{"id":531270,"date":"2026-07-03T15:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531270\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T15:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:00:06","slug":"gaa-concedes-new-casement-park-capacity-will-be-half-original-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531270\/","title":{"rendered":"GAA concedes new Casement Park capacity will be half original plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The GAA has conceded that the redeveloped Casement Park<\/a> will have a capacity considerably below 34,500.<\/p>\n

At an Ulster Council meeting earlier this week, it emerged that a scaled-down version of the Belfast venue is now likely.<\/p>\n

The stadium will still be regarded as a provincial ground, but it is expected to be reduced to about half the original size, if not smaller. It would be suitable for Antrim league and championship matches, as well as Ulster senior football semi-finals.<\/p>\n

While the Irish Government\u2019s \u00a343 million (\u20ac50m) pledge remains in place, the Irish Examiner understands the \u00a350 million (\u20ac58.5m) promised by the British government may not be drawn down for several reasons.<\/p>\n

One factor is the funding pressure currently facing the UK, with the possibility that London may be forced to renege on its announcement from 12 months ago.<\/p>\n

There is also reluctance within the GAA, as it is understood that a condition of the funding would give the British government a place on the deeds of the new stadium.<\/p>\n

A new sub-committee comprising GAA president-elect Derek Kent, Munster chairman Tim Murphy, trustee John Murphy and Britain GAA chairman Se\u00e1n Hopkins has been tasked with assessing the project\u2019s viability.<\/p>\n

Demolition work has been completed, and piling has taken place to ensure the five-year planning permission, which is due to lapse next month, remains valid.<\/p>\n

However, no departmental funding has been made available for the next stage of work at the Andersonstown site: soil remediation to remove contaminated particles.<\/p>\n

A review statement is now expected to set out details of a smaller venue, which would cost significantly less than the estimated \u00a3270 million (\u20ac315m) required to build the 34,500-capacity stadium.<\/p>\n

The GAA\u2019s contribution to Casement Park remains \u00a315 million (\u20ac17.5m) and is unlikely to change. The Stormont Executive\u2019s original commitment was \u00a362.5 million (\u20ac72.9m), although finance minister John O\u2019Dowd indicated it could rise to \u00a3101.5 million (\u20ac118.3m) to reflect inflation. However, he is likely to face opposition within the executive to that increase.<\/p>\n

Speaking last month, GAA president Jarlath Burns said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to do a few basic bits of piling to keep that going because even if we do change the plans, which we probably will have to, it\u2019s easier to amend the plan than to apply for new planning permission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you are dealing with government money, there\u2019s procurement, there are all sorts of obligations, and you have to be very careful and respectful of that. So that\u2019s moving on very slowly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Closed since 2013, Casement Park was removed as a potential Euro 2028 host venue two years ago. Citing soaring reconstruction costs and estimating the final bill at more than \u00a3400 million (\u20ac466m), the British government refused to cover the funding shortfall.<\/p>\n

Speaking in February, GAA director general Tom Ryan said the association wanted to build \u201ca remarkable stadium\u201d. He added: \u201cWe want to deliver a stadium that doesn\u2019t involve any debt, we want to deliver a stadium that doesn\u2019t involve any challenges with regard to its ongoing running costs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The GAA has conceded that the redeveloped Casement Park will have a capacity considerably below 34,500. At an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1965,1128,61,60,850,112],"class_list":["post-531270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hurling","tag-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}