'Time for a Casement reset' - McMahon
GAA news
Kevin Óg Carney
Monaghan GAA County Board Secretary Michael Owen McMahon has called on Croke Park to press the reset button on what he calls the “Casement Park debacle.”
The Scotstown clubman has doubled down on the serious misgivings he expressed at last December’s County Convention on plans for a reputed £260 million rebuild for the Belfast venue.
“It’s very unfortunate for gaels in Antrim that they haven’t the place they want to showcase Gaelic games in their own county,” McMahon told the Anglo-Celt this week, “but we need to think of Ulster GAA as a whole and what is best for the entire province.
“I know it’s very unfair on Antrim GAA that they’re still waiting for a suitable home but there has to be a re-think by the GAA authorities at the highest level on their plans for the Casement development for the good of Ulster as a whole.
“In each of the other eight counties in the province, there are grounds capable of hosting up to 20,000 supporters. These are grounds that are fit to hold any championship matches in Ulster bar the final itself and major investment should be directed towards them.
“I accept that Antrim should have their own stadium and one they can be proud of but building a 34,500 capacity stadium in Belfast for hundreds of millions is something that, financially, is not in the best interests of all the rest of the counties in the province who right now have to deal with growing financial burdens and restraints.”
At the Ulster GAA Council’s Annual Convention last month, McMahon and others heard from the top table that:
"To date, £170.5m has been secured for the project and we are hopeful that an additional inflationary funding allocation can be secured which should bring the overall funding package for the project to circa £220m."
McMahon acknowledged that, in raising his concern about the spending of such “outrageous money” he received “quite a bit of feedback, some good and some bad” on his calls for a re-think on the work earmarked for the Andersonstown venue.
“There was plenty of discussion about Casement Park at the Ulster Convention but a lot of it centred around the millions and millions that’s already been spent on items such as consultants’ fees and design fees.
“There just seems to have been such money spent to date and so little done; so little to show for that level of expenditure.
“Whatever about the differing views (on Casement), the Ulster Council isn’t cash rich. It doesn’t have, unlike its counterparts down south, a big income from its hurling championships and, from what I see, there’s not a club in County Monaghan, for instance, that isn’t struggling for funds.
“With the upcoming amalgamation of ladies football and camogie, the GAA in every county in Ulster is going to be looking for more funding, not less, but will it be there if there’s no cut to the money set aside for the rebuilding of Casement?
“If Croke Park decides that a 34,500 capacity Casement Park is going ahead, then all the counties in Ulster are looking, down the line, at having to spend a lot of money in maintaining it and refurbishing it whenever the time comes around. With inflation, the bill for a new Casement, going on the current plans, is just going to grow and grow.
“More expense and possibly financial instability will be heading the way of county boards if the scale of the project isn’t greatly reduced. In my view and the view of a lot of GAA people in Monaghan and elsewhere, reducing the specification to cut the price is a must for the betterment of our Association in Ulster.”
Formerly (2016-2020) Chairman of Monaghan GAA, McMahon accepts that he could be accused of expressing a very parochial, partisan view when insisting that the flagship Ulster SFC final should be ring-fenced for St. Tiarnach’s Park in Clones.
He admits unashamedly that he is “batting for Clones” and talks enthusiastically about the planning and design work currently being assembled by the triumvirate of Monaghan County Council, Clones GAA and Monaghan GAA County Board.
“We have project managers and architects working on a serious of upgrades for St. Tiarnach’s Park at the present time. We’re confident we’ll be able to tap into some substantial aid from the Shared Island Funds and a fair bit of work has already been done so far in that regard.
“We’re looking at between 12-15,000 new seats being installed in St Tiarnach’s Park and, of them, hopefully around 5,000 will be in place before this year’s Ulster senior final.
“We expect new toilet blocks will also be in place in time for the start of the championship so there’s a lot of good work being done and a lot of good work in the pipeline as regards Clones.”
McMahon believes time is of the essence with regard to the GAA making a definitive stand on the Casement Park project. Costs are increasing all the time, not decreasing, he moots.
“I’d urge the Ulster Council, in conjunction with Croke Park, to get a stadium built as quickly as possible that would satisfy the requirements of Antrim GAA.
“We know that Corrigan Park isn’t going to provide the answer for Antrim GAA’s wishes because of infrastructural issues for example and also crowd capacity but Gaelic games followers in Antrim have waited far too long to see something finally come to pass.
“The prospect of another ten years of discussions and planning for Casement Park is just unthinkable and everyone just needs to get on with it and put a facility in place that will do the work of gaels in Antrim justice and do them proud.
“Whatever has to be built for Antrim’s sake needs to be built now. But firstly, the whole Casement Park project as it is currently envisaged needs to be scaled back so that all of Ulster will be singing off the same hymn sheet. Then we can all move forward in agreement and with confidence that Antrim and the other eight counties will all be a lot happier.”