QuoteOriginally Posted by BohsPartisan
Wow, that's witty!
TO TELL THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY
The ONLY foot.ie user with a type of logic named after them!
All of this has happened before. All of it will happen again.
Am i the only blueman and N I supporter that thinks the Maze is the right location for the new stadium?we have to be honest and realise that Windsor is a non starter and i honestly believe that N I will get good support from mid Ulster and beyond as it will be handier for these supporters,and after all it is only 10 mins from Belfast.i also feel that if this drags on much longer there is a real danger of the gov losing patience and withdrawing funding for this project.
I believe you are
The Hallion Battalion Molests football.:D
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...ty-Posters.jpg
TO TELL THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY
The ONLY foot.ie user with a type of logic named after them!
All of this has happened before. All of it will happen again.
Paisley says No to Belfast Stadium at Ormeau.
Poots says Maze is the only Viable site.
Nigel Dodds says No to the Maze site due to the "Terrorist IRA Shrine"(H Block) will still remain.
DUP giving out mixed messages.
The Hallion Battalion Molests football.:D
Seems pretty consistent to me, haven't the DUP been saying No to everything over the last 40 years?
Not these days. Say yes is their new motto.Seems pretty consistent to me, haven't the DUP been saying No to everything over the last 40 years?
The Hallion Battalion Molests football.:D
what are the transport links to the maze area like? sounds about as sensible as the Bertie Bowl in Abbotstown.
tho i do pity you guys having to shack up with those biggots in the GAaaaaa, they seem even worse up north.
"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little." - Edmund Burke
So they are.
When the vote went in for the use of 'foreign' sports on Croke Park, every one of Northern Irelands GAA counties/clubs/whatever voted against it.
The attitude of the Northern GAA teams is probably the reason for most Unionist peoples contempt towards them. They are definately stuck in the 1920s.
The Hallion Battalion Molests football.:D
Agrees wholeheartedly.
Though the only GAA branch in the Republic to vote against opening Croker was the Cork branch with Frank "Bigot" Murphy. the man who said in the early 90's that "never will a ball pumped up with British poison ever touch the hallowed turf of paric ui Criomh (in cork)
"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little." - Edmund Burke
To be honest I don't know if the GAA will ever use this stadium if they are as puritanical as you have suggested as they will not want to share with 'foreign games' I seem to remember that they took a long time to agree to using it and they were put under a lot of pressure to agree to it as the powers that be wanted to make this stadium have support from all sections of the community.
Unfortunately the allegation of being stuck in the past could be said of many individuals/groups/institutions in the North despite the progress that is being made!The attitude of the Northern GAA teams is probably the reason for most Unionist peoples contempt towards them. They are definately stuck in the 1920s.
Last edited by SolitudeRed; 27/06/2007 at 9:35 PM.
The rule as far as I know is that no foreign sports are to be played in a GAA ground.
The GAA has no rules stating that the GAA couldn't play in a foreign sports ground.
The thing is though we are not talking about other individuals/groups/institutions. We are talking about the GAA. I do not see how and why people excuse the GAA or any institution by saying 'they are not the only ones'Unfortunately the allegation of being stuck in the past could be said of many individuals/groups/institutions in the North despite the progress that is being made!
So what? Surely if anyone is stuck in the past and still have their hardened narrow views they should be condemned. Not let off because some other institution is can be accused of the same thing
The Hallion Battalion Molests football.:D
Sale of the land at the Maze would fund the upgrading of Windsor, Casement and Ravenhill....but that would make too much sense.
Ideally the IFA would buy Windsor off Linfield, but i cant see that happening.
Maze Stadium will be a total disaster, and for that reason alone I think it will definitely go ahead.
Linfield would love the IFA to buy Windsor off us if the following conditions apply.
1) 1000 year lease paying £1 a week
2) IFA keeps the stadium up to standard themselves.
3) We get the market value for the ground the stadium sits on
I know seems very far fetched, but then they did sign a 99 year contract with us before
Or
1) They buy the stadium off us for Market value
2) They buy us out of the remainder of the contract
The Hallion Battalion Molests football.:D
I know I'm nitpicking but Mongahan also joined the great combover on the bigots side of the house. They even voted on the matter unlike Frank who was so scared that the great gaels in the People's Republic would allow the devil into Croke Park they he found a technicality to decide that Cork should just vote NO without a vote on the matter.
As for the site itself out of town stadia are generally a bad idea in terms of access and atmosphere.
Not in the case of Stade de France - to name but one out of town stadium. A direct rail link to the Maze would mean a journey time of around 10 mins from Belfast city centre. The RER and metro out to the Stade de France can take up to 20mins; and the atmosphere there - for rugby internationals in particular, which attract supporters from well outside of the Ile-de-France - can be overwhelming.
I've only been there for football. It is an impressive stadium. Atmosphere was OK but we did have 40,000 away fans there. I've witnessed a hell of a lot better though. It is a terrible location and no prematch atmosphere. In many respects it is also still in Paris albeit in a drab suburb.
The Maze is really out in the sticks. there is nothing else there. I can't see a rail link being cost effective. you would also need pubs, hotels etc in the area to make
Lansdowne road and Croke Park in Dublin are in ideal locations. The Milenium Stadium in Cardiff is ideal also. There must be options in Belfast city centre.
The Stade de France has been severely criticised in France for its location and inaccessibility, despite the French government spending a fortune on rail links etc. Indeed, Paris St. Germain resisted fierce pressure to move to the SDF from Parc des Princes. Moreover, it is unlikely that this is because the capacity of the SDF is too large, since the new owners have announced they plan to expand the capacity of PDP to over 100,000!
As for the Maze, Northern Ireland Rail has no budget for a rail link, it has no plans for a rail link and nobody (even from amongst the Government backers of the Maze) has announced any intention of providing any budget to NIR to fund the rail link.
And even if that were to change (highly unlikely when the cost of the whole project is already in excess of £100m, before slippage), NIR has fewer than 30 train sets in the whole of Northern Ireland. Therefore, even if they were to cancel every other train service in the country for four hours around a match(!), they still could only physically move around 10% of the stadium capacity! Plus, of course, this is totally irrelevant to the majority population of NI who live nowhere near a rail station to connect them to the single line which runs at its nearest to a point 2-3 km from the Maze, from where everyone would have to get a bus, or walk...
Anyhow, here is an extract from a Paper compiled by the Amalgamation of NI Supporters Clubs:
Transport
“Roads Service is already spending £30-50million upgrading roads in the area whether the stadium goes ahead or not. It isn’t an extra cost”
Tony Whitehead, SIB
The Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan (BMTP) and The Regional Strategic Transport Network Transport Plan (RSTNTP) set out what will be needed and what is desired for transport in the Greater Belfast area. Both focus on the need for more integrated transport and for the need for people to have more travel options, e.g. walking and cycle routes.
What’s transport like to Belfast?
The M1, M2, M3, M5 and major ‘A roads’ all meet in central Belfast. All rail lines lead to Belfast. More bus routes facilitate Belfast than anywhere else in Northern Ireland. Two airports and the sea port also serve the city. Belfast truly is the transport hub for Northern Ireland.
And to the Maze?
The Maze was a good location for a prison. In a rural location, 3km from the nearest city, it lies beside the M1 but has no junction onto it. With no rail link (and none planned) it will rely on visitors coming by car or coach and the need for a junction to be added.
How much will transport upgrades cost?
Any junction will cost around £20million and is not included in the current Roads Service construction plans.Tony Whitehead also said that a link road was to be constructed, which would enable greater access to the site from the North West. Again, this road is only dependent on private development in the area and “(private) developers will be responsible for funding the scheme either in full or in a very substantial part”. This is estimated at £11.8million and the cost will have to be met by the developer.
For a stadium at the Maze then, additional road infrastructure will cost at least another £30million – is this to be added to the £85million that it is costing so far taking the cost beyond £115million? Roads Service is not spending this money already as Mr. Whitehead claimed. Also, these roads costs are only estimates at a 2003 level – the actual cost may be much higher by the time development starts in 2007.
In contrast, proposed locations in Belfast are already well served by road, rail and bus. The City Airport is 1km from the Titanic Quarter; 2km from Maysfield and Ormeau Park; and approximately 4km from the North Foreshore.
The Port of Belfast is even closer as are rail and bus interchanges. Any transport upgrades for Belfast already have budgets allocated, including the widening of the Sydenham Bypass to three lanes in either direction, making that site even more plausible.
How will we get to the Maze?
The Regional Development Strategy states that in 1999, 30% of the population did not have a car – with public transport non-existent to the Maze, how are any of these people supposed to get there?
It is unlikely that public transport will bring people to the Maze without going via Belfast or other neighbouring transport hubs. Will buses depart from the Maze stadium after a midweek match to the furthest corners of the province? If people have to connect via Belfast etc, it may be too late to get home if they live far away.
The Government has highlighted the need for greater access to major facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. These would exist in Belfast but it is very hard to see how pedestrians will access the Maze site without a long journey beforehand.
Even if public transport is arranged to the Maze, it cannot get 40,000 people to a single site outside Belfast. With trains running 2-3km away, scores of buses would be needed to take fans to the stadium site. Add these to the thousands trying to get into the site in cars and mass congestion is sure to follow. Leaving afterwards will be a similar nightmare and visions of mile long queues of cars can evoke the ‘tail-gate’ culture at out-of-town US stadiums.
Government transport policy actively encourages alternatives to private car use. The new stadium proposal runs contrary to this.
‘But it’s only the same distance as Trafalgar Square is to Wembley!’
The major difference is that Wembley is not in a rural location with one main road in and one out. It is well served by multiple road, rail and bus routes. London is a large metropolis with a long history of staging major events and handling huge volumes of traffic and people. Few cities in the world can cope with events such as the Olympics, but London’s recent successful tender highlights it’s preeminence amongst cities globally. To compare a regional city is facetious.
As for Wembley, if the example is being given by Government, why aren’t we getting the same level of public transport investment?
To facilitate the journeys of spectators, £70m is being invested to ensure visitors to Wembley can move smoothly and safely to and from the stations. There will be 100 trains moving 37,500 people per hour on event days.
The Government is not planning for this here. The RSNTP allocates £10.1million for inter city bus routes until 2015. This is for all of Northern Ireland yet it is only a fraction of the money being spent to bring 21st Century public transport to the new stadium at Wembley.
Well I am not defending the GAA I've already said on this board that I am in no way a fan of the GAA but they seem to be getting made out as the root of all evil here! IMHO to label them all bigots is silly, every GAA head that I know supported the decision to get rid of the contentious rules. Also I feel such criticism is a bit rich coming from any followers of the IL as most clubs in the IL and indeed the leadership of the league have been blighted by accusations of sectarianism in the past whether it was amongst the fans or in terms of policies pursued by some clubs and the IFA. Indeed its fair to say that there are still big problems with sectarianism in the IL and this is one of the big things holding It back. Of course I am not saying that the IL is full of Bigots I am merely saying that there is a minority element in both sports who give them a bad name......he without sin and all that!The thing is though we are not talking about other individuals/groups/institutions. We are talking about the GAA. I do not see how and why people excuse the GAA or any institution by saying 'they are not the only ones'
So what? Surely if anyone is stuck in the past and still have their hardened narrow views they should be condemned. Not let off because some other institution is can be accused of the same thing
Last edited by SolitudeRed; 29/06/2007 at 8:00 PM.
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