richieq

ah now the point was dublins league games the point was taking games like last weekends finals out of croker
and i proved to you that most county matches in the league are played in less percentages full grounds than croke park.
so you want to leave croke park empty for 6 months of the year???
you want dublin to go back to parnell and what bring rugby and soccer back to croker and promote them games instead???
dublin rent th use of croker so you do realise it costs them money
money made is divided among all county boards from the league
s it serves every other county better with 27,500 like was at the tyrone match
as oppossed to a capacity of 10 thousand parenll would have allowed
nobody has a problem with playing a leinster quarter final outside croker as a stand alone

Hang on let's cut this crap about Croke Park being empty 6 months of the year, Croke Park with its corporate areas and conference facilities is never empty, it has evolved into being more than a sports stadium it is a multi purpose facility and is constantly in use and constantly earning money, and even allowing for league matches it's playing surface isn't utilised from September to February save for an odd International Rules match so let's get that useless argument out of the way. Now I know Croke Park is rented by Dublin, does anyone know how much money Dublin GAA has spent on renting Croke Park?? I imagine the cumulative figure would go a long way towards planning a sufficient home stadium for themselves, hard earned money wasted in my opinion. Furthermore stop making out that we should all bow our heads and give thanks for being able to suckle on the Dublin cash cow, if Dublin had ever bothered to develop a decent home ground the financial gain would be the same for everyone. Ask the question, why have Dublin never progressed a functional home ground for themselves?? Why has a county with a population in excess of 1 million persons got a "home ground" capable of only holding 10'000?? Why should Dublin, irregardless of paying rent or not, have such exclusive use of the GAA national stadium for league matches which of course gives a clear advantage to them on bigger days, their younger players are getting an experience others don't get. I have no problem with soccer or rugby being played in Croke Park, in fact I welcome it, look at the revenue that was provided the last time the FAI and IRFU utilised Croke Park and look at the exposure and praise that Croke Park earned, a pure win win situation. And let's hammer another myth here, playing soccer or rugby in Croke Park does not promote those games at expense of Gaelic Games, to suggest such is unfounded folly, all three organisations promote their games individually and playing soccer or rugby at Croke Park no more promotes those games than playing hurling or football at the Aviva would promote ours, the stadium you play a sport in is not the be all and end all in terms of sport promotion, far from it.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 28/04/2015 12:59:27    1718441

cavanman47
County: Cavan
Posts: 1121

1718369 TheMaster
County: Mayo
Posts: 13036

1718288 Out of interest, how many people does croke park need to break even?


Depends on ticket prices. I have heard that it needs 40k, but this doesn't seem right. It wouldn't be used near as much as it is if that were the case.
Have also heard that a full house is worth 4 million to the GAA. So that's €48 out of a €70 ticket (not accounting for sponsorship, etc.). This does seem reasonable enough but again, not all games are €70. I'd imagine the smaller games benefit from the top tier not being open (lower security requirements, possible reduced insurance costs?, etc.)


I heard that €40k figure before, however with tickets €10-€15 each for league games, a crowd of 20,000 - 40,000 would make opening Croker extremely viable.

I think All Ireland final ticket distribution is a far bigger Issue, as the counties involved often get less than 20,000 tickets each.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 30/04/2015 19:52:54    1719339

Richieq

You make what appear to be valid points, there are valid answers to them all of that I am sure, I don't have them but I can surmise. When you say "I imagine the cumulative figure would go a long way towards planning a sufficient home stadium for themselves, hard earned money wasted in my opinion."
In whose interest is it really to have Dublin in Croke Park? A few years back it was mooted to turn All Hollows into a 30K stadium, nothing came of it, Abbotstown nothing came of it, redevelopment of Parnell Park nothing came of it.

Even for league games you would need a stadium of 40K for Dublin, its never going to happen. Croke Park needs the money and that is the way it is going to stay.

Its all about cash end of and the GAA needs a lot of it.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4898 - 01/05/2015 09:48:41    1719387

Can we afford to just throw millions at a fancy white elephant stadium at the expense of doing good work with that money in clubs, schools etc?

I'm not so sure. Despite what people might say, finances are tight.

However the money just isn't there and those in the DCB know this and thankfully are not interested in massive vanity projects which could lead Dublin GAA into financial problems.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13718 - 01/05/2015 09:57:20    1719389

Fully agree with you waynoI. To me it just indicates where the focus of the gaa lies. They are willing to sacrifice the atmosphere and the occasion of the game, for money, every single time.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 01/05/2015 11:12:44    1719413

I heard before that you need about 30,000 in attendance for Croke Park to beeakeven. Not sure how accurate or otherwise that is.

Killarney.87 (Tipperary) - Posts: 2513 - 01/05/2015 12:41:26    1719461

MesAmis
County: Dublin
Posts: 8543

1719389 Can we afford to just throw millions at a fancy white elephant stadium at the expense of doing good work with that money in clubs, schools etc?

I'm not so sure. Despite what people might say, finances are tight.

However the money just isn't there and those in the DCB know this and thankfully are not interested in massive vanity projects which could lead Dublin GAA into financial problems.


Every county has generally 1 county ground, and some counties have 2 or more viable grounds.

Croke Park is Croke Park, and as GAA HQ it is worth having such a stadium to cater for massive crowds in excess of 60,000.

However outside of this, I don't think we need state of the art Stadiums in each of the other 3 Provinces. I think a Stadium like McHale Park is superb, and caters for everything we need for Gaelic Games.

No frill logical Stadiums, with basic amenities and simplistic designs will serve our needs for a fraction of the price of massive Provincial white elephants. 35,000 capacity should be sufficient for Provincial games, with games substancially exceeding this demand, then possibly moving to Croke Park if all agree.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 01/05/2015 15:19:33    1719518