GAA to open Croker

[Slash/ED]

Do players on senior international duty get paid? I thought they did, but I could be wrong.
.

They pay a small fee to the players, and the aul G14 are trying to get a rule that says FAs will have to pay clubs every time they call a player up for international duty.

[Donal81]

Do players on senior international duty get paid? I thought they did, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, if Bohs or Cork or whoever didn't have to play their players they could invest much more of their income into facilities and build a super stadium for themsleves.

The IRFU's model was aimed at bringing home international players. They have a central fund from which they pay all provincial players. This allows them to pay loads for, say, Brian O'Driscoll and then work the wage structure around what's left. The result is that the IRFU is making a loss but growing the game in Ireland and the game's stars are playing just down the road from you every weekend. While I'm not expecting players to leave the Premier League for the EL, the FAI has no organisation nor the slightest ounce of vision. I love soccer and would love to see it in a decent venue but I have no sympathy for the FAI. They may have been outfoxed by the government at some point but, if they had any cop, organisation or professionalism, they wouldn't have had to rely on Bertie and his socialist comrades.

[jbyrne]

the FAI has no organisation nor the slightest ounce of vision. I love soccer and would love to see it in a decent venue but I have no sympathy for the FAI. They may have been outfoxed by the government at some point but, if they had any cop, organisation or professionalism, they wouldn't have had to rely on Bertie and his socialist comrades.

there is hardly a national association in the world that has built their own stadium. most use stadiums built by local authorities or main government. even the gaa for all the credit they get for re-building croke park will at the very very most pay 50% themselves. critisism of the FAI for not building their own satdium yet is harsh and it is dreamland to expect them to have done so by now. if countrys the size of france, england, italy etc. had to rely on their governments to build a national stadium what hope has a country our size??

[Donal81]

there is hardly a national association in the world that has built their own stadium. most use stadiums built by local authorities or main government. even the gaa for all the credit they get for re-building croke park will at the very very most pay 50% themselves. critisism of the FAI for not building their own satdium yet is harsh and it is dreamland to expect them to have done so by now. if countrys the size of france, england, italy etc. had to rely on their governments to build a national stadium what hope has a country our size??

The FAI wouldn't be in the miserable situation it's in now - no money and therefore no clout - if it had ever been run properly. As it is, they have to follow the Government around begging for money. I don't expect them to be able to come up with the resources now to build a stadium out of nowhere but if they had planned for this in the slightest, they would be in a much better position.

If they had been lobbying the government over the past decade instead of fighting amongst themselves and divvying up the generated cash, they mightn't be in square one, where they are now. If they had done so and the Government wasn't interested, then I'd appreciate their efforts and sympathise with them.

As it is, they're a joke of an organisation. Why would you throw money at them? We don't have a national soccer stadium because the FAI has never planned for one until very recently - and even then it was ropey - which, given the interest in soccer over the past 15 years, is unforgiveable so don't expect me to blame the GAA or the government for it.

[Macy]

The FAI wouldn't be in the miserable situation it's in now - no money and therefore no clout - if it had ever been run properly. As it is, they have to follow the Government around begging for money. I don't expect them to be able to come up with the resources now to build a stadium out of nowhere but if they had planned for this in the slightest, they would be in a much better position.

One last time, did you ever hear of Eircom Park? You know, that stadium that the FAI were going to build until it was scuppered by the Government so that the FAI would favour Abbotstown?

[Macy]

They built the model, full stop. They then spent a few years lying to everyone, and to each other, about how much they were paying the marketing company and how many seats they had sold and how much of the funds went onto Bernard O'Byrne's credit card account etc, etc. Remember the hilarious costings produced of £60m, which 'omitted' the almost £20m the land would cost? A farce, with most parties claiming it would cost at least duoble what was projected by O'Byrne. You must be the most optimistic man in Ireland about it's chances of being built, because presumably they would have expected the builders to take payment in the form of IOUs and promises. The National Stadium proposal gave them a handy way of letting the whole project die off quietly, because it was getting to the 'very embarrassing' stage when people were asking hard questions...

Maybe it would've been a success, maybe it would've. Much of the above is when the people in the FAI were fighting to get the stadium built without Government support, after Bertie had said no to them on the basis of Abbotstown - they were desperately trying to make it viable as they didn't trust Bertie. How right they were....

[Donal81]

One last time, did you ever hear of Eircom Park? You know, that stadium that the FAI were going to build until it was scuppered by the Government so that the FAI would favour Abbotstown?

Mate, I've already posted that I was aware of Eircom Park, it would be pretty hard to forget that fiasco. My point was that the FAI is a shambolic farce of an organisation and if the mess that was the Eircom Park 'proposal' was the culmination of the FAI's organisation and lobbying power, my point is only strengthened. Bertie may have played them - what did they think, that he was honest? - but that was the first attempt at getting a stadium and it was a pretty pathetic one. Same old story.

[Schumi]

They built the model, full stop. They then spent a few years lying to everyone, and to each other, about how much they were paying the marketing company and how many seats they had sold ... Remember the hilarious costings produced of £60m, which 'omitted' the almost £20m the land would cost? A farce, with most parties claiming it would cost at least duoble what was projected

Sounds remarkably similar to the Abbottstown fiasco.

[Peadar]

Was up in Croker last week.
They're putting boxes over the Hill on the section where the old Nally Stand used to be. About 6 or 7 boxes from what I could see.
There's a fairly big gap between the Hill and the Cusack Stand.
It's well impressive though.
I expect TV stations to use the new boxes.
It will give a much better view of the rest of the ground.
It's just crying out for a global audiance beyond exiled GAA supporters.

Read something there last week that Arsenal are going to use the same pitch technology in their new Emirates Stadium. It will be interesting to see if the players slide around as much on that pitch. Poor old Pires will be like an auld wan on ice.

[Slash/ED]

Poor old Pires will be like an auld wan on ice.

No change there then...

[SuperDub]

Peader,

I heard that what they are actually building beside the hill is a security control centre for the garda/emergency services etc.

Spurs use the same crowd as the gaa do for their playing surface.I read in one of their programmes that they sent their head grounds man over to croker to have a look at the set up. We don't hear the spurs lads complaining. I was wondering is it just the way that its looked after thats the problem

I was on a tour of croker earlier in the year and the guide was constantly making swipes at other sports. I asked him about floodlights and he said that the stands were all wired up for lights.

Another guy asked him about soccer/rugby in croker and he was totally against it and he also said that they would have put up barbed for segregation of fans etc and that it would'nt work. I pointed out to him that i have been at many irish soccer games abroad over the years and have'nt seen barbed wire only a line of stewards segregating fans.

I suggested he should go to a soccer game aws it might broaden his horizens but that did'nt go down well with him

SuperDub

[Peadar]

Peader,

I heard that what they are actually building beside the hill is a security control centre for the garda/emergency services etc.

You're very probably right but there's 6 or 7 boxes so I doubt they'll need them all.

I think Liverpool and Aston Villa use the same pitch technology too.