Failure to upgrade Walsh Park likely to severily cost Waterford City

O Riain

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/gaa-to-open-talks-about-making-venues-available-for-rugby-world-cup-bid-1.1338539

"Ground capacities
Aside from the 82,300-capacity CrokePark, the grounds involved and discussed by Central Council are: Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney (capacity 43,000), Páirc Uí­ Chaoimh in Cork (43,000), Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds (50,000), Pearse Stadium in Galway (30,000) and Casement Park in Belfast (32,000)"

Maybe we would have never gotten this even if Walsh Park had been upgraded but at the moment we actually have zero chance. If Ireland does secure the rugby world cup then this would have been worth millions to the Waterford economy but once again due to lack of infastructure we are not even in the running. From a tourism point of view this is a disaster.

ziedth

I couldn't imagine how it would be possible to upgrade Walsh park to a 40,000 stadium. You might have some hope in the RSC given the space and accessibly but I can't see it being done above without throwing bananas money at it.

Your right though, it would have been worth a hell of allot to the city.

O Riain

See a lot of things will come into it such as Hotel Infastructure so we wouldnt necessarily have to have the biggest stadium something in the region of 30,000+ would have sufficied.

Thurles is the second biggest stadium in Ireland and is not being considered possibly for this reason as it just would not be able to take in the influx of people so most people would have to commute to the town rather than stay there.

We are actually missing out on millions a year due to the lack of a decent GAA stadium here. With a decent stadium we could possibly hold a Munster Semi-Final which would bring upwards of 25,000 people into the city which would result in the ability show off the city to others, money coming in on big match days and money not leaving waterford city on big match days. I would actually consider the lack of a proper GAA stadium to be one of Waterford Citys main issues for these reasons.

looder

From a Tipp point of view, I would love if Waterford got their act together and upgraded Walsh Park or got a green field site as it would mean a home and away agreement between Tipp & Waterford and one less game to travel to the death-trap/ ****hole that is Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

What does Walsh Park hold at present? 14,000?

If you were to build another stand, you'd probably reduce that to 10,000 I'd say.

Green Field site is the only way for Waterford GAA to expand but unfortunately with the state of your finances, it's not going to be a runner for many years. What about buying the old grounds of Del La Salle & Roanmore and building a stadium in that location? would it be a runner? close to town and plenty of room between the 2 you'd imagine,

Deise Hurler

Looder, you just opened up a can of worms.
Waiting for the east versus west argument to start up again.

blue-army

looder wrote: »

Green Field site is the only way for Waterford GAA to expand but unfortunately with the state of your finances, it's not going to be a runner for many years. What about buying the old grounds of Del La Salle & Roanmore and building a stadium in that location? would it be a runner? close to town and plenty of room between the 2 you'd imagine,

Outer Ring Road, somewhere near Carriganore would be the ideal spot for a stadium in Waterford. Plenty of room for parking, easy to get to from anywhere in town. Could even hold open air concerts in the summer there too.

Ah well.. :rolleyes:

O Riain

blue-army wrote: »

Outer Ring Road, somewhere near Carriganore would be the ideal spot for a stadium in Waterford. Plenty of room for parking, easy to get to from anywhere in town. Could even hold open air concerts in the summer there too.

Ah well.. :rolleyes:

The only problem, and this is a big one, is that you lose the buzz around town. If a stadium is placed out of the city centre you need to provide parking for every supporter and most of those wudnt even go near the city, just in for a game and then drive home.

The_Shotz

Always said if I won the euro millions (would have to be at least €100 million plus) would love to buy the gas works site and johnstown business park amd build a stadium there, bang in the middle of town, in the mix of all the pubs near hotels.

Also stick a conferance centre in there. Traffic and parking would be terrible but who cars the atmosphere would be electric similar to thurles.

waterford

If its a buzz you want in the city then why not bring Jedward to Walsh Park they caused a big sting in Dungarvan last year

Cabaal

The_Shotz wrote: »

Always said if I won the euro millions (would have to be at least €100 million plus) would love to buy the gas works site and johnstown business park amd build a stadium there, bang in the middle of town, in the mix of all the pubs near hotels.

Also stick a conferance centre in there. Traffic and parking would be terrible but who cars the atmosphere would be electric similar to thurles.

You'd never get planning in a million years though no matter how much money you could throw at the thing. Noise/sound would be a big complaint from people all around that area (if you wanted to have gigs on).

Not to mention as you said traffic would be a nightmare

The_Shotz

Cabaal wrote: »

You'd never get planning in a million years though no matter how much money you could throw at the thing. Noise/sound would be a big complaint from people all around that area (if you wanted to have gigs on).

Not to mention as you said traffic would be a nightmare

Ah I know its just a dream, for sound look how close croke park is to houses, money talks. Another option is like is the old brooks site on park road along with the petrol station and units there.

The parking issue could be resolved with park and ride facilities like what was organised for the tall shipes

wellboy76

The_Shotz wrote: »

Always said if I won the euro millions (would have to be at least €100 million plus) would love to buy the gas works site and johnstown business park amd build a stadium there, bang in the middle of town, in the mix of all the pubs near hotels.

Also stick a conferance centre in there. Traffic and parking would be terrible but who cars the atmosphere would be electric similar to thurles.

Great to get the blues playing in something like that rather than that fishbowl of the RSC, and for some Munster rugby games too. Pity there wasnt one stadium for all sports here.

KevIRL

There are too many big GAA stadia around the place as is, most filled maybe 3 times a year at most. I would actually think the right idea would be for us to use Nowlan Park as our 'home' championship venue.

looder

KevIRL wrote: »

There are too many big GAA stadia around the place as is, most filled maybe 3 times a year at most. I would actually think the right idea would be for us to use Nowlan Park as our 'home' championship venue.

Jesus that's going to cause a debate :-)

KevIRL

looder wrote: »

Jesus that's going to cause a debate :-)

haha most likely I guess and I know its something of a controversial viewpoint.

I should qualify this by saying I'm a Waterford hurling season ticket holder and go to all of Waterfords games.

However just to take Munster as an example on its own, there are far too many large stadiums with far too few big games to fill them. Munster has Semple Stadium Thurles, Gaelic Grounds Limerick, Pairc Ui Caoimh Cork and Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney. There are 5 big Championship games in Munster each year that draw bigger crowds to possibly fill these - 4 hurling games and Cork v Kerry in the football. In recent years even some of these are sparsely populated, see our games v Clare and Limerick in hurling over the past 3 years as an example.

There is no need for more large GAA stadia to lie around empty for long periods of the year. There is a need to bring Championship games closer to home though, attendances for 1st round games are dropping and having these on an agreed home/away basis would boost attendances. Waterford doesnt have a stadium capable of hosting these and the nearest one is Nowlan Park. My opinion is that us playing our games there would bring in more revenue for the county board and would increases attendances. I realise its never likely to actually happen as there are too many deep seated views within the organisation.

I do think that Walsh Park and Fraher field could do with a lot of facilities development and improvement and could be turned into great venues for club and national league games though.

savic04

We don't even have a 5* hotel let alone a stadium

Partizan

The_Shotz wrote: »

Always said if I won the euro millions (would have to be at least €100 million plus) would love to buy the gas works site and johnstown business park amd build a stadium there, bang in the middle of town, in the mix of all the pubs near hotels.

Also stick a conferance centre in there. Traffic and parking would be terrible but who cars the atmosphere would be electric similar to thurles.

The site of the Gasworks is too small and you would need to buy out Johnstown Business Park and flatten that too. After that you would be struggling to find car parking space. if you are going to build a stadium of any description in the city centre, the Park is the only place to put it.

Partizan

wellboy76 wrote: »

Great to get the blues playing in something like that rather than that fishbowl of the RSC, and for some Munster rugby games too. Pity there wasnt one stadium for all sports here.

The GAA had hundreds of millions of euro of tax payers money thrown at them during the boom yet the Waterford County Board failed to capitalise on that and we have two lopsided underused stadia totally inadequate for today's needs and now you want more tax payers money to bail them out.

The RSC is a fabulous facility in which the community gets more use out of then plenty of GAA vanity projects around the country. A layman would call them 'white elephants'.

mike65

Jasus there is NO chance of a large stadium being built within the confines of the City, the the place is too small, too tight to accommodate the structure and the parking plus other infrastructure that would be required at some considerable expense (roads, drainage, etc)

The_Shotz

The county board slipped up a long time ago as they should have bought tycors football pitches (where Musgraves eircom and city council water treatment) are currently on keanes road.

The best option is join forces with WIT and develop carraiganore. Never see it happen to much of a split between the east/west.

Walsh park was denied funding for terracing and flood lights in the good times as the County board wanted the money split between walsh park and faher field.

The money was for a city project and was let slip by and therfore could not be split between the two and like a lot of thing's in waterford the money slipped by.

Deise Hurler

Partizan wrote: »

The GAA had hundreds of millions of euro of tax payers money thrown at them during the boom yet the Waterford County Board failed to capitalise on that and we have two lopsided underused stadia totally inadequate for today's needs and now you want more tax payers money to bail them out.

The RSC is a fabulous facility in which the community gets more use out of then plenty of GAA vanity projects around the country. A layman would call them 'white elephants'.

Building that second stand in the rsc was the biggest waste of taxpayers money ever. Only time it was full was when liverpool fc reserves came to town. No need for it with very little interest in the local league of ireland team who struggle to fill one stand never mind two.
Money would have been better spent on something like a 50 metre swimming pool.

looder

KevIRL wrote: »

haha most likely I guess and I know its something of a controversial viewpoint.

I should qualify this by saying I'm a Waterford hurling season ticket holder and go to all of Waterfords games.

However just to take Munster as an example on its own, there are far too many large stadiums with far too few big games to fill them. Munster has Semple Stadium Thurles, Gaelic Grounds Limerick, Pairc Ui Caoimh Cork and Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney. There are 5 big Championship games in Munster each year that draw bigger crowds to possibly fill these - 4 hurling games and Cork v Kerry in the football. In recent years even some of these are sparsely populated, see our games v Clare and Limerick in hurling over the past 3 years as an example.

There is no need for more large GAA stadia to lie around empty for long periods of the year. There is a need to bring Championship games closer to home though, attendances for 1st round games are dropping and having these on an agreed home/away basis would boost attendances. Waterford doesnt have a stadium capable of hosting these and the nearest one is Nowlan Park. My opinion is that us playing our games there would bring in more revenue for the county board and would increases attendances. I realise its never likely to actually happen as there are too many deep seated views within the organisation.

I do think that Walsh Park and Fraher field could do with a lot of facilities development and improvement and could be turned into great venues for club and national league games though.

You make an awful lot of good points there KevIRL.

The only way I could see it as a possibility is if the provinces are dropped (which probably won't happen). It's unlikely that they will ever be allowed to play a Munster Championship game in Leinster.

I'd go to an awful lot more Waterford matches if they were played in Nowlan Park. Cork is some pain in the hole to get to & it's run down.

A lot of lads made the point about having it empty most of the year. Would Waterford GAA be better off pumping the millions they'd have to spend on a new stadium into underage development?

I know the City would possibly lose out but I'm sure if there was a chance of Waterford becoming a regular contender for the AI over the City businesses making a few euro, most fans would pick the AI.

O Riain

How about a stadium on the docks, now that would be savage!

Roanmore

looder wrote: »

The only way I could see it as a possibility is if the provinces are dropped (which probably won't happen). It's unlikely that they will ever be allowed to play a Munster Championship game in Leinster.

Ulster football final was played in Croke Park a few years ago so the precedent is there.

looder

Leinster Final was played in Thurles too when Croker was been done but nothing permanent was ever allowed as far as I know.