An independent report on the staging of concerts at Croke Park is to be published today with an expectation that there is to be a cap imposed of three concerts per year over the next three years and a one off payment of €500,000 into a community fund for local residents.
It is reported in this morning’s Irish Independent that the report, by Kieran Mulvey is critical of the manner in which the five Garth Brooks concerts to take place in July were announced and added to when they were sold out in rapid succession back in January.
These were in addition to the three sell out One Direction concerts during May (pictured) and the Croke Park Classic between Penn State and the University of Central Florida on August 30th.
Mulvey is CEO of the Labour Relations Commission and Chair of the Irish Sports Council. He was invited to mediate between Croke Park and the 27,000 local residents. It is understood that meetings were held with numerous groups representing those at various levels.
Community
The €500,000 payment to a community fund will be administered by Dublin City Council via a committee to be chaired by Lord Mayor and local area council representative Christy Burke.
400,000 tickets were sold for the Brooks concerts when they went on sale back in May. It is estimated this will generate an unexpected windfall for the Stadium of around €3.5 million.
It sparked anger among local residents who at the time said they would do everything in their power to stop the concerts going ahead.
Recommendations
The report is believed to contain 11 separate recommendations including the fund, matters of policing and removal of litter as well as the cap on the number of concerts of no more than three in any one year and no more than nine over the course of 2015 to 2017.
The Aviva Stadium, Pairc Uí Caoimh, Nowlan Stadium, The Phoenix Park and Marlay Park have also been used to stage major concert events in recent years but none has the same capacity as Croke Park.
Revenue from the Brooks concert ticket sales is believed to be in the region of €26 million with around 12% of that coming to the stadium before its own costs are deducted.
