed out. "As with all good neighbours, we expect the GAA to be accountable and responsible," he said, adding that the CPARA had e-mailed Croke Park on Monday with suggested alternatives but had no reply yet.

Elsewhere, Leinster Council Secretary Micheal Delaney has defended the 6.15 throw-in for Saturday's Leinster SFC final replay between Laois and Westmeath.

"If we had gone earlier, at 4 o'clock, the crowd would have have run into Dublin's shopping traffic so we were trying to avoid that sort of traffic congestion," said Delaney.

In picking 6.15 Leinster have also left the option for RTE to show it live on television but that has not yet been confirmed.

Tickets are available from Ticketmaster already but Leinster have stressed they will not go on sale elsewhere until tomorrow and will only be available from their office, the Laois County Board in Portlaoise as well as in Mullingar and Athlone.

Cliona Foley

I think this is interesting in terms of the attitudes of people on these boards who think Croker should be open to Soccer and Rugby without questioning how it affects the GAA.

I'm also posting it as I can never find anything to link to re residents issues and croker!

kilkennycat2004

Very little sympathy for these guys as week after week the so called "lock-hards" intimidate country folk into a protection racket for parking cars in the area. With a rolled up Sunday World or whatever they act like traffic police & scrounge & threaten the genuine GAA fans week after week. This is even before the clampers move in.
Another worrying devlopment is that the residents groups apparently have an unwriiten agrement witbn headquarters to acquire supply of tickets for the big matches in Croker.
All of a sudden the hats flags or rosette brighade can now tout tickets as a sideline earner.
No doubt some people are affected but until the other 2 issues are dealt with cant see why regular gaa fans should be too bothered with exta Croker usage.