City’s great sporting chance
This is most welcome.
I have also read that the city council is making this whole development possible by acquiring the 22 acres of the Munster Agricultural Society (MAS) through a compulsory purchase order.
This again is to be applauded.
In addition, Cork County GAA Board will allow concerts to take place at the venue.
More applause, please, as we need a major concert venue in the city.
Given that the 22 acres of the MAS was purchased with public monies, one can only presume that the IRFU and FAI, in addition to U2 and the GAA, will also benefit from such a development.
Should it be the case that the GAA would not allow for other sporting bodies to benefit from this stadium, then I fear the city council may be making a hugely controversial decision.
To pledge that amount of resources to one organisation without a proviso in the contract would be bordering on insanity, in my view. Everybody respects the GAA for all it has contributed to our society and one could only aspire to their brilliance in developing a world-class stadium like Croke Park as an amateur association.
However, should the Cork development get the go-ahead and other sports are allowed access, the potential for the city is enormous — Heineken Cup quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals, Champions League, international rugby, including the World Cup, to name but a few.
It is mission critical that if permission is given for this stadium that the city council has access to use the ground in a municipal capacity.
Please let us learn from mistakes made in the past.
Please let us not have to hear the result of a GAA congress vote that would allow somebody else to use the refurbished stadium.
Those days should be firmly behind us.
The new Páirc Uí Chaoimh should be for everyone — not just Bono, the Edge and Cork County GAA Board.
John Kenneally
Model Farm Road
Cork
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