DCU new 10,000 seater stadium

[centre mid]

So much for the credit crunch, DCU are have reavealed plans to build an "Indoor Croke Park", sounds like a perfect chance for a club like Bohs to row in with them...here (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2008/1127/1227699548397.html)

[Jersey Cow]

Ideal opportuity for Bohs to get in there...I would plead with DCU---Plans seem amazing!!

[passinginterest]

Was reading this earlier and the first thing I thought was Bohs have to look to get involved. Bohs already have a link up with DCU so they should have the contacts there to at least explore the options. A lot of the ideas being discussed seem incredibly ambitious, especially when they're estimating the cost at only €15 million, plus the pitch would be massive for soccer if it's full Croke Park dimensions.

[pete]

So much for the credit crunch, DCU are have reavealed plans to build an "Indoor Croke Park", sounds like a perfect chance for a club like Bohs to row in with them...here (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2008/1127/1227699548397.html)

Have they made a model of the plans yet? The Irish stadium model industry has taken a hit in the recession. Would love to know the ratio of stadium models to completed plans in this country.

[Longfordian]

It doesn't sound from the article that they're envisaging having a tenant and it sounds like it's going to be geared mainly for GAA teams, with talk of weekend training camps and recreating Croke Park conditions.

[holidaysong]

It's got GAA all over it! I don't think there is a hope of Bohs getting in..

[dcfcsteve]

I have to say that from the quotes in that article this seems an extremely ill-thought out idea.

They're talking of spending at least E15m on building a roofed stadium with a 10,000 seat capacity. At at E1.50 per seat it would probably be the cheapest stadium in history, let alone with with that sort of spec.

Then in terms of usage they present the well thoughout out idea of it being 'primarily used for training and testing and that sort of thing'. How exactly do they expect to make a 10,000 seat venue pay-out primarily with an emphasis upon training aimed at a sports market (GAA) that has amateur players and only runs for about 4-6mths of the year for most teams ?? :confused: And why does a venue used primarily for testing/training require 10,000 seats ? And why would a Summer-based game need indoor training ?

The craziest bit is the idea that they'll have artifial weather in the place - mimicking wind and rain. All that plus a roof and 10,000 seats for E15m ?? Wee buns...... :eek:

Either Quinn couldn't be bothered to take the interview seriously, or this is one of the daftest financial propositions I've heard in sport for some time.

[ifk101]

There's no mention of 10,000 seats - just a 10,000 capacity indoor arena.

That could mean anything :D.

[Black and White]

Unless DCU are now going to do a UCD...put a team forward!!!:rolleyes:

[dcfcsteve]

There's no mention of 10,000 seats - just a 10,000 capacity indoor arena.

That could mean anything :D.

Fair point - though it would still fit 10,000 people in some capacity, for a facility aimed primarily at the clearly defined market for "training and testing and that sort of thing".

:eek:

[pete]

The craziest bit is the idea that they'll have artifial weather in the place - mimicking wind and rain. All that plus a roof and 10,000 seats for E15m ?? Wee buns...... :eek:


But because they have a transparent roof it limits the height the ball can be kicked. Seems like a serious limitation to me.

I am waiting for the stadium model :p

[pineapple stu]

But because they have a transparent roof it limits the height the ball can be kicked. Seems like a serious limitation to me.
Anybody else not surprised a Cork fan brought this point up?

[fergalr]

"Hopefully we'll have a backdrop where we can mimic different grounds in the country," said Moyna. "Let's say, if you're taking a free you can actually see Hill 16 and the crowd noise, we can mimic wind patterns, rain.

Shades of the infamous Highbury wall?

Had to check the calendar to make sure this wasn't April 1st. Sounds totally daft and out of touch with the realities of this country's current financial priorities.

[A face]

Anybody else not surprised a Cork fan brought this point up?

A logical arguement or observation, yeah .... its a Cork fan alright.

[gspain]

I don't think there is any chance of this being open to football.

Anybody care to recall the RDS affair when a GAA match was to be played in conjunction with a Rovers v Bohs match for some charity. It was singlehandedly scuppered by Quinn.

When Sean Kelly talked about looking around the table at the opposition lined up against him on GAA central council Quinn would have been top of the list.

[LeixlipRed]

What if someone kicked the ball really high and the glass ceiling broke and the glass fell and killed someone? Would Bohs still be screwed then?? ;)

[pineapple stu]

A logical arguement or observation, yeah .... its a Cork fan alright.
Well, I was thinking hoofball, but an ability to turn a blind eye to the most basic of faults and think yourselves Gods sounds Corkonian to me too. I'll go with that one, thanks. :p

[Dodge]

Anybody care to recall the RDS affair when a GAA match was to be played in conjunction with a Rovers v Bohs match for some charity. It was singlehandedly scuppered by Quinn.


It was a double header of Rovers v Bohs and Dublin V down (then all Ireland champs I think) and all monies raised were going to charity (I think it was Our Ladys Hospital for Kids in Crumlin but I'm not certain about this) and after a fair bit of advertising was out, the GAA threatened life bans for any GAA personnel involved with it. Scandalous actions. A charity game FFS

[A face]

Well, I was thinking hoofball, but an ability to turn a blind eye to the most basic of faults and think yourselves Gods sounds Corkonian to me too. I'll go with that one, thanks. :p

Gods you say, i'll take it ..... deal, done ..... result !! ;)

[OneRedArmy]

I don't think there is any chance of this being open to football.

Anybody care to recall the RDS affair when a GAA match was to be played in conjunction with a Rovers v Bohs match for some charity. It was singlehandedly scuppered by Quinn.

When Sean Kelly talked about looking around the table at the opposition lined up against him on GAA central council Quinn would have been top of the list.I don't disagree that it will be GAA only, but think you're not being entirely fair on Quinn. For instance he acted lead advisor and consultant to Derry City in negotiating with Government bodies North & South over a new, soccer-only stadium.

[pete]

Well, I was thinking hoofball, but an ability to turn a blind eye to the most basic of faults and think yourselves Gods sounds Corkonian to me too. I'll go with that one, thanks. :p

Gaelic football = ball high in the air? :confused:

[Dodge]

I don't disagree that it will be GAA only, but think you're not being entirely fair on Quinn. For instance he acted lead advisor and consultant to Derry City in negotiating with Government bodies North & South over a new, soccer-only stadium.

Yep, and look where you are ;)

[pineapple stu]

Gaelic football = ball high in the air? :confused:
Cork City FC = ball high in the air.

Surely I'm not the only one who associates the two? Deccie Daly, Clive Delaney having a laugh in Cork every year, and all that?

[Jicked]

The GAA must be dumber than I thought (!), they're living on a different planet.

A glass roof? 10,000 indoor seats? Weather inside? A big **** off replica of Hill 16 so a few culchies can practice for one of five large amateur games a year.

"And then, can we get some like, big massive lasers that shoot fire and when you run out on the pitch its all like WHHOOOOOOOSH, and the seats are all made of sweets but when you eat them they just grow back, and the ground is made of special stuff so that like, when you fall you get all mucky but you can't get hurt, and then we want a moat around it with a dragon in it, and then...."

[Candystripe]

10,000 capacity probably means for concerts etc,

[Dazzy]

Yep, and look where you are ;)

Stuck with Gregory Campbell :(

[finnpark]

It's got GAA all over it! I don't think there is a hope of Bohs getting in..

Surely in these recession times all new developments should be shared across at least 2 sports? Surely any Governemnt department giving out these grants should have this foresight, to see that its investment is spread out as much as possible?

[dcfcsteve]

Surely in these recession times all new developments should be shared across at least 2 sports? Surely any Governemnt department giving out these grants should have this foresight, to see that its investment is spread out as much as possible?

Since when did rational arguement or financial incentive work with the GAA...?

[dcfc1928]

Yep, and look where you are ;)

Exactly. :mad:

[Bluebeard]

Surely in these recession times all new developments should be shared across at least 2 sports?

It will be - Hurling and Gaelic Football...

[Wheelbarrow]

"At at E1.50 per seat it would probably be the cheapest stadium in history, let alone with with that sort of spec"

€1500 per seat would be the price



Good to see all those Derry Supporters Still attending Maths classes:)!!!!!!!!!!


It would be an unfair advantage if a team was to use this pitch. You can never replicate the real deal indoor (removable roof or not) Sounds like a return to the 80's plastic pitches

[endabob1]

10,000 capacity probably means for concerts etc,

That would be my understanding too, unless they have left out some digits on the price, it's not 10,000 seats at 15m in a million years


It would be an unfair advantage if a team was to use this pitch. You can never replicate the real deal indoor (removable roof or not) Sounds like a return to the 80's plastic pitches

It will basically be a very big shed with an artificial pitch, something like the Welsh RFU training facilities here
http://www.vale-hotel.com/news/2403.html

[Jinxy]

Since when did rational arguement or financial incentive work with the GAA...?

Oh the irony.
For the record, Peter Quinn was one of the driving forces behind the redevelopment of Croke Park which started BEFORE the celtic tiger showed up so if he reckons this project (on a far smaller scale) has merit, even during an economic downturn, then I'm all for it.
Seems to me, a number of posters are looking at DCU's plans through the prism of LOI mismanagement and financial insanity.

[atfconline]

DCU lad (although he sounded like he was from the GAA) was on Saturday Sport this afternoon, and said there was capacity for 1,000 standing, and not 10,000 seating. He was at pains to call it a research centre, and not a stadium.

[BohsPartisan]

Unfortunately I don't think we have a hope but yes, this would be the ideal set up in a pretty ideal location, only down the road from our current home, we already train out there and have a link up.

[John83]

DCU lad (although he sounded like he was from the GAA) was on Saturday Sport this afternoon, and said there was capacity for 1,000 standing, and not 10,000 seating. He was at pains to call it a research centre, and not a stadium.
That sounds orders of magnitude more likely. Sure, you'd probably get a thousand standing if they were two or three deep around a GAA pitch.

So, we're down from cloud cuckoo land to a €15M barn with a glass roof, air conditioning and astroturf floor. Oh, and a grate big pro-ject-OR to simmilate the hill.

[Jinxy]

This whole thing is a good example of bad reporting. I listened to Niall Moyna himself describing the development. It'll be an indoor centre with a full sized artificial pitch that will allow for the creation of a uniform testing environment for the purposes of conducting research. They also want to include an athletics track around the pitch itself to be used by the DCU athletics club and national team as a training facility.

[BohDiddley]

They also want to include an athletics track around the pitch itself to be used by the DCU athletics club and national team as a training facility.
In that case, no thanks. I'd rather the Fifteen Acres. They'd probably put that in so that we don't sue a la Thomas Davis in reverse. That would be fun, and you know we have the lawyers for it. ;)

[OneRedArmy]

This whole thing is a good example of bad reporting. I listened to Niall Moyna himself describing the development. It'll be an indoor centre with a full sized artificial pitch that will allow for the creation of a uniform testing environment for the purposes of conducting research. They also want to include an athletics track around the pitch itself to be used by the DCU athletics club and national team as a training facility.Peter Quinn was given a good grilling on Off the Ball last night about this. For a normally assured individual, I thought he performed poorly.

He was extremely vague on how much access non-GAA sports would get to the facilities (which he had started off the interview stating as being one of the goals) and when pushed about the DCU football (soccer not GAA) teams complaint that they had not been engaged in any way in the consultation and their request to provide input was ignored, he deferred to Moyna saying he (Quinn) had only become involved at the end of the process and Moyna was the person to talk to about the detail.

What I took away from it was that the indoor facility was aimed solely for the use of the GAA. At the GAA's behest, if they didn't want to use it 24/7, other sports possibly could use it, but that the principle way other sports would benefit would be through sports scientists doing generic field sport-type experiments using the facilities.

Anyway, good luck to them getting private finance as its clear that until the provide guarantees that it is a multi-sport facility they shouldn't get a cent of public money.

[Bald Student]

That sounds orders of magnitude more likely.It sounds exactly one order of magnitude more likely.

[Jinxy]

Peter Quinn was given a good grilling on Off the Ball last night about this. For a normally assured individual, I thought he performed poorly.

He was extremely vague on how much access non-GAA sports would get to the facilities (which he had started off the interview stating as being one of the goals) and when pushed about the DCU football (soccer not GAA) teams complaint that they had not been engaged in any way in the consultation and their request to provide input was ignored, he deferred to Moyna saying he (Quinn) had only become involved at the end of the process and Moyna was the person to talk to about the detail.

What I took away from it was that the indoor facility was aimed solely for the use of the GAA. At the GAA's behest, if they didn't want to use it 24/7, other sports possibly could use it, but that the principle way other sports would benefit would be through sports scientists doing generic field sport-type experiments using the facilities.

Anyway, good luck to them getting private finance as its clear that until the provide guarantees that it is a multi-sport facility they shouldn't get a cent of public money.

They want to put an athletics track in there. It's probably not going to be used for playing matches anyway, it's a research centre. The thing about research into gaelic games is if we don't do it in Ireland, obviously no one else will. So you can hardly blame them for wanting to focus on this. There's mountains of soccer research. There's shag all GAA research.

[HarpoJoyce]

They want to put an athletics track in there. It's probably not going to be used for playing matches anyway, it's a research centre. The thing about research into gaelic games is if we don't do it in Ireland, obviously no one else will. So you can hardly blame them for wanting to focus on this. There's mountains of soccer research. There's shag all GAA research.

There's acres and acres of GAA analysis though.
It may mean buying back RTÉ, TG4 and Setanta Ireland footage though. I don't know if that's an option ..........?

[Aberdonian Stu]

Ferdinand von Prodzynski, the president of DCU, commented on it when asked at a debate on fees tonight. He said the development of the arena is not set in stone. The college wants to do it but will not unless they are successful in their fund raising efforts and he was quite clear about said fund raising being far from a done deal.