Cork GAA optimistic Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be debt free by 2048

At the core of this new financial plan for the debt burdened Páirc Uí Chaoimh is a more favourable interest rate that will be “more in line with GAA funding, as opposed to bank rates”.

Wed, 27 Sep, 2023 - 00:00

Eoghan Cormican

Cork GAA is optimistic the new 25-year financial model for Páirc Uí Chaoimh will enable the stadium to be debt free by 2048.

At the core of this new financial plan for the debt burdened Páirc Uí Chaoimh, approved by Central Council earlier this month, is a more favourable interest rate that will be “more in line with GAA funding, as opposed to bank rates”.

Bank debt arising from the stadium redevelopment stood at €21,056,000 as of last September. Annual loan repayments of €1.1m were being made to service that total. Money owed by Cork county board to Croke Park, meanwhile, stood at €7,763,722.

The two figures combined reach almost €29m, but county board secretary Kevin O’Donovan said in his annual report last December that legacy debt from the stadium redevelopment rests well above the €30m mark.

At a meeting of Cork county board on Tuesday evening, O’Donovan welcomed the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh plan and committed to giving a full breakdown of the approved model at December’s convention.

“We will give better details at county convention, where the long-term financing of the stadium will be over a longer period, with support from Croke Park and the GAA on an interest rate that is more in line with GAA funding, as opposed to bank rates.

“[The new model] will relate to the Bank of Ireland debt, the GAA debt, and a long-term approach to it, a 25-year-approach to repaying this debt and at the same time allowing the stadium to stand on its own two feet, as opposed to being overburdened with debt in the short term.

“We are delighted it came. There is huge endorsement from Croke Park in the model, and the county committee, I am sure, will step up to the plate because it will put a big onus on the county committee to fundraise over the long term. But if we are running our books in order and generating surpluses, like we ran last year (€679,590), it’s well within our means.”

Elsewhere, the Cork executive outlined that if the Central Council motion relating to club age grades is passed at Special Congress this weekend, the top table will then bring a proposal to county board that county championships in Cork from Premier Senior to Premier Junior preclude U18s.

The Central Council motion, which Cork will support, is recommending that U18s be continued to allow play at adult level, but that a county committee has autonomy to increase this minimum eligibility age for specific competitions.

Cork voted last December to return minor to U18 with full decoupling from 2024 onward. In line with this, the executive is proposing that U18s cannot play in competitions from Premier Senior to Premier Junior, but will be eligible for fare in the tiers from Junior A down.

Responding to criticism at last weekend’s Cork Premier Senior football quarter-finals not being staged in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, as was the case for the hurling quarters the weekend before, O’Donovan said the decision was taken to fix the Nemo-Clonakilty and Castlehaven-Ballincollig games for Bandon and Enniskeane respectively to “promote football”.

Clonakilty delegate Denis O'Sullivan was very critical of their quarter-final in Bandon not being postponed because of what he deemed unplayable conditions.