Almost there but not quite student.
The astro park is a commercial venture, but as part of the agreement with the club which owns the land the club can use it for training for a set number of hours per week. I expect this will be mainly Schoolboy training. One advantage to the club is that the astro park means that 40 thirsty footballers will pass the bar per hour - hopefully a few will spend a few quid. The ground developments also include completion of 2 pitches on the far side of the main pitch, again mainly for the underage teams' training and matches. This in turn should mean that the main pitch will be used less, and hopefully the surface can be improved.
I agree there's no point in building a bigger stand until we are at risk of filling it at least occassionally, but its size does also mean that we cannot qualify for an A licence.
On the cost, I had heard that the astro park was costing 500k (unsubstantiated rumour), we got a 300k grant before the last election which I think the club had to match, but I think the other improvements (car park surfacing, bar refurbishment etc) cost more than 600k.
More info here:
http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=18182