BELFAST - Casement Park (32,600 -> 40,000)

[jpgjohnnyg]

Casement Park (Irish: Páirc Mhic Easmainn) is the principal Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in Belfast, home to the Antrim football and hurling teams. Located on the Andersonstown Road in the west of the city, and named after the Republican revolutionary Sir Roger Casement (1864-1916), the ground has a capacity of 32,600 (mostly terracing and bench seating)



The stadium is to be redeveloped into a 40000 seater stadium at a cost of 76 million pounds, 61.4 million from the Northern Executive and the remaing 15 million form Ulster GAA and is set to be completed by 2015

When completed, Casement Park will be the major stadium in Ulster. The development is likely to ensure big provincial championship games including Ulster finals will be played in Belfast rather than Clones, Co Monaghan.

The GAA described the latest development in the plans to regenerate Casement as a “significant milestone”, adding: “It represents real and tangible progress on the long-held strategic ambition of the GAA at provincial and central level to provide a modern, fit-for-purpose and iconic stadium to meet the needs of the GAA in Ulster for the next half century.”

Previous plans to create a major stadium on the old Maze prison site near Lisburn to accommodate the needs of the GAA, the Irish Football Association and the Ulster Rugby Football Union did not materialise because of political disagreement.

It was decided that funding would be allocated to the different bodies, with the GAA receiving £61.4 million, the IFA £25.2 million and URFU £14.7 million.

ThE concept plans for the new Casement Park stadium were unveiled as part of the Ulster Council’s community consultation process this week.





The consultation allowed members of the public to quiz the architects, engineers and other professionals who are in charge of the biggest GAA infrastructure project ever undertaken in the North.

Those who attended were presented with plans for the new stadium and were encouraged to give their feedback on the proposals. A formal consultation period will begin before the end of the year and all the views gathered will help modify the final stadium design before the final plans are sent for planning approval in March 2013.

The new stadium will seat 40,000 people and will include restaurants and conference facilities, bringing sustainable jobs to the area.

The new ‘front’ of the stadium on the Andersonstown Road will be further back from the road than the current turnstile wall to allow for a public space in front of the stadium. There will be a number of commercial units facing on to the Andersonstown Road, including a ticket office and an Ulster GAA merchandise shop.

All patrons will enter and exit the stadium at the Andersonstown Road end, meaning no supporters will access the stadium from Owenvarragh Park or Mooreland Park.

The Andersonstown Road will be closed on major match days, while a one-mile traffic ‘exclusion zone’ will prevent anyone apart from local residents from parking in the stadium’s vicinity. The GAA will encourage visiting supporters to travel either by train to Balmoral Station or use one of the proposed park and ride schemes. The new design includes 240 parking spaces.

The stadium will be a ‘bowl’ shape, with a roof on all sides, and with new floodlights contained within the bowl, this will go a long way to prevent light and sound escaping. Rainwater will be collected from the roof for use in the toilet system and for watering the pitch.

The plans are obviously at an early stage and not approved yet but it does give us an idea as to how things will look. Tha Andersontown road end looks a little odd and there is definitely too much yellow even for an Antrim man!. The seating plan isnt a symmetrical bowl and follows the existing layout almost exactly which is strange because any aerial shot shows room for a ''true bowl''

Its an exciting project and certainly the most highly anticipated GAA development since Croke Park. Fingers crossed they will do it right.
I will post more pictures as soon as they are available and will hopefully keep you posted on any news regarding the new Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork.

[jpgjohnnyg]

Very early plans had a foot bridge over the motorway linking the stadium with Musgrave park which would have been fantastic as parking and access to the ground is limited, unfortunately this idea seems to have been shelved.

[IMG]http://i53.************/343nfwi.jpg[/IMG]

One other point the new Casement is one of 6 GAA grounds (the others being Croke, Pairc ui Chaoimh, Fitzgerald, Pearse and the Gaelic grounds) that the GAA have agreed to be included in the rugby world cup 2023 bid!

[jpgjohnnyg]

As mentioned earlier this is one of 3 projects in Belfast that will happen over the next couple of years.
Windsor Park the home of Northern Ireland football team will be redeveloped into an 18000 seater stadium at a cost of 25million



Ravenhill the home of Ulster rugby is also getting a 15million make over to increase capacity to 18000.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6Il6uaQju0

Exciting times for sport in Belfast.

[thebig C]

God, why are the renders the GAA provide always so awfull!!

[jpgjohnnyg]

Agreed its not very clear but look on the bright side at least Casement has some, we have been talking about Pairc ui chaoimh being redeveloped for years and all I can find is an out of date newspaper clipping and nothing else and yet they are supposed to start digging next year! The pictures of casement are on view at Andersons town leisure centre. I took the above pictures from the Casement residents twitter feed who dont seem very happy about the look of the stadium and general lack of information about what will happen.

[mixerplus1]

This is my very first post on any forum from this site. I got word at the start of the year that Ireland were considering a bid for Rugby World Cup 2023 and it got be excited. And when I heard that both Casement and Pairc Ui Chaoimh were both been redeveloped into 40,000 capacity modern stadiums the excitement grew further.

However after seen these plans (albeit very early and basic) and researching what is happening in Cork that excitement has very much turned to frustration.

I'll discuss Pairc Ui Chaoimh later because that is a total let down but I actually thought that once the GAA appointed Populous to design Casement Park stadium I thought we'd get a truly great stadium as these guys have so much experience in sport stadium design.

The first thing that jumped out at me is the fact that the stadium has no continuity. None of the stands are the same size, not one, even all the four corners are different sizes. To me this just looks silly and will take away from the aesthetics of any stadium. Even Croke Park and the Aviva look terrible, and they have unity on three sides.
The fact that the Andersonstown Road Stand is so big shouts out to be that they needed to increase the capacity to get it up to 40,000. So they just kept going back until the numbers added up. This is terrible design. The viewing distance from the back of this stand will be far to large.

In the case of a gaelic football the preferred viewing distance should be no more than 150m between the extreme corner of the field and spectator’s eye, with an absolute maximum of 190m. Setting out these distances from the extreme viewing positions, such as the diagonally opposed corners of a playing field, gives a preferred viewing zone and their average configuration suggests a circle struck from the centre spot on the field, generally referred to as the ‘optimum viewing circle. This circle in the case of football and rugby would have a radius of 90m.

This might sound complicated stuff but i'm sure the people at Populous know this, and if they don't they are in the wrong business. What this means is that well over half the capacity of the Andersonstown Road Stand will be outside the optimum viewing circle. The largest stands should run along the side of the pitch in the long direction. This isn't good enough for a modern stadium.

[IMG]http://www.google.com.au/imgres?num=10&um=1&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1680&bih=916&tbm=isch&tbnid=K1NMaJ-wDgj3gM:&imgrefurl=http://www.lfcreds.com/reds/index.php%3Ftopic%3D33422.390&docid=BLY1nCfBlSyCxM&imgurl=http://oi54.************/5yx3s0.jpg&w=497&h=403&ei=Zd2uUJW1GeSwiQfYxIGoCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=148&dur=3035&hovh=202&hovw=249&tx=120&ty=107&sig=109742356064243550516&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=139&tbnw=174&start=0&ndsp=45&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:82[/IMG]

The fact that it is a single tie stand will mean it will be very hard to roof the entire stand. Trust me once the quantity surveys cost a roof that will do so they will be quick to pull it back, which will mean that all the people at the front of the stand that can see the game will be getting wet and all the ones at the back will be dry but won't be able to make out whats happening

It will definitely not be a modern stadium if the entire thing is not roofed. I hate having a ticket in Croke Park on the lower tier of the cusack stand when it rains, and lets face it we live in Ireland .. It rains

So what do people think ?? Let me know ?? As i mentioned earlier I will post about what I found out about Park Ui Choaimh later, and it's worse than Casement. It's a real joke.

[jpgjohnnyg]

I think the odd shape is so it will have minimum impact on the residents. The large protruding stand at Andersonstown road end is where there are no houses and therefore minimises the heights of the stands on the other 3 sides where there are houses. The residents though from what I gather dont seem happy with the design. The design does look odd but it may grow on me but I do agree with you that I see no reason why the seating plan is such a mess with all the corners and stands slighlty different (it seems to follow the existing layout but why?). As for the residents to be honest I dont have too much sympathy for them. If you buy a house next to an existing stadium or airport or city centre brownfield site then you got to expect that at some point construction and expansion is likely!!!

[mixerplus1]

The design does look odd but it may grow on me but I do agree with you that I see no reason why the seating plan is such a mess with all the corners and stands slighlty different (it seems to follow the existing layout but why?)

The only reason why I can see of matching the existing layout is if you were keeping the existing stands. However I thought it was going to be a new build stadium and they could design as they pleased. Maybe not :/

[ChesterCopperpot]

Here we go

[IMG]http://i50.************/o0s1uw.png[/IMG]

[jpgjohnnyg]

Looks good although they seem to have done away with roofs at the goal ends I presume this has been done to keep the height down and appease the local residents but as we all know it rains a lot in Ireland so I would have thought a roof is essential especially when you are spending 80 million. More pictures to be released later today

[jpgjohnnyg]

Ok here is a link for the other pictures to be honest it looks pretty good although I still would prefer a roof on that goal end

.https://twitter.com/CasementPark

[RMB2007]

[popstudio]

Thanks for all your postive comments its great to hear what you think of our work. Casement Park will be a great stadium, unique and designed to respond to the needs of the site. The roof is costed so no need to worry about it 'pulling back'. Also no need to worry about bowl continuity - we have a 360 deg concourse back feeding the lower tier which holds about 24k. The site won't take a 'blob' type stadium so we are are working with the traditional 4 stand model albiet with a view to maintaining a bowl feel and great acoustics. Viewing distances will be fine. It's a constrained site, everyone knows that, but will think that's pushing us to create one of our best ever schemes. We are in a consultantion phase so comment directly to the GAA enquiries@casementpark.ie
Populous Team.

[R.K.Teck]

Nice one!

[jpgjohnnyg]

Here is a photo obviously taken during a presentation. We get a good look at the open end. It looks ok but just to remind the designer that it does rain a lot in Belfast. Apparently the roof has been left off to retain the views of the mountains but Im pretty sure it has been done to appease some of the residents

[RMB2007]

Casement Park residents criticise GAA over redevelopment plans

A Casement Park residents' group has accused the GAA of giving "misleading and factually inaccurate information" over the redevelopment of the stadium.

A group of local residents, called the Mooreland Owenvarragh Residents Association, are concerned about the height of the proposed new 38,000 all-seater stadium in west Belfast.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/21607854

[Harry1990]

doesnt it seem a bit pointless wasting money on windsor park when its going to be 22000 seats less than this stadium, i know its a GAA ground but wouldn't it be more cost effective having one multipurpose ground for rugby,football and Gaelic football than 3 grounds.

at 40,000 you could argue that some of Ireland's six nation games should be played there as if its a joint team for both the south and north surely both parts of Ireland should host meaningful encounters and not just give belfast the odd game against Canada or Usa etc

[jpgjohnnyg]

Originally Posted by RMB2007

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/21607854

To be honest I dont have a lot of sympathy for local residents. If you buy a house next to a stadium then there is always a risk of future development. Its like the clowns that buy a house near an airport and then complain of the noise!
Looking at the plans the height shouldnt be an issue the pitch is already sunk compared to the local streets and one end wont have a roof and the other roofs will be glass allowing light to pass. I think the residents should be grateful that the area in general is getting a huge tidy up also the existing entrances to the ground from the residential streets are being closed meaning spectators can only enter the ground form the main Anderson Town road. To be honest some people just moan no matter what!

[jpgjohnnyg]

Originally Posted by Harry1990

doesnt it seem a bit pointless wasting money on windsor park when its going to be 22000 seats less than this stadium, i know its a GAA ground but wouldn't it be more cost effective having one multipurpose ground for rugby,football and Gaelic football than 3 grounds.

at 40,000 you could argue that some of Ireland's six nation games should be played there as if its a joint team for both the south and north surely both parts of Ireland should host meaningful encounters and not just give belfast the odd game against Canada or Usa etc

Some good questions Harry let me try and answer them.

First of all the original plan was to build a single 40000 stadium on the site of the old Maze prison, Lisburn. The proposal had the backing of the GAA and IRFU/Ulster rugby but was not backed by the IFA and most of the Northern Irish football fans. The fans argued that the stadium should be in Belfast and that an out of town site would have no bars/atmosphere and that the pitch would be too big as GAA dimensions required etc etc. The main reasons the football fans didnt want it was they didnt want to play most of their matches in a half empty stadium and secondly as well the stadium development the hospital wing of the prison where the hunger strikers died was to be kept as a museum and fans and Unionists in general were worried that it would become a shrine to terrorists. The whole plan fell apart some 6 years ago and only now are we starting to see progress on the new stadia. I originally supported the single stadium but I have come round to the idea of 3 separate grounds the fact that casement is going to be almost as big as the multipurpose stadium and built to a good spec is important also the cost for all 3 is also a fraction of the cost of the original Maze stadium!!!

Casement itself will be used for the big GAA games in Ulster. Some argue that it may only be at capacity a couple of times a year, the GAA should in my view start moving some matches away from Croke park as in recent years more and more games in the latter stages of the tournaments are played there it would make more sense if the GAA sell 40000 tickets to have the game in Belfast rather than a half filled Croke. It could also be used for big concerts as there is no other venue in Northern Ireland that would have a similar capacity.

Regarding rugby at Casement it wont happen for 10 years as all Irish tests must be played at the Aviva (sponsor contract obligation) after that who knows. Aviva is 51000 so more bums on seat means extra money for the IRFU but if they felt a test against a lesser nation wouldnt sell out then maybe Casement but dont forget the IRFU would then need to 'hire' the stadium so again probably not cost effective. The same for Ulster rugby. I dont think Northern Ireland has normalised enough for rugby to played at Casement but even when it does it will make more financial sense for Ulster to play big HC games at the Aviva.

Ravenhill is perfect size for Ulster rugby for Rabo and HC, the occasional big game will as noted earlier be shifted to the Aviva.

The new Windsor design is looking good and the ground is long over due a make over. I do think the IFA missed a golden opportunity though to build a new stadium in a neutral area without any historical baggage to try and attract fans from both communities but they didnt and not only that they kept their dodgy agreement with Linfield FC (owners of Windsor Park) which means that one team consistently has a huge financial advantage over the others!

By the way in case you were wondering there would be zero chance of Northern Ireland playing at Casement for a big football game, the very idea would be enough to start a riot!

Interesting times ahead cant wait to go to all the new grounds when they are finished!

[OKT23]

I really like this project.