THE GAA is adamant that they will not walk away from the redevelopment of Casement Park, despite fresh concerns over the funding of the project.
Last week, the GAA’s finance director, Ger Mulryan, admitted that the funds to cover the association’s £15M contribution towards the project wouldn’t be available until such a time that the GAA recoup their losses from a difficult financial year in 2020.
The GAA’s annual statement of accounts showed the association recorded a loss of €34.1m last year.
With some politicians in the North already calling for the GAA to increase its contribution, Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey last week denied there was a “stand-off” over funding in the Assembly.
While Casement Park project manager Stephen McGeehan doesn’t believe the GAA will or should increase their contribution, he insists the association remains unequivocally committed to the project.
“Last week’s comments were not a surprise to anybody given the year we’ve just been through,” said McGeehan.
“At a headline level, 60 per cent of the association’s revenue in 2020, Central Council revenue, came from support from government. The financial position of the GAA will come as no surprise to those of us who are involved with it closely.
“It is important to state that the GAA remains absolutely and entirely committed to the redevelopment of Casement Park.
“During last week’s press conference, there were issues raised in terms of other projects - what I’d describe as county projects in the likes of Waterford and Roscommon.
“They are all deserving of GAA support, but I think Tom Ryan (GAA director general) put it best when he said that Casement Park is a provincial stadium, but it is a generational project. Because we’ve had a commitment in place for 10 years, the association remains strategically and financially committed to the project.
“Since last week’s press event, we’ve met with the Uachtarán of the GAA, John Horan, and we met with Tom Ryan virtually. They have restated their absolute support to seeing Casement Park being delivered.”
The derelict site as it stands today
Planning approval for Casement Park was quashed back in 2014 following a legal challenge by the Mooreland and Owenvarragh Residents Association with the GAA submitting a second application in 2017.
Under the original funding model, the NI Executive was to invest £62.5M with the GAA contributing £15M – however the estimate for the project now stands at around £110M, some £32.5M more than the original estimates. It is the GAA’s position that the Executive should meet those extra costs.
“From the GAA’s perspective we’ve legally pledged £15M towards the project,” added McGeehan.
“We offered that back in 2013 because we realised the importance of the GAA contributing towards the project. The IFA’s project has been delivered at Windsor Park, Ulster Rugby’s project has been delivered with the Kingspan Stadium – eight years later we are still waiting for the delivery of our strategic requirement. Within that time, costs have increased.
“If you break it down as to why we are where we are, the planning department, which was the DOE back in 2013, were found to have acted unlawfully in relation to the first planning process.
“After that fell, the GAA dusted itself down and all nine counties in Ulster strongly supported the GAA going in for a second application.
“We made that application in 2017 having spent an unprecedented 32 weeks talking to the local community, trying to get the design right and addressing concerns. It was the longest community consultation process in planning history in the North and still is.
“Here we are, four years later, and the planners still haven’t confirmed to us that we’ve got our planning permission.
“Delays in the process have caused us to be in the position we are now and we think it is only fair and right that the vast majority of the costs of this project are borne by the public sector.”
McGeehan hopes that planning will be granted as soon as possible to provide “the shot in the arm the project needs” and doesn’t feel the target of having Casement Park completed by the end of 2023 is unattainable.
The gates have been closed at the West Belfast stadium since 2013. Antrim’s footballers last played at Casement in the Ulster Championship defeat to Monaghan that year while a number of current Antrim hurlers featured in the Ulster U21 final win over Derry in July 2013 – the final county game to have been played at Casement.
“Projects of this scale shouldn’t take that long to be granted planning. If the formal planning application is issued in the coming weeks, as we hope and anticipate that it will, our best-case scenario has us starting on site by quarter four of this year and we’d finish in the latter part of 2023.
The site has gradually deteriorated over the years, but McGeehan believes there will be light at the end of the tunnel and is hopeful that Antrim will be playing their 2024 Allianz League games in the new Casement Park.
“We were delighted when the Department for Infrastructure Minister, Nicola Mallon, announced in mid-October that she would recommend a notice of approval,” said McGeehan.
“Over four months later, we don’t have that green form yet. At the end of this month, there is a very unfortunate anniversary approaching in that on February 28, our planning application will have been in the system for four years.
“When we started out on this second application, no one envisaged that the planning process would take four years.
“That’s something that the Northern Ireland Executive and the Department for Infrastructure and everyone involved in major projects is going to have to seriously review.
“Projects of this scale shouldn’t take that long to be granted planning. If the formal planning application is issued in the coming weeks, as we hope and anticipate that it will, our best-case scenario has us starting on site by quarter four of this year and we’d finish in the latter part of 2023.
“The essential part of that is getting that green form and I’d be very hopeful that, if the traffic lights start to turn green for us, Antrim’s 2024 Allianz League games will be played at the new Casement.”
Stephen McGeehan (left) with Rory Miskelly at the launch of the new design in 2016
In the meantime, Corrigan Park will host the majority of Antrim’s home games following the completion of a new stand at the home of St John’s last year.
However, it remains unclear just when the Saffrons will next be in action in football or hurling following the removal of elite status for inter-county players by the Irish government.
The GAA appears set on sticking with its county before club approach to fixtures – although that could change following the publication of the Irish government’s revised ‘Living with Covid’ plan earlier this week.
McGeehan says that the association is envisaging another tough year in 2021 and doesn’t foresee big crowds returning to games in the short-term.
“I’m on the GAA’s Covid Advisory group and we are due to meet after the Irish Government have published their Living with Covid plan,” stated the Ballinderry clubman.
“All options are on the table at the minute. The GAA published its fixture’s plan prior to Christmas and is still keen that as much of that plan is delivered as it was set out and that would mean county first.
“The difficulty is, no matter if you put inter-county first and club second, both governments haven’t given us any indication that there will be capacity crowds at any time in 2021. So, financially, we are still planning on the basis that this is going to be a very difficult year.
“That said, the investment for Casement Park was always intended to come in at the back end of the project. The GAA’s partnership funding, which is currently £15M, was always intended to come in and the tail-end of the project and that remains the case.
“In our best-case scenario, we hope to be started later this year and the building programme is going to take two years. In the latter part of that second year, the GAA will be investing its resources in the project.
“In the talks we’ve had with our Central Council colleagues in the last week, that puts our project in a better position than projects that need money now.”
Even if planning is approved in the coming weeks, it is likely that some residents will lodge further appeals and objections which could possibly throw the 2023 target off course.
Belfast and Antrim Gaels could be forgiven for not sharing McGeehan’s positivity about the viability of the Casement Park redevelopment.
There has much debate as to whether or not the GAA would be better off forgetting about Casement and seeking an alternative site for a provincial stadium, but McGeehan stressed that Casement is “the only show in town” and the GAA are all-in when it comes to the project.
Antrim’s Ulster U21 Hurling Championship final victory over Derry in July 2013 was the last game played in Casement Park before its cloure. Team captain Jackson McGreevy is pictured with the last trophy presented at the venue
“I can state categorically that there is no ‘Plan B’ - The NI Executive have ring-fenced the money for a strategic provincial stadium in Ulster and Casement Park is the only venue we are considering,” said McGeehan.
“We will be using the Executive’s money and the GAA’s to provide a provincial stadium.
“The GAA is sometimes accused of being corporate or “big business” – the truth is the opposite.
“If that was the case, we’d have walked about from this stadium a long time ago, but we aren’t about big business, we are about community, we are about counties and we are about games.
“We’ve lost five years – we should have been in this stadium in 2016 if the original plans had have held up. We should have had five years’ worth of games, five years’ worth of income.
“If we were a business, we would have made a business decision a long time ago that we are going to walk away from it. This isn’t business, it is about Gaelic Games in the city and is part of the GAA’s investment to make sure that as many young people play Gaelic Games and are inspired to play at county and provincial level.
“We hope that we avoid any further legal challenges and, if there are any, that we defend them.
“We genuinely think that the redevelopment of Casement Park is the only show in town and we want to get on with it.”
“We’ve lost five years – we should have been in this stadium in 2016 if the original plans had have held up. We should have had five years’ worth of games, five years’ worth of income.
McGeehan added that Antrim and Ulster GAA will strive to be “good neighbours” to the people of Andersonstown and hopes to see work start at the West Belfast site in the near future.
“We’d like to thank the people of Andersonstown and West Belfast for their patience and their resilience” said McGeehan.
“There are a generation of footballers, hurlers, camógs, people with an interest in Handball who have not seen inside Casement Park.
“We think that the beginning of this project is within touching distance. It has been a very difficult year with Covid, but it is at times like this, you realise the importance of the GAA and community.
“What better tonic could there be for the people of Andersonstown, Belfast and Antrim to see diggers on site, things happening and we get the project to the point of no return. Hopefully, very soon, we can hear the roar of the crowd along the Andersonstown Road.
“Ulster GAA and Antrim GAA intend to be good neighbours to the people of Andersonstown when we get to the other side of this project.”
There may be a few more hurdles for the GAA to clear before games can return to the home of Antrim GAA.
“We’ve lost five years – we should have been in this stadium in 2016 if the original plans had have held up. We should have had five years’ worth of games, five years’ worth of income.
GAA officials like Stephen McGeehan may still have to convince some that the project is financially viable and can be delivered in its current guise.
What’s clear though is that the GAA has no intention of walking away from the Casement Park project. Not now and not ever.
