Casement Park watch.

I hear the conversations that are going on about Casement. You only have to listen to the radio in the mornings or afternoons to hear what people are talking about. If Windsor was being redeveloped there would be no issue over the costs. People from the PLU communities are complaining because its £200+ m going to West Belfast not taking into consideration that people coming to the matches will be using public transport, drinking in local bars eating in local areas.

Gaelic Football has a higher participation rate that Soccer particularly among Women. When you add in Hurling and Camogie as well as handball into that the numbers are massive.

Regardless of what people think the Club my girls are a member of have people from all sides of the community.

East Belfast have over 500 members, the first LGBT team is set up in Belfast that's 2 new clubs in the last 5 years which is evidence that the sports are growing which is positive for the city

There are no agreements in place between Antrim GAA and the Ulster Council it's likely their league games will remain in Corrigan Park. It's important that they do get plenty of use of it if it is built, they should be playing lots of Club Championship games in it and schools and club finals but we don't know what road the Ulster Council will go down with it yet.

It's not the GAAs responsibility to provide a stadium for soccer finals, concerts or any other rubbish that people want to trot out in order to justify a white elephant. Upkeep on a massively oversized, massively overspec'd stadium will be a millstone round the neck of the association for decades. When was the last time there was 10k at an Antrim game never mind 34k. Its fantasy land stuff. You need 7.5k tops and a nice place for supporters to attend a game which can generate an atmosphere. It wouldn't even be economical to open the stadium for the vast majority of antrims games.

No Irish on the manhole covers or on any signage?

That kinda of 'offensive'?

What do you mean naming issues?

Yeah. The name Windsor has never done anything wrong in history.

Mother of Jesus you couldn't make this up.

You're a grown up, I'm sure you can figure it out

I cannot see the Tory govt coughing up that massive shortfall either. I think Mary Lou McD. put another nail in coffin in the bid for a large redevelopment of Casement Park by Mary Lou McDonald with her speech in America last weekend. As part of her rant she laid in to the British government, saying things like "Tory governments in London never cared for the people of the north of Ireland". Kinda hard to go looking for extra money off the Tory government when you bad mouth them like that behind their back, I am sure Sunak thinks he is already spending enough billions in Ireland every year.

A rather naïve take on it tbh.

it will come down to what it always has come down to regarding Ireland - what's in it for the Tories.

That is a rather naive take on it. Governments all around the world spend money the whole time without it coming down to "whats in it" for that political party. You are not suggesting our Irish FF/FG government are just after committing 50 million in this one project in this one area because of whats in it for the FF/FG government?

A few good points there. I agree the GAA need to get their slice of the pie of money that was promised years ago, no question on that, but the more this saga trundles on the more I am thinking this Euro story is pie in the sky and these plans need a dose of reality.

Yes, the Irish government would certainly have assessed what is in it for them.

It's in furtherance of their aim to encourage growth and benefits for NI and the overall package of funding is aimed at growing the all Ireland economy. Which is beneficial to them and all of us.

The Tory's will assess it in the same way. With one added ingredient - the selfishness of this particular Tory government will be a factor.

Not that expensive for a new stadium. Tottenham Hotspur recently built a stadium for 1.2bn and Wembley cost 786 million.

A major city stadium capable of holding any event thrown at it for 300million is small change in the scheme of things.

Tottenham is nearly 63K capacity and has 2 interchangeable sliding pitches, Wembley is over 90K capacity and the feature ground for the FA. €300 million for a stadium that will be full 3 times is absolute lunacy.

Well I think they's be looking at multiple events. A programme of gaelic, American Football, big rugby + soccer and concerts.

For a piece of infrastructure capable of delivering the above I don't think it is massive money tbh. What it would repay to the city and the surrounds would be huge and the price would soon be forgotten.

True enough, even on RTE many GAA stadiums seem relatively empty as it is, unless it is a big match.

Soccer in England is different to this island. According to google, the UK is home to the richest and most-watched soccer football league in the world. It brings in billions in exports / foreign earnings for them.

Monaghan v Cavan would fill Clones so no bother filling Casement. Belfast boys might have more luck getting money outta the Cavan las too. 😁

You're arguing that the revenue generated by this stadium through non GAA events will be great for the city. Why would the GAA want to partially provide or run a stadium where 90% of the revenue in order to keep it viable must come from external events. No stadium in the world apart from PUC runs such a business model yet now multiple counties are trying to do just that. Kerry want to chance their arm, another fools errand. They played Tyrone in Killarney at the weekend, the place was empty. Division 1 football, major history, empty. Mayo Roscommon in Castlebar, again mostly empty. Huge rivals, division 1, no crowd to justify the capacity of the stadium. Mayo up to their neck in debt, Kerry trying to follow them. 10K stadia and the place would be hopping. 30k and its like a morgue. TV engagement suffers as a result too.

It hasn't in Cork, they're struggling to pay a debt on a stadium where it was totally out of kilter with what was required. And in a county where GAA is number 1.

You'd have to look at the figures.

All I am saying is there is likely to be a specific plan. Whether they are right or wrong is another discussion

Just to clear up the Stadium useage the below is taken from GAA submission on events after the Euros that waa submitted to Belfast City Council. I cant upload the actual document at the moment.

Frequency of Use

3.2. Table 3.1 sets out a high-level summary of the anticipated frequency of the various events

proposed for the Casement Park Stadium. 

Table 3.1 Frequency of Use Summary

Use Frequency of Event Anticipated 

Months

Anticipated 

Days

Anticipated 

Hours

Sporting Events

County Training 12-24 sessions 

annually

All year round Week nights Starting at 8pm

Finish at 10pm

Schools Matches 8-12 matches annually 

with an attendance 

range of 200-2500;

School Terms

September to 

June

Week nights Starting at 8pm

Finish at 10pm

Club Matches 25 matches annually 

with attendances 

ranging from 50-3500

February to 

November

Week nights Starting at 8pm

Finish at 10pm

County Matches 15-20 matches 

annually with 

attendances ranging 

from 500-5000

January to 

September

Week nights 

(likely to mainly 

be on a 

Wednesday)

Starting at 8pm

Finish at 10pm

All Ireland Qualifiers 2-5 matches annually 

with attendance range 

3,000-15,000

June and July Saturday 

Sunday

Starting at 7pm

Starting at 2pm*

Ulster Championship 

Semi-finals; 

2 matches annually 

with attendances 

typically around 

20,000

June Saturday 

Sunday

Starting at 7pm

Starting at 2pm*

Ulster Championship 

Final

1 match annually with 

attendance normally 

32,000-34,186.

July Sunday Starting at 2pm*

Major Non- Sporting Events

Concerts Up to a maximum 3 

outdoor music events 

per year up to 34,186 

in attendance 

June/ July/ 

August

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Doors open at 

4pm,

Warm up act 

begins at 7pm,

Main act 8pm,

Finish 11pm.

 *Depending on TV Scheduling this may be moved one hour either side