Political football can’t knock back Páirc plan
It’s outdated, greying and uncomfortable, with tiny dressing-rooms, cramped seats and a forbidding demeanour as it looms up alongside the river Lee. People complain about it. Then they complain further when nothing is done to improve it.
Now there’s more cause for complaint, however. The Cork County Board’s plan to redevelop the stadium and add a centre of excellence and all-weather pitch to the Páirc is being opposed by local government officials and politicians.
City manager Joe Gavin last week called on city councillors to reject some of the GAA’s plans for the redevelopment, saying the Council was willing to part with two acres but not the six-and-a-half acres the County Board were seeking.
Green Senator Dan Boyle said the development plan was flawed “because it is weighted too heavily in favour of the GAA at the expense of the public element”. At the heart of the conflict is the council’s plan for a public park in the area, as identified as essential for the proposed multi-billion euro Cork docklands development.
Let’s deal with those issues one at a time.
The offer of two acres is paltry. You don’t need to be an urban planner to see that. Take a walk around Páirc Uí Chaoimh and it’s immediately apparent that two acres would allow the walls to be moved out a few feet. An increased footprint for the existing building. Nothing more.
A call for six acres isn’t unreasonable. The Cork County Board originally sought 13 acres but has been flexible enough to halve its original target and can accommodate its plans for a centre of excellence in the reduced space it’s seeking.
The City Council, however, is looking for most of the area – the old Munster Showgrounds premises – and says a public park is earmarked for the locality. There are 28 acres involved: is there that much difference between having 26 acres at your disposal and having 22 acres if you’re building a public park?
Regarding suggestions by council officials that such a park is essential for the large-scale development of the Docklands, then surely a new, modern stadium plus a centre of excellence – both regenerating the area and reinvigorating it financially – would make the Docklands project a more attractive proposition to potential investors, compared to the mess of stagnant ponds and waste land there at present?
Dr Richard Moloney, economist with UCC’s Centre for Policy Studies, says it would.
“At the moment you have polluted areas and so on down there and you’re obviously not going to sell high-end apartments next to those. The main problem with the Páirc Uí Chaoimh development itself would be whether there are enough games to make the new stadium a paying proposition.
“And there’s also the issue that unless the stadium is up to scratch you won’t attract the big games in the first place – the games that generate a lot of money for the city.”
Philip Browne of the IRFU, who chaired the committee which oversaw the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road/Aviva Stadium, can offer practical support for that viewpoint.
“One of the things we experienced was that the evidence from around the world was that building a new stadium or developing an old stadium enhanced the value of an area around that stadium. What we had before was a 50s-type stadium, but now we have a modern facility which can only enhance the area.”
As for the centre of excellence . . .
“The area around Páirc Uí Chaoimh isn’t really a built-up area compared to Lansdowne Road or Croke Park,” says Moloney.
“The centre of excellence could generate revenue as well. In terms of location it strikes me that one place might be as good as the other, but as part of the overall renovation I would have thought Páirc Uí Chaoimh was the natural place to have it.”
Regarding Senator Boyle’s comment that plan was “weighted too heavily in favour of the GAA at the expense of the public element”, he’ll have to jog our memory.
The last time we checked the GAA in Cork wasn’t made up of exiled Russian aristocracy, but elements of the public.
PÁIRC Uí Chaoimh isn’t just a stadium, of course. It’s a cash cow which brings in revenue for the city when big games are played there.
Ten years ago the Cork Business Association estimated that big championship games generated 17.5 million per year in revenue for the city.
For a more up-to-date comparison, the revamped Thomond Park can generate €10m per game in Limerick with a capacity of 26,000.
Three weeks ago Cork-Tipperary drew 37,000 punters, while yesterday there were 26,486 paying customers at the Cork-Kerry replay.
You do the math.
The proposed redevelopment would generate up to 300 jobs over a two-year period in construction, with longer-term jobs envisaged for the centre of excellence, meeting rooms, cafe and bar facilities.
Granted, the building-jobs-at-all-costs outlook was a factor in getting us into the recession, but we’re not talking about a vast, empty tower of apartments or a ghost estate.
Páirc Uí Chaoimh is used on a year-round basis.
“It’s an extraordinary approach to take,” said Senator Jerry Buttimer who, as a former officer of the Cork County Board and former Cork city councillor, can see the situation from both sides.
“It makes no sense to knock back a plan to provide employment in the short and long term and which will result in a facility that will generate millions in revenue for the entire city.
“People are fixated on the fact that there may be only one or two capacity games a year. What they’re forgetting is that a revamped Páirc Uí Chaoimh will also be able to host major concerts and events as well when there aren’t GAA games scheduled to be played there. The whole Docklands project has paused, but you have a chance here to spark it off with a new sports stadium.”
As Cork and Kerry battled away on the field of play yesterday there were plenty of rumours swirling around the stands and terraces, including suggestions that tonight’s crucial vote might be postponed in order to accommodate yet another report. Those who don’t deal with planning issues may be baffled by the lengthy give-and-take, and Philip Browne says the process for major projects is often a convoluted one.
“A lot of ground work has to be done, and buy-in from all those involved. It was significant that Dublin City Council were right behind the project and were conscious of what the project would offer both in terms of sport and in economic terms for the city.”
Though Limerick has been making valiant noises about becoming a capital of sport, Cork has no serious opposition in that particular category.
The evidence is everywhere: when RTÉ ran a greatest Irish sportspeople poll a few years ago, Cork provided four of the top ten. The winner’s father was Cork footballer Paddy Harrington.
A catholic palate is part of that supremacy. When Cork GAA was in turmoil in recent years concerns were expressed by figures as diverse as Roy Keane and Bill O’Herlihy, Donal Lenihan and Moss Finn; before the Cork hurlers took the field against Tipperary recently they called on Ireland and Munster star Donncha O’Callaghan.
In our most recent conversation with Doug Howlett he was quick to correct suggestions about his GAA allegiance in Cork. Club allegiance, that is (“Douglas? I’m Blackrock, mate,” said the man from Auckland).
You could argue until you’re blue in the face that the redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh is vital for Cork GAA people, but it’s a lot more important that.
It’s vital for Cork people. Full stop.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
