The redevelopment of a modern, fit for purpose GAA stadium in Belfast looks in doubt after a judicial review found yesterday that the basis on which planning had been granted was flawed.
The judges principal issues appear to be based on the fact that the permission was based on extending a current capacity of 32,600 but that in reality this was never achieved and the actual additional spectators was more likely to be closer to 20,000. He felt this had not been thought through.
Concerns were also raised about a PSNI report which alleges that a full evacuation of the ground could take as much as 47 minutes, clearly unacceptable.
The two Government ministers involved in the case, Mark Durkan of the SDLP and Carol Ní ChuilIín of Sinn Féin have vowed that they will do what they can to save the project and the 1,500 jobs that would have been involved in the construction phase.
Funding
The Government in Northern Ireland was to have funded £62 million of the £77 million cost of the development, with the GAA contributing £15 million.
The GAA has approved in principle the idea of once again relaxing the controversial Rule 42 which prohibits most other sports being played on GAA owned land for the purposes of supporting an island of Ireland bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup bid.
Casement Park would be the largest capacity ground in Northern Ireland and in line to host at least a quarter final match. The recently redeveloped Kingspan Stadium, formerly known as Ravenhill and home to Ulster Rugby has a new capacity of just over 18,000. It received £14.5 million in Government funding for that project.
The two stadia are less than five miles apart. The third major project on Belfast stadia got underway in May of this year with £31 million of public money going towards the redevelopment of Windsor Park. It’s capacity once complete will be similar to that of Kingspan Stadium.
Rugby World Cup
In terms of an impact on the bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup the IRFU is wisely holding its counsel until the situation becomes clearer.
The smallest stadium capacity being used in the knockout phase in next year’s World Cup will be 74,500. The smallest in New Zealand was 40,000 in Wellington. The smallest in Japan in 2019 is likely to be Shizuoka with 50,000.
Without Casement Park it would mean no venue in Northern Ireland would be capable of hosting the bigger games and this may call into doubt the Northern Ireland Government support that would help the bid politically and financially.
The alternatives to a Belfast knock out game would be to either host all the last seven games in Dublin between the Aviva Stadium and Croke Park or use one of the provincial GAA stadia in either Thurles, Cork or Limerick.
The judge in Belfast has said he will hear arguments tomorrow from both sides but it is likely to be a nervous Christmas for sporting organisations across the spectrum as a result of the setback.
