Soccer

What is the current situation with Casement Park’s redevelopment?

Explainer: Should work on the Casement project fail to begin by 2025, then Euro 2028 will not be in Northern Ireland

A general view of Casement Park GAA stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
A general view of Casement Park GAA stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Gavin Cummiskey's picture
Gavin Cummiskey
Thu Oct 05 2023 - 20:16

Regarding the redevelopment of Casement Park, what is the current situation? No Gaelic games have taken place at Casement since 2013, after false dawns around planning applications in 2014 and 2017, due to costs soaring to £110 million (€127 million). In July 2021 Antrim GAA received planning permission to modernise the ground. A two-year build was supposed to commence in 2022.

What happened? In 2022 a west Belfast residents’ group lost their High Court challenge against the redevelopment but the issue of costs, and who would be paying them, remains an obstacle.

The latest setback happened last August when the Buckingham Group, the contractors appointed to redevelop the stadium, went into administration and subsequently ceased trading. In response, Ulster GAA told RTÉ that they remained “fully focused on work commencing on site early next year.”

Does it come down to funding? Taoiseach Leo Varadkar revealed this week that the Irish Government are “in discussions with the Ulster GAA Council and also the British government as to how we can make a contribution to the cost of building that new stadium.” Mr Varadkar added, “and I believe we should.”

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This might come under the Shared Island fund, which aims to harness the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement. The Budget in 2021 ring-fenced €500m in capital funding, to be made available between 2021-25 for investment in collaborative North/South projects.

So, what’s the bottom line? A complete redevelopment of the GAA stadium on the Anderson Road in west Belfast is being estimated at between £110 million and as high as £160 million, when inflation and VAT is included.

“We’ll get the money, don’t you worry,” Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told the BBC last May.

What about costs around staging six Euro 2028 matches at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin? That figure is estimated at €93 million.

And these costs can spiral? The Aviva needs €7.5 million to run the six matches in 2028, FanZones will cost Dublin City Council over €11 million and safety and security is estimated at €41.7 million.

But the UK and Ireland bid to host the 2028 European Championships looks certain to be rubber stamped by Uefa on October 10th? As soon as the co-hosting of Euro 2028 got a green light from Uefa, the redevelopment of Casement Park became a live political issue in Northern Ireland.

“Casement Park must not get the huge extra money needed from government to develop stadia,” tweeted Baroness Kate Hoey, a former Minster for Sport in Tony Blair’s Labour government. “Football clubs in Northern Ireland need investment first.”

Ah, there is a hesitancy to play soccer at the home of Antrim GAA? “We have to get our heads around that,” Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill told the BBC. “I am not that bothered where we play as long as it is in Northern Ireland. The Casement project is the one that will meet the criteria for Uefa. That is the number one option available to us.”

Is there a second option? In Belfast, no. Should work on the Casement project fail to begin by 2025, Uefa will not countenance a switch to other venues in the city as Windsor Park (capacity 18,500) and Ravenhill (capacity 18,196) do not come close to the 30,000 capacity required to host games at the Euros.

So Northern Ireland could miss the Euros party entirely? Without Casement, Uefa will not send five matches to Belfast. The alternatives are Croke Park, Old Trafford, London’s Olympic Stadium and Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, as they were initially long listed as venues. Sunderland would probably be named ahead of the others as Dublin, Manchester and London are already confirmed as host cities.

Could the Aviva fill the gap? Dublin could host Northern Ireland home matches.

The DUP and UUP will not like that… Both parties have already come out strongly against extra government money going into Casement’s rebuild. DUP MLA Stephen Dunne said “the idea of Casement Park being given a blank cheque with additional public funds needs a reality check”. The Ulster Unionist Party criticised the allocation of funding during a “period of severe financial hardship”. Both parties have been asked to offer alternative venues in Northern Ireland.