Walsh Park - 29th best GAA county ground in Ireland

blue note

obezyana wrote: »

Sure the soccer team only use one ground and there is no issue. The GAA and the Waterford setup would be well served by a bigger better stadium. A 25000 seater stadium would be plenty for GAA needs. Fraher Field is there purely to keep the west of the county happy which imo is a silly thing to be doing. One less ground to look after if Fraher was sold on. The money from the sale and maybe a grant from GAA Hq might just go a long way to redevelop Walsh park or maybe build another stadium.

Sure Martin Cullen had money set aside for Waterford to build a stadium, but the county boards couldn't agree to build one in the city in Case it would affect the usage of fraher field. Either dungarvan gets a stadium too or neither gets one.

The argument that some from the west make is that the stadium should be in dungarvan because it's in the centre of the county. So lads from places like ballyduff lower and tallow wouldn't have to drive 45 minutes to attend a game.

To be honest I think it's a selfish and stupid reason to want the stadium in dungarvan and everyone has suffered as a result. But at least we have a choice of two sh1t stadiums to play our league games in instead of one decent one. And instead of having home and away arrangements in munster so getting to play every second game in Waterford, less than half an hours drive for probably 80% of the population and less than an hour for the other 20%, we get to play most of our games in Thurles, Cork or limerick, a further drive for the vast majority of the county.

Some of those gombeens should hang their heads in shame, but in reality they're probably proud of what they've blocked and would reference it when asking people to vote them back in.

obezyana

Don't Cork only use one stadium same with Tipp Galway Kilkenny and they are all bigger than Waterford so the 2nd field thing is crazy. I suppose it's a pointless discussion as we will never get a new or even refurbished stadium in Waterford.

blue note

obezyana wrote: »

Don't Cork only use one stadium same with Tipp Galway Kilkenny and they are all bigger than Waterford so the 2nd field thing is crazy. I suppose it's a pointless discussion as we will never get a new or even refurbished stadium in Waterford.

Cork use 2. But there are 19 counties bigger than waterford in size and population, and I'd say about 15 of those make do with 1. I think most of waterford agree 1 is more desirable, but can't agree on where it should be so it's a stale mate and we're going to stick with 2 rather than make up our minds.

TheQuietFella

On the whole then we don't have a decent GAA Stadium.

We have a hole of a GAA stadium!

obezyana

TheQuietFella wrote: »

On the whole then we don't have a decent GAA Stadium.

We have a hole of a GAA stadium!

Pretty much. I remember as a kid standing on the embankment on many a wet day thinking why won't my cheap skate of a father just pay into the seated area for once. The place needs to be knocked and a fully seated stadium put in its place.

PTH2009

obezyana wrote: »

Pretty much. I remember as a kid standing on the embankment on many a wet day thinking why won't my cheap skate of a father just pay into the seated area for once. The place needs to be knocked and a fully seated stadium put in its place.

for the county final 2005 de la salle vs ballygunner the place was like a death trap.i think we had heavy rain the days leading to the game and the terrace was so muddy and slippy you could barly walk. saw loads of people slip. being going there for a good while now and i think its ok now but not good enough for a city like waterford. I know cusack park in ennis is being upgraded with a new stand, so that means we have the worst stadium in munster.

obezyana

PTH2009 wrote: »

for the county final 2005 de la salle vs ballygunner the place was like a death trap.i think we had heavy rain the days leading to the game and the terrace was so muddy and slippy you could barly walk. saw loads of people slip. being going there for a good while now and i think its ok now but not good enough for a city like waterford. I know cusack park in ennis is being upgraded with a new stand, so that means we have the worst stadium in munster.

Yeah you would want football boots on ya when up there in the rain :-D

Bonniedog

obezyana wrote: »

Pretty much. I remember as a kid standing on the embankment on many a wet day thinking why won't my cheap skate of a father just pay into the seated area for once. The place needs to be knocked and a fully seated stadium put in its place.

Waterford is never going to get Munster games so would be idea to reduce capacity of Walsh Park and turn it either into all seater or at least properly terrace and cover all parts of the ground.

Pairc Úi Rinn and Parnell are good examples of smallish grounds (around 10,000) that have great atmosphere when even half full and are ideal for all Cork league games and Dublin hurling. Also great venues for county finals. That's what Waterford should be aiming at imho.

tomwaterford

Bonniedog wrote: »

Waterford is never going to get Munster games so would be idea to reduce capacity of Walsh Park and turn it either into all seater or at least properly terrace and cover all parts of the ground.

Pairc Úi Rinn and Parnell are good examples of smallish grounds (around 10,000) that have great atmosphere when even half full and are ideal for all Cork league games and Dublin hurling. Also great venues for county finals. That's what Waterford should be aiming at imho.

Personally I'd rather see the money spent at developing the game in the underage and not end up like cork
(Will there hurlers reach a Munster final for PUC in the next ten years???)


But there must be something done with the bank....as I was at a match there last year and visibility is terrible off it since it was "upgraded" is terrible
Possible raised elevation??

comeraghs

blue note wrote: »

Sure Martin Cullen had money set aside for Waterford to build a stadium, but the county boards couldn't agree to build one in the city in Case it would affect the usage of fraher field. Either dungarvan gets a stadium too or neither gets one.

The argument that some from the west make is that the stadium should be in dungarvan because it's in the centre of the county. So lads from places like ballyduff lower and tallow wouldn't have to drive 45 minutes to attend a game.

To be honest I think it's a selfish and stupid reason to want the stadium in dungarvan and everyone has suffered as a result. But at least we have a choice of two sh1t stadiums to play our league games in instead of one decent one. And instead of having home and away arrangements in munster so getting to play every second game in Waterford, less than half an hours drive for probably 80% of the population and less than an hour for the other 20%, we get to play most of our games in Thurles, Cork or limerick, a further drive for the vast majority of the county.

Some of those gombeens should hang their heads in shame, but in reality they're probably proud of what they've blocked and would reference it when asking people to vote them back in.

Firstly, it kind of shows your ignorance of the county when you can't tell Ballyduff Upper from Ballyduff Lower, & that's not to mention not knowing driving distances & times.

& secondly nobody in the western board objected to developing Carriganore as a county stadium. That's just a stupid excuse. Carriganore is the logical place for Waterford to build a new ground, Walsh Park is too limited in area to ever be any good.
Building a huge stadium makes no sense with Waterford GAA's current financial woes so it's not going to happen for at least 10 years.

Walsh Park has seen some work done over the last few months & is fine for what we need it for the moment, Our league match v Kilkenny on Feb 14th will attract 10,000 max & Walsh Park can hold that comfortably!