GAA to open Croker

Didnt know wether to post this here or general football:
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:ball: GAA wants €50m to open Croker :ball:

20/11/2004 - 17:32:12

The GAA will seek a grant of €50m from the Government if Rule 42, governing the opening up of Croke Park, is overturned at Congress next April.

GAA President Sean Kelly confirmed that his Association would seek the bursary from the Government to solve the stadium crisis that exists for rugby and soccer.

Kelly has also warned that the FAI and the IRFU would face hefty rental charges for the use of the stadium.

"There is no reason why we shouldn’t make a request for a further grant to help us clear off the debt on Croke Park," he said.

"We would be in a strong position to do so because if we offer to open up Croke Park, subject to certain conditions, the decision as to whether Irish rugby and soccer teams play overseas will then be up to others.

"Nobody can accuse us of not being good neighbours which will most certainly happen if our international teams end up playing in Britain while Croke Park remains closed."

Several counties look set to propose the removal of Rule 42 at Congress in April.

In fairness, that doesn't mean they will open it, but it does make it seem all the more likely.

I've been impressed with this outspoken Kerryman since he took office. Not afraid to address the Rule 42 issue unlike his predocessor Sean 'head stuck in the sand' McCague.

Too right he should demand hefty rental charges for the use of Croke Park for the 3-4 period that Lansdowne would be closed. The GAA went ahead and built a modern stadium, while the IRFU / FAI plodded along with a long since outdated shell of a ground.

That Congress meeting in April is D-Day as far as I'm concerned. The prospect of our national team playing in Glasgow, Manchester or Liverpool is just to painful to bear.

Not a hint of xenophobia, I promise!!

SKBIO-TOR

Consider this. The FAI are told that all funding will be witheld until they get their house in order. We're all agreed on that.


The Dublin County Board hit two clubs with hefty fines for what appears to be xtreme violence at a county championship game. Some of the penalties are appealed and duly overturned because some obscure rule about notifying the Leinster Council of the decision hasn't been adhered to. THE FACT THAT PEOPLE TRIED TO INFLICT SERIOUS INJURY ON EACH OTHER DOESN'T COME INTO IT. Violence at GAA matches now appears to be endemic. I spoke to some GAA people tonight and they are appalled by the decision.

Minister O' Donoghue. It is been alleged that the GAA are demanding €50 million if rule 42 is overturned. Do not provide any more funding for the GAA until they sort out the violence in their games.

Your being blackmailed. The rules should be the same for everyone.

Under no circumstances should another cent be handed over to the GAAH.

This is blackmail pure and simple. Minister O'Donoghue should have the balls to tell them to 'f**k off' as bigot Jack Boothman once threatened to tell the government if they requested that Croke Park be opened to real international sport.

If it means that our international teams have to travel to the UK to play their matches and expose the GAAH for what they really are, then so be it.

Onceahoop and republic, I agree with ye 100%. While I am a fan of Sean Kelly (the man has vision), I am deplored by the bigotry of the GAA. Considering his background, one would have thought that Jack Boothman would be more open-minded than most. However, he is simply a fat, useless b**tard. I believe that the only reason Sean Kelly is asking for such a hefty sum of money is to keep the hard-liners such as Boothman and McCaigue happy. As for Joe McDonagh, he's another cowardly tosser. I believe Croke Park will be opened up regardless. Its nice to see the GAA in debt. Hopefully they will be left with no other option than to let soccer and rugby into the taxpayers stadium.
I don't believe that another cent of taxpayers money should be given to a sectarian organisation. As for John O'Donoghue and his government, perhaps they should get their own house in order before they start interfering in Irish football. The FAI is obviously a poorly run organisation, but since when did Irish politicians become so great that they can take the moral high ground. Cathal Dervan wrote a fantastic article yesterday regarding the "Minister for Interference" and his budget for Irish sport in 2005. He has decided to give €750,000 to women's sport, while he will be providing the horse-racing and dog-racing industry with a total of €68.8million. Dont tell me that this arsehole or his government give a sh!te about Irish sport. They are puppets who simply keep the wealthy happy. As for the FAI and IRFU not having a stadium, perhaps they would have one now, if they had received the funding that the GAA have received over the past 12 years.

Open Croker but no more money for the GAA please.

Kelly's hands are tied by the disgrace that is the committee that vets motions for Congress. The President and all living ex-Presidents sit on it and for the last couple of years the others, bar Peter Quinn, have ruled the motions on Rule 42 out of order. I know the man who wrote the Dublin motion for it very well, and I also know that he opposes amendment but feels it has a right to be put to vote. The reason it hasn't been voted on for the past few years is that the other ex-Presidents feel Rule 5 also needs amendment but the motions have accounted for this by stating 'amend rule 5 accordingly' which by GAA rules should suffice. It's a sham.

Does anyone know the figures involved in sport funding over the last ten or twelve years ? Is there any way of knowing how much each sport has received in funding over this period ? i.e. how much funding the GAA has received in comparison with the IRFU and FAI .....

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Originally Posted by Conor74

:D :D :D

Cathal Dervan's an arsehole...

I didn't know dog racing was the preserve of the rich. That'll be news to most of the punters in the Tralee dog track too.

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He certainly talks more sense than you. Sorry, maybe you are a journalist too Conor. Actually, judging by your standard of posts, I doubt it.

My point about the combined total of finance going to horse and dog racing industries is that it is simply satisfying those people within those industries. Its often the genuine sports people and grassroots that lose out. Remember the former minister for finance who secured €14million for a racecourse in his constituency. The distribution of sports funds in this country beggars belief.
Is it true that John O'Donoghue sent a 1,500 word press release out last week, yet there was no mention of football within it??

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Originally Posted by Conor74

:D :D

Whoah, I love it when posters get all personal. It says so much more than any amount of statistics (which say little enough anyway, as we all know).

It seems I've got to you, JamaicanPM. But rather than getting all tetchy, just PM me your observations about my posts rather than letting everyone know you're all upset.

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That's not personal Conor. Everyone knows I say what I think on this site. That's probably why I'm so popular. Never seen you contribute much however. That is just my observation. Quite frankly, you're anti-everything, pro-nothing.
I can send you a PM but don't think you can speak Jamaican man.

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Originally Posted by TheJamaicanP.M.

As for the FAI and IRFU not having a stadium, perhaps they would have one now, if they had received the funding that the GAA have received over the past 12 years.

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yes, does anyone know how much the GAA have actually paid for the redevelopment themselves?? my very rough calculation is as follows:

total cost: €250m
gov paid to date: €110m (including most recent €40m promise)
current stadium debt: €98m ??
amt paid by GAA to date: €42m ???

if my calculations are correct, and I stand to be corrected, then the €42 million the GAA have actually paid would probably be paid by the sale of 10 year corporate boxes, premium seats etc. alone

also, whos to say that most of the remaining debt wont be paid off by the government over the next 10 to 15 years or so. the GAA know full well that no government will let them get into serious financial difficulty over the building of the stadium.

if the irfu/fai had had the access to government funds as mentioned above then they could have built their own ages ago.

Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the GAA for what they’ve done to Croke Park but given the large amount of public money that has already been handed over to them it would be a disgrace if anymore was given without other sports being allowed in.

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

yes, does anyone know how much the GAA have actually paid for the redevelopment themselves?? my very rough calculation is as follows:

total cost: €250m
gov paid to date: €110m (including most recent €40m promise)
current stadium debt: €98m ??
amt paid by GAA to date: €42m ???

if my calculations are correct, and I stand to be corrected, then the €42 million the GAA have actually paid would probably be paid by the sale of 10 year corporate boxes, premium seats etc. alone

also, whos to say that most of the remaining debt wont be paid off by the government over the next 10 to 15 years or so. the GAA know full well that no government will let them get into serious financial difficulty over the building of the stadium.

if the irfu/fai had had the access to government funds as mentioned above then they could have built their own ages ago.

Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the GAA for what they’ve done to Croke Park but given the large amount of public money that has already been handed over to them it would be a disgrace if anymore was given without other sports being allowed in.

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This is a funny one. Although they've received a huge amount of grants from the Government, I'm not sure how accountable they are to the people, as it was a grant, as opposed to funding. Although the fact that they receive public money obviously means that we should have a say over how much they receive, the fact that they receive a grant doesn't make Croker a national stadium owned by the people. It's owned completely by the GAA. Grants or no grants, that isn't going to change so, unfortunately, they can do exactly what they want with it. No government is going to have a go at the GAA, especially over something as contentious as Croker. It may be opened up but it will be opened up if and when the GAA pleases. I'm not making a case for the GAA - I follow the GAA but only after soccer - but I think this is how it is, unfortunately. I'd love to see soccer in Croke Park but I can understand why plenty of people in the GAA have no intention of opening it up to soccer and rugby.

**** the GAA. I'd rather we played our home games in mongolia than give another cent to those money-grabbing rednecks. they're swimming in taxpayers money, giving their own players **** all and still playing the poor-mouth. they can stick their monument to "amateur sports" where the sun don't shine IMO. They have a DUTY to open it based on the money they've got. IMO, the government should be playing hardball here- they should tell them that ALL future funding to GAA all over the country is dependent on the opening of Croke Park. See how the stick-waving, thermos-of-tea-and-super-valu-plastic-bag-full-of-sandwiches, I'm-really-Irish-cos-I-watch-my-30-inbred-cousins-kick-each-other-around-and-call-it-football hicks like it when they're the ones being blackmailed. FÚCK them and their ground :mad:

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Originally Posted by davros

So you won't be going,If they open it up,then? ;)

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I went to 4 or 5 Ireland games. that was it. Fed up of giving money to the incompetent bunglers in the FAI, and fed up of the crap atmosphere there. Also, never liked the idea of a 26-county team. the thought of giving money to the GAA would be impossible for me to take (as you may have guessed)

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Originally Posted by Éanna

I went to 4 or 5 Ireland games. that was it. Fed up of giving money to the incompetent bunglers in the FAI, and fed up of the crap atmosphere there. Also, never liked the idea of a 26-county team. the thought of giving money to the GAA would be impossible for me to take (as you may have guessed)

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But you're fine with going upto Tolka Park and giving your money to a fine establishment like Shels ;) :D

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Originally Posted by Slash/ED

But you're fine with going upto Tolka Park and giving your money to a fine establishment like Shels ;) :D

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no, not really. But its a necessary evil ;) And funnily enough, free VIP passes seem to come my way every now and again. i guess Ollie wants to thank me for figthing his corner so well all over the net :D

Yes there is. Now calm down the pair o' you, otherwise I'll send you for a little "re-educating" in the Siberian salt mines. (And that won't be nice when you're used to a life of sun, rum, de ladies and de 'erb, mister PM. ;) )

Conor, take the PM with a pinch of salt and you'll get along just fine. Just like me and you do, in fact. That pinch of salt is the very reason I never rise to your Celtic fan-baiting elsewhere on this board. :p

Right, that's that over with. Shake hands and let that be an end to it. :D

:D PP

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Originally Posted by Éanna

**** the GAA. I'd rather we played our home games in mongolia than give another cent to those money-grabbing rednecks. they're swimming in taxpayers money, giving their own players **** all and still playing the poor-mouth. they can stick their monument to "amateur sports" where the sun don't shine IMO. They have a DUTY to open it based on the money they've got. IMO, the government should be playing hardball here- they should tell them that ALL future funding to GAA all over the country is dependent on the opening of Croke Park. See how the stick-waving, thermos-of-tea-and-super-valu-plastic-bag-full-of-sandwiches, I'm-really-Irish-cos-I-watch-my-30-inbred-cousins-kick-each-other-around-and-call-it-football hicks like it when they're the ones being blackmailed. FÚCK them and their ground :mad:

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Totally agree. The money the GAA have got for Croke Park would've built eP and we wouldn't be in this situation now.

Government gives millions to the GAA to rebuild Croke Park, Government refuses to back eP as they need anchors for their own stadium, FAI gives in (economically they had no choice given what the Government was promising), Government then say they won't be building the out of town stadium, years of Government inaction and indecision, FAI get blamed for not having a stadium built, whilst the GAA get praised for a virtually state funded facility.

I'd like to see figures for how much the GAA, Horsey Set and Doggy Worries have got over the lifetime of this Government compared to all other sports, never mind football.

Not going to get drawn into this argument like the last time, but here are a few points:
1. FACT: The GAA started re-building Croke Park before ANY promises of funding was made by the Government. They are perfectly entitled to apply for funding aid, like every other sporting organisation in the country. If you think they've received to much already, that's the fault of the Government, not the GAA.
2. FACT: The Government will be contributing more than double the contributions (combined) of the IRFU and FAI for the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road - € 191m against the combined contributions of c € 70m. AT the end of the project the IRFU and FAI will own the stadium once again (although this has not been explicitly stated, it is understood to be the case). What other sports will be played there when the stadium is completed? What other sports are played there at the moment?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Éanna

**** the GAA. I'd rather we played our home games in mongolia than give another cent to those money-grabbing rednecks. they're swimming in taxpayers money, giving their own players **** all and still playing the poor-mouth. they can stick their monument to "amateur sports" where the sun don't shine IMO. They have a DUTY to open it based on the money they've got. IMO, the government should be playing hardball here- they should tell them that ALL future funding to GAA all over the country is dependent on the opening of Croke Park. See how the stick-waving, thermos-of-tea-and-super-valu-plastic-bag-full-of-sandwiches, I'm-really-Irish-cos-I-watch-my-30-inbred-cousins-kick-each-other-around-and-call-it-football hicks like it when they're the ones being blackmailed. FÚCK them and their ground :mad:

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Brilliant post Eanna!! I couldn't have written it better myself. ;)

The f**kers want *more* money to open Croke Park plus, no doubt, a hefty percentage of gate receipts of the soccer and rugby internationals when played.

They say they are 'Irish' but their brand of 'Irishness' does not represent me or my family. Bitter Bigoted Bast*rds.