PLANNING APPROVAL HAS been granted for a 38,000 all seater stadium as part of the Casement Park redevelopment project in Belfast.
The Ulster Council have today confirmed that the green light has been given for the project which will see the stadium’s capacity increase from over 32,500 – mainly terracing – to 38,000.
It is envisaged that construction will begin by spring 2014 and the stadium will be constructed before the commencement of the 2016 Ulster championship. Agreement has also been reached between DCAL and the GAA on the project funding agreement.
The announcement is also a boost in providing a prospective top-class venue for Ireland’s potential bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
GAA Director-General Paraic Duffy welcomed today’s news.
“Today’s announcement in relation to Casement Park is a ‘red letter’ day for the GAA in Ulster and indeed Ireland. The GAA’s Central Council decided to invest significant partnership funds of £15 million in the project to meet the strategic stadium needs of Ulster GAA who as the governing body of the GAA in the province are the project promoters.”
Here’s a virtual flythrough of the design of the new Casement Park redevelopment.
YouTube: UlsterGAA
This’ll be the first decent stadium in the North. Great news!
If the irfu, the sports and tourism depts north and south and most importantly the GAA can manage to work together I’d say we stand a bloody good chance of getting the Rugby World Cup here in 22 or 23 or whenever it is they are talking about. Nice compact island, excellent motorway links, decent enough rail that could be improved in the 8 or o yrs beforehand, excellent host cities for games, huge amount of hotels and well organised tourism infrastructure and great home supporters always game for a party! I think they’d be mental not to let the irfu have it. It’d be very good PR for the GAA as well with expo games beforehand and other events in host cities.
At least all irish Stadiums are consistent in design.only finish 3 sides.
Its a fabulous looking design(3/4 of it anyways) and just the right size. Il look forward to going up to a game was when its finished.
Impressive, every province should have a top class stadium like this.
Looks impressive.
Cue the moaning arseholes from Monaghan ” The Ulster Final belongs in Clones” etc
Looks great! Hopefully it will go ahead with no delays! The good thing is it’s much less expensive to build something now than it was a few years ago so it makes sense to get it done asap!
The FAI should try an host an international match there, imagine the upset it would cause.
Fai should redevelop some of there stadiums down south rather then try piss the neighbours off… Cost of of that redevelopment would be more then enough to bring all loi stadiums up to a decent standard
their than
A Gaa Stadium with actual seats all the way around and shelter from the rain?
It has only taken 130 years but the dream might finally become a reality
P.S. Dirty concrete slabs do not equate to seats.
Nope, it will only have a roof on three sides.
The deepest stand behind the northern goals is totally uncovered.
Complete joke for a brand new stadium in one of the wettest citiesin Europe.
Looks great, Another step closer to hosting a RWC!
Thing of absolute beauty … Maybe Derry might make it to an Ulster final for a change!!!
The stadium will be super and Belfast is the right location but sad to say casement park in the middle of Andytown with no parking facilities will create problems
Who’s DCAL?
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure.
Department of Culture Arts and Leisure in the UK. The also gave money to Ulster rugby to redevelop Ravenhill and to the IFA to redevelop Windsor Park.
Sounds good. Cheers for the clarification lads.
DCAL is an NI department, devolved to Stormont. DCMS is the UK equivalent
Looks good. My first requirement for any new or refurbished stadium in this day and age especially in the country we live in is a guaranteed dry seat no matter the weather. Not sure from that vid that it offers that which would be extremely disappointing
Íontach! Go n-éirí go geal leo!
They are spending 81 million sterling on it so it would want to be used a lot to justify the cost. Hope it doesn’t turn out to be a white elephant .
This is another great day for Irish Rugby. And a step towards hosting the Rugby World Cup in Ireland.
And of course the GAA. Hosting Ulster Rugby in Casement Park and playing a few games in Arabs hill would be a step in the right direction.
Hopefully one day an All-Ireland Soccer team will play an international game in Casement Park against Peru where Sir Roger Casement earned his knighthood.
Isn’t it grand boys and girls that the Government of Noren Iron has the money for this sort of thing.
Where did they get it ?
From London or Londonderry ?
With this, Páirc Uí Chaoimh’s redevelopment and Croker, the next step is to have a truly modern world class stadium in Connacht. Where do connacht folk think would be the most suitable location? If sensible heads prevailed, There would be joint venture with Connacht Rugby, Connacht Gaa, the GAA and IRFU to build a shared stadium for Connacht GAA headquarters and Connacht Rugby head quarters. Maybe a nice 25/30 thousand seater. The connacht fans are used to the dogtrack in the sports ground, so the extra pitch space at rugby games shouldn’t be problem for them. And it’d really spread the cost and not have the grounds sitting empty for large parts of the year. Also they should retain some small patches of terracing near the pitch in all these grounds. It really adds to the atmosphere. Personally I think they should convert the low end of the aviva to terraces, you could probably fit in a few hundred extra punters as well. (I think terracing is allowed in soccer again, correct me if I’m wrong)
THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE THING WHICH COULD HAVE HAPPENED!
This idiotic stadium should never have gotten planning permission. It is in a residential area and the increased traffic through our area is going to make the already bad congestion worse. Even just the construction of the stadium will wreck our area, there is simply not enough space here for a major stadium!! he houses of my friends and family will be in constant darkness and the values of their houses will plummet. NO ONE in this area wants this stadium, there have been protests and petitions and our useless politicians and ignorant planning office just ignored us the suck up to the bloody GAA. This should never have happened, this is a shameful disgrace and I’m disgusted it is going forward.
I agree, the redevelopment of Croke Park has had a negative impact on the local area, and it is likely that redeveloping Casement will cause similar distress and annoyance to local residents.
You can’t not build things because the locals don’t like it. The stadium was built in 1953 and was there when everyone bought their houses. You bought your house knowing it was near a stadium that would likely be redeveloped at some stage. I assume the houses were cheaper to buy than in other areas because of this.
Politicians need to look at the wider picture and decide what is in the best interest of the community as a whole.
It sounds like you don’t own a house beside the stadium!
How exactly did Croke Park’s redevelopment do damage to the area around the stadium? The locals benefit hugely from the stadium, they get priority tickets for events & games.
No and I wouldn’t buy a house beside Dublin airport if I had an issue with noise either. Dublin will continue to grow much faster than the rest of the country and Dublin airport will get much busier. The DAA will likely begin to build a second runway within this decade.
Sure when you bought your bloody house I’m sure you knew there was a stadium beside it, a friend of mine lives in front of Semple Stadium, what of it?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=178152695720528&set=t.100003184993348&type=1&theater.
An impressive theater of british money. No wonder the is no sign of an Irish Flag or a Harp.