bumpernut
County: Antrim
Posts: 646

1570425
Ffs Gary forget about it and get on with your life, the decision has been made.

No amount of you monopolising discussions about the redevelopment of Casement is going to change anything not to mention the tangent you are going off on re building cities in coastal areas.

This is a forum bumpernut, It's on forums like this where people can express their views and discuss different GAA topics ( Facts or What if scenario's ).
I did go off on a tangent, but only to respond to Incorrect Interpretations of what I said earlier.

A £70 million stg Casement Park is not what the Ulster Gael's need, and I have yet to hear a good solid argument on why that money should all be spent on Casement.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 04/04/2014 20:53:01    1570525

Gary, put the spade down before you hit Australia (which also has its cities on the coast, perhaps to be closer to britain ??)

Burnsey (Down) - Posts: 561 - 04/04/2014 21:33:26    1570551

All these objections were raised plenty of times in the past. A modern state of the art stadium is at high risk of becoming a white elephant if it doesn't have a team with good regular attendances to service it. In Antrim Casement won't have that for the foreseeable future anyway. It also hampered by the fact the Ulster Hurling championship isn't viable from a commercial sense either. It will require a change of home/away arrangements in the Ulster Football Championship, the allocation of applicable qualifiers and probably access to the All Ireland Quarter Finals in Football if it is to run a profit. Ancillary revenue will also be required.

If the GAA/Ulster Championship are not concerned about financial viability and the motives are purely political then i think the choice is naive and a waste of money. There are other white elephants in terms of GAA stadiums, the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick being a prime example. However the running costs of this stadium driven by design would be low. The same would not be of a state of the art stadium in Belfast. The stadium model in the GAA works as the grounds are relatively cheap to operate and can take large crowds. Croke Park being the exception with both high running cost and a large stadium.

The obvious choice would be near Omagh, as access and popular teams would help drive profitability. Belfast can be made work, but it will take a change of approach to service the stadium as its profits would materialise from teams not from the Belfast area.

seany16 (Dublin) - Posts: 1658 - 04/04/2014 21:57:03    1570574

Burnsey
County: Down
Posts: 447

1570551
Gary, put the spade down before you hit Australia (which also has its cities on the coast, perhaps to be closer to britain ??)


Only Antrim fans and a few Down fans have come out strongly in favour of this, and not one has actually put foward a logical argument for Casement getting so much cash.

I don't need to dig any further, there is already a big hole for that £70 million stg ( I'll give you a clue, It's big hole on the coast strategically close to Britain ).

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 04/04/2014 21:59:07    1570576

Only Antrim fans and a few Down fans have come out strongly in favour of this, and not one has actually put foward a logical argument for Casement getting so much cash.

Since you clearly cannot be bothered reading through the debate I will re-post:

AA Route Planner
Ballybofey to Dungannon: 1hr 27 mins
Ballybofey to Belfast: 2hr 6 min

Cavan to Dungannon: 1hr 24 mins
Cavan to Belfast: 2hr 1 min

Enniskillen to Dungannon: 1hr 3 mins
Enniskillen to Belfast: 1hr 42 mins

Clones to Dungannon: 59 mins
Clones to Belfast: 1hr 36 mins

Derry to Dungannon: 1hr 27mins
Derry to Belfast: 1hr 34 mins

Newry to Dungannon: 5o mins
Newry to Belfast:51 mins

Armagh to Dungannon: 23 mins
Armagh to Belfast:53 mins

So on the face of it you would think Dungannon the obvious choice with 5 other Ulster County towns/cities being roughly 30-40mins closer to Dungannon than Belfast.

I would urge caution with this though for a number of reasons and not because Dungannon is a one horse town.

When traveling out of Belfast you will get a greater or lesser proportion of your immediate journey on Motorway with at least two lanes of traffic to disperse the crowd relatively quickly. I am sure all of us who have been to Clones know that you could easily lose the 30-40 min advantage before you get a few miles up the road.

Add to this the fact that Belfast has superior public transport links throughout the province and indeed the country and already it is beginning to look like the better choice.

Throw in accommodation, the attraction of shopping, entertainment, restaurants etc for the good ladies who may want to do something other than watch the game or make a weekend of it.

Add to that other events that can be staged and their wider appeal - I know someone has said this is a GAA ground and that should be what is focused on but lets get real here.

And don't forget despite being in Antrim Belfast hosts a big population of people from all the other Counties in Ulster.

So if we are talking purely location then Belfast is an absolute no brainer.


To add a bit more Dungannon does have a motorway but you would not go on to it to get to any of the aforementioned locations and instead it would lead you to YES Casement.

Omagh has even less access and is a nightmare of a town to get through.

Naysayer (Antrim) - Posts: 2071 - 05/04/2014 09:05:43    1570584

Only Antrim fans and a few Down fans have come out strongly in favour of this, and not one has actually put foward a logical argument for Casement getting so much cash.

Antrim: 618,108
Down: 531,665
Derry: 247,132
Armagh: 174,792
Tyrone: 177,986
Monaghan: 60,483
Fermanagh: 61,170
Cavan: 73,183
Donegal: 161,137

So as you can see there are more people in Antrim and Down than the rest put together and the counties that are a reasonable drive from Belfast carry the larger populations than the furthest away.

It is the Donegal people I feel sorry for, they tend to get shafted on a regular basis by the government in the South and given the poor public transport links to Belfast will be disadvantaged by the decision to locate in Belfast given they will have no option but to do this by car and they have a big population relative to the other counties that are that wee bit further away.

Naysayer (Antrim) - Posts: 2071 - 05/04/2014 09:22:00    1570588

Naysayer
County: Antrim
Posts: 191

1570588
Only Antrim fans and a few Down fans have come out strongly in favour of this, and not one has actually put foward a logical argument for Casement getting so much cash.

Antrim: 618,108
Down: 531,665
Derry: 247,132
Armagh: 174,792
Tyrone: 177,986
Monaghan: 60,483
Fermanagh: 61,170
Cavan: 73,183
Donegal: 161,137

So as you can see there are more people in Antrim and Down than the rest put together and the counties that are a reasonable drive from Belfast carry the larger populations than the furthest away.

It is the Donegal people I feel sorry for, they tend to get shafted on a regular basis by the government in the South and given the poor public transport links to Belfast will be disadvantaged by the decision to locate in Belfast given they will have no option but to do this by car and they have a big population relative to the other counties that are that wee bit further away.

I agree that clearly there is more people living there, however the breakdown of that population does not suggest that GAA would be popular with more than 50% of the population of Antrim, Down, North Armagh, North East Derry.

Donegal do have a large Population of 160-170,000 people at last check, and they are a vast majority GAA fans. And yes they do get screwed on a constant basis.
However hopefully the A5 might open up access to Letterkenny as well as Derry when it eventually gets going. They were surveying traffic this week between Omagh and Derry to see how many cars were travelling that route for business or pleasure/shopping etc.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 05/04/2014 13:45:37    1570648

Oh sweet bejaysus - just when you think things have moved on you hear this on the radio on the way to work this morning. Time to get the bulldozers and the swing ball out I think!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-27018412

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 14/04/2014 10:19:23    1574768

Power to the people!

brendtheredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 10897 - 14/04/2014 12:04:57    1574848

Yay. Put the bulldozer back in the shed and bury the semtex again, peace is restored in the Wild West. They'll be dancing in the streets of Andytown tonight!

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 14/04/2014 21:08:44    1575245

What were they after this time - a Shrubbery?

Naysayer (Antrim) - Posts: 2071 - 15/04/2014 08:43:29    1575293

Dum de dum:

http://www.u.tv/Sport/Group-seek-judicial-review-over-Casement/61935990-c306-4c84-932f-96d4fbaa14f9

I'm telling you - if the Antrim Co board were smart they would start their own soap and make a bit of money. Between this, CJ and the St Galls lads, Bakers ways, the boards wiley ways then it would be a winner.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 17/04/2014 10:33:13    1576231

I would tune in for sure Offside_Rule, and who knows, amongst all of this cluster**** the odd game or two might break out!

brendtheredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 10897 - 17/04/2014 11:20:41    1576253

Ha, wouldn't hold my breath on the game front Brend - think the off-field antics would be more appealing to the viewers than the muck we get served up on the field.

Moorehead and Owenvarragh Residents Association (MORA)- should they not be renamed? Perhaps:

Moorehead and Owenvarragh Residents Objecting to New Structure.....

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 17/04/2014 12:33:45    1576291