The Croke Park Classic between Penn State and University of Central Florida looks set to attract a crowd of over 55,000 and a TV audience of more than ten million when it is staged on August 30th.
That will put it comfortably into the top 5 live events in Ireland this year and likely the second most watched event globally to take place on Irish soil after the Grande Depart of the Giro d’Italia.
At a launch of events surrounding the match yesterday it was being stressed though as being ‘more than just a game’ by Croke Park Stadium Director Peter McKenna and Dublin Lord Mayor Christy Burke.
Business Forum
In the days running up to the weekend Croke Park will host two major events. The first of these will be the American Irish Business Forum drawing together visiting business leaders, multi national corporations and indigenous companies specifically engaged in trade and commerce between Florida and Pennsylvania – both of which individually are ranked in the top 25 economies in the world – and Ireland.
The second will be a UNESCO symposium on Youth Civic Engagement and Leadership through Sport and Recreation. This will bring together experts and goodwill ambassadors from around the world to build solutions that link young people into their local communities and can be replicated in part on a global and local basis.
Join us for The Business of Youth Sport half day conference on October 2nd when we will look at the arc of youth sport from primary to third level with leading figures from Government, Sky Sports, DIT, and a reflection on what the Croke Park Declaration will mean around the world.
The symposium will present a series of key policy directions and a major formal UN declaration on utilising sports and recreation as mechanisms you youth development around the world.
It will place Croke Park once again as a leading global venue for policy decision making, as was the case in 2008 around the use of land mines.
Meeting Point
Both are a perfect example of the meeting point between sport and business and how the former can serve as a beacon around which real and meaningful engagement on the latter can take place, leading to a better society for us all. It is the meeting point at which we strive to make a difference as members of the Sport for Business community.
There will be fun too. 16,000 visitors are coming in from the US through pre-booked channels and tour parties. These will be added to by another 4,000 travelling from the UK and Europe, generating inbound economic value for the city of over €30 million.
The two teams will arrive on the Wednesday with Penn State staying at Carton House Hotel and UCF pitching their tent in UCD. That will also be the venue for the Global Irish Football Tournament on the Friday featuring two high school teams from Pennsylvania.
A range of pep rallies and tailgate parties will be hosted by Dublin City Council, centred on Temple Bar where there will be courtesy buses laid on to bring people to the game on the Saturday.
Economic Benefit
“The economic benefit from the Croke Park Classic and the various social, business and entertainment events surrounding the game are hugely significant,” said Dublin Lord Mayor Christy Burke.
“It’s a wonderful platform to showcase what Ireland has to offer to the many tourists who are over for the game and all those watching on television around the world.”
“We have made a substantial investment in bringing this event to the city and our vision is to establish Dublin as the European home for college football in the same way as London has done with the NFL.”
“We have been helped and supported by the enthusiasm of people like Martin Naughton of Glen Dimplex who is central to the many different facets of Irish life that we want to show; and of former Ambassador Dan Rooney who is a passionate advocate of Ireland and does an incredible amount of good for our reputation, much of which goes unknown here but which serves a vital purpose.”
Bi-Annual
“We have settled on the Labour Day Weekend at the end of August / start of September as a date that works within the start of the season proper for college football and which will attract souls TV coverage from ESPN2. Our plan is that this becomes a bi-annual event and a real marker for the game that means so much to millions of Americans.”
“The timing presents a real logistics challenge in turning the stadium from one national sport to another within 24 hours as the following day the All Ireland semi final featuring Dublin or Monaghan and Donegal or Armagh will be played on the same surface.”
“It’s a major challenge and not without some risk but we have a meticulous plan in place and will be marking the College game with paint that is most easily removed from the natural grass surface,” added McKenna.
“We have 95% coverage of grass at present after a wonderful growing spurt in the last couple of weeks especially so are in a good place to make this happen.”
It will be the first time that such a massive turn around has been done not only here but anywhere. Wembley Stadium transformed from football to boxing earlier in the summer but that took place of three days.
Croke Park will be filming the transformation process in time lapse photography and that is certain to be a you tube winner in the days after the two events.
