Croker

[Gary]

What do you reckon? To be honest I am against Croke park being used for football(soccer). if the GAA want to keep it too themselves, then thats their thing. At least they have their own residence. The FAI has been piggybacking off other organisations for far too long IMO. I mean the FAI PROMISED us a national stadium after Italia 90. 12 years later, still nothing, just talk of Berties white elephant in Dumpland.

Besides the joint bid is a farce. We would have two stadia in it, Scotland would have 5 and they would also be using St James' Park, which is in bloody England.
joke!!!

[pete]

I'm like a dog with a bone on this whole topic but here goes anyway......

- Govt have given the GAA 80 million (20+60)
- Ep started at 60million but was around 125 million by time govt had shamefully delayed using the dept of defense, councillors, fianna failers in the fai etc. etc...
- If govt had given the FAI even 50-60 million it would surely have been able to come up with remaining 65-75million.

- In terms of feasability & value for money EP is heads & shoulders above Bertie Bowl. - EP would be prefect for big eL games & vast majority of internationals. 800 million is ludicrous money for Bertie Bowl. New stadium in Cardiff cost only 125 sterling!

The GAA own Croke Park therefore they should be allowed to do what they want with. If govt gives money to the GAA for the stadium development it should give similar sums to other organisations or else have a say in what the GAA do with Croke Park.

IMO Croke Park is not a long term solution for the FAI or ther IRFU unless the sports council or some other non-GAA body is involved with.

Joint (1/4 versus 3/4 really) bid is a rushed effort & Uefa usually reward countries which applied before but lost out. Do we need english & german thugs running battles through O'Connell Street?

The FAI should wait til they & the IFA in a suitable position to make a joint bid.

No country has held a euro championship without using any club grounds.



[rant over]

[MikeW]

I'm against Croke park being used for football too, even apart from fixture clashes and the pitch and the rest, it'd give the GAA way too much power over the football and rugby boys. And remember "foreign games" would still be banned from every other GAA ground in the country.

In fairness Pete the Bertie Bowl itself would not cost 800m, thats the cost of all the facilities proposed out in Abbotstown (allegedly anyway). The stadium part would cost maybe €250-€300m I'd say, although I'm no expert. Also the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff went way over budget, but because the builders signed a fixed price contract they were only paid £125m sterling and had to take a hit of £75m themselves to cover the rise in cost. Nearly sent the builders, Laing I think, under.

As for Eircom Park, I really don't think it was ever viable in the first place. The FAI would become one of the only associations in Europe to own their own stadium. The Scots with Hampden are one other, and I seem to remember big controversies over the cost of that, and they, like the Welsh, got english lottery players to fork out to build it, the FAI would have to find their own money.

[pete]

What I was trying to say was EP was much more viable than bertie Bowl ever will be.

EP could have been used for concerts, exhibitions, etc etc... & the cost even included the FAI paying for a slip road from the N7.

Last year the govt appointed head of the BB project said he staked his reputation on BB not costing more than 350 million pounds. Consultants came out the other month with 800million euro figure for just the stadium! Doesn't include all the extra costs of metro, moving govt labs etc....

We talking about 1 billion euro for 1 stadium. Would that make it the most expensive in the world???

BTW BB can't pay for itself either. Would almost certainly run on operating lose.

[Seanie]

I believe that the government will regret not supporting Eircom Park. The "Bertie Bowl" will never go ahead because it is too ambitious and too large a project - how many times would we fill an 80,000 seater stadium a year? As regards Croke Park, it would be a great facility to have - but the FAI would have absolutely on control. A September international could easily fall the Wednesday before the All-Ireland final - can't see the FAI getting it all their way in that case. Anyway Croke Park is overused as it is - during the summer there were matches on Saturday and Sunday (senior and minor). And while pitch conditions are important in Gaelic Games, the playing surface is much more critical in Soccer - and I can never see the GAA going all out to provide soccer with the necessary pristine conditions.