Originally Posted by
backstothewall
A few thoughts.
One of the great advantages of the Bertie Bowl plan was that it was, technically, in Fingal rather than Dublin. It would have allowed it to be considered to be in a separate location from Dublin for the purposes of bidding for tournaments. France pulled the same move by putting the Stade De France in St. Denis, which allowed them to include it alongside the Parc De Princes when bidding for France 98 etc.
We're never going to be anything more than a bit part on a bid for a tournament. We would be better of concentrating on building half a dozen 18k seat stadiums in places like Galway, Cork, Waterford and Derry which could support such arenas. If we achieved that we could maybe think about holding underage or female tournaments as the next stage of developing the game here.
There's merit in League Of Ireland sides teaming up with minority sports to squeeze funding out of Leinster House and local government for new facilities. For example a club like Cork City may have more success getting taxpayer funding to replace for Turner's Cross if they bait the hook with an event like a Hockey World Cup being held there, with a LOI side coming in as a sustainable anchor tenant once the event is over.