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
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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
Ideal opportuity for Bohs to get in there...I would plead with DCU---Plans seem amazing!!
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.
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.
It's got GAA all over it! I don't think there is a hope of Bohs getting in..
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.
There's no mention of 10,000 seats - just a 10,000 capacity indoor arena.
That could mean anything :D.
Unless DCU are now going to do a UCD...put a team forward!!!:rolleyes:
"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.
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.
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?? ;)
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
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...."
10,000 capacity probably means for concerts etc,
"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
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.