Ulster Championship 2023

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Peter grimes

Well-Known Member
PatMustard said:
We have been waiting years and years.

I’m loath to bring Ulster finals to Croke Park. Having said that, is Clones really the future for Ulster finals? We have to be looking at grounds with decent roads and good public transport links.
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The whole thing is a mess but throwing the hands up isn’t going to help.

UC/GAA need to establish what funding is available for Casement, another northern stadium (new or existing) or one in the South (basically Clones) and then see what that funding could deliver and then pick one of those options. We can’t just sit and hope that the Casement funding will just expand to the number we think we need.

I genuinely can’t see a stellar option here but we need to establish the best available option and get on with it
 
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Armaghball

Well-Known Member
Peter grimes said:
The whole thing is a mess but throwing the hands up isn’t going to help.

UC/GAA need to establish what funding is available for Casement, another northern stadium (new or existing) or one in the South (basically Clones) and then see what that funding could deliver and then pick one of those options. We can’t just sit and hope that the Casement funding will just expand to the number we think we need.

I genuinely can’t see a stellar option here but we need to establish the best available option and get on with it
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Maybe people are hoping the foreign sports tournament coming will be a get out of jail card and get Casement built and paid for.
 
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CliffClavin

New Member
Onlooker said:
some amount of people crying online about not being members of clubs. Makes me sick. Clubs are the backbone of the GAA and paying club members help the GAA function, they should be given first choice. Back when Armagh were in their glory years there was no such thing as online sales and anyone that wanted to go to Armagh games were members of clubs, then the technology age came along and clubs have suffered ever since to stay afloat.
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I never felt much of a connection to my local club because my parents were from the neighbouring townlands. I have no historical connection with my local club apart from playing underage there. County feels different as my family were from the county going back hundreds of years.

I always read the same sort of gate keeping comments every year. I find it ironic that the GAA use the slogan "Where we all belong", it's all just virtue signaling until the arguments start about who is the bigger GAA man. I personally got a ticket through my sibling who is a member of another club in the county.
 
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CliffClavin

New Member
orchard92 said:
I know in my local club its probably split 50/50 with the same ones doing everything and the other having doing nothing.
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What if you are like me and have no family connection to the club? Why would a bachelor man like me go out and coach other men's kids? That usually doesn't happen anyway, usually coaches are the fathers of players.
My relatives play for another club in the county, my link with my local club is zero and it is hard to build a relationship with it when you are over 30.
 
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CliffClavin

New Member
Not too serious said:
Members are tasked with furthering the aims of the association. Paying membership is only part of being properly involved in the GAA.
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Not every volunteer has impact on the county teams success anyway. The last player in my local club to play for the county in the championship was 50 years ago. If my local club shut down it would have zero impact on the county team. So all this talk about volunteers "nourishing future talent" isn't always the case.
 
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Kem

Active Member
Peter grimes said:
The whole thing is a mess but throwing the hands up isn’t going to help.

UC/GAA need to establish what funding is available for Casement, another northern stadium (new or existing) or one in the South (basically Clones) and then see what that funding could deliver and then pick one of those options. We can’t just sit and hope that the Casement funding will just expand to the number we think we need.

I genuinely can’t see a stellar option here but we need to establish the best available option and get on with it
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Anyone supporting Casement as a better venue than Clones hasn't been stuck on the M1 trying to get onto Kennedy Way, trying to find a parking spot when you eventually get there and fingers crossed that your car would still be there when the game was over. Armagh is geographically near the centre of the 9 county Ulster and would make a better choice than Belfast for a new stadium.
 
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Armaghball

Well-Known Member
Kem said:
Anyone supporting Casement as a better venue than Clones hasn't been stuck on the M1 trying to get onto Kennedy Way, trying to find a parking spot when you eventually get there and fingers crossed that your car would still be there when the game was over. Armagh is geographically near the centre of the 9 county Ulster and would make a better choice than Belfast for a new stadium.
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Realistically no matter where any stadium is, it’s gonna be pandemonium trying to drive to it if tens of thousands of people are going to one place.
 
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Peter grimes

Well-Known Member
Kem said:
Anyone supporting Casement as a better venue than Clones hasn't been stuck on the M1 trying to get onto Kennedy Way, trying to find a parking spot when you eventually get there and fingers crossed that your car would still be there when the game was over. Armagh is geographically near the centre of the 9 county Ulster and would make a better choice than Belfast for a new stadium.i
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At some stage Casement Park will reopen as either a basic stadium for Antrim or the main stadium within Ulster. If it’s the latter I am sure that the park and ride system will be activated.

The car parks, buses and roads are all there and available at the weekends. It just needs someone with the smarts to put it together.
 
PatMustard

PatMustard

Well-Known Member
Kem said:
Anyone supporting Casement as a better venue than Clones hasn't been stuck on the M1 trying to get onto Kennedy Way, trying to find a parking spot when you eventually get there and fingers crossed that your car would still be there when the game was over. Armagh is geographically near the centre of the 9 county Ulster and would make a better choice than Belfast for a new stadium.
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You have a point, but I believe they have to persist with the Casement project now, even if it will rarely be filled, or used. Otherwise it looks like the GAA aren’t all big and powerful in the biggest city in Ulster (no, not that Ulster!).
 
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Wee man

Well-Known Member
Has to be serious money spent on casement planning to date so I would doubt they would pull the pin plus it would be egg on the face for the GAA brass
But IMO they should abandon it, sell casement and invest the money building a new stadium on a greenfield site
Something similar to the balmoral show set up with Ample parking and good road network.
 
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Peter grimes

Well-Known Member
I would guess that the chances of Casement being abandoned as a site is zero.

The question is what gets built there? And I suppose, when does it get built?

We will know soon enough whether the Euros thing is going to happen. I think that has to be sorted by end of September.

Unless the euros somehow provide the gap in the funding then I suspect that the most likely outcome here is a scaled back Casement. The biggest problem is funding and I can’t see how a different location is going to come in any cheaper (or quicker). A refurb/expansion of an existing stadium in Northern Ireland doesn’t look likely and if it is in the other Ulster counties then the main funder drops away.
 
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Wide ball

Well-Known Member
Armaghball said:
Realistically no matter where any stadium is, it’s gonna be pandemonium trying to drive to it if tens of thousands of people are going to one place.
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I agree, I can't think of one place where traffic wouldn't be bad, Armagh is bad at times, Newry is desperate asnis clones, and Omagh too. Basically all are bad for parking/traffic but clones either needs an upgrade or Ulster needs to change venue, it's is like going in a time machine, serious development needed
 
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Peter grimes

Well-Known Member
I don’t see how the traffic issues in Clones would ever be addressed even if the stadium facilities were. Clones is a small town. The investment required for match day traffic couldn’t be justified.

Belfast has the infrastructure, it just has to be used smart. If the euros go ahead and the money is there then the focus is on an all seater stadium and the biggest that can be accommodated within the planning and financial constraints. If the euros project doesn’t proceed then the financial pot gets smaller but so too does the obsession with all seater.

The Ravenhill model with pitch side standing areas and seats higher up is very good. They also have some corporate boxes and a discounted family area.

Reign in the Casement Park wish list and get on with it as soon as the euros position becomes clear looks the smartest move
 
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