Meath Forum

Pairc Tailteann

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post


Are there any plans to redevelop the grass banks? That to me seems quite urgent as its holding the grounds potential capacity back.

trimmer (Meath) - Posts: 558 - 25/07/2025 11:05:30    2627858

Link

I'm not sure there is an urgent need to be pushing ahead for a large increase in capacity. The new stand will be an improvement of approximately an extra 3k on the existing one and the large terrace can still hold over 5k. I know in the early 90s for championship games there were up to 20k or more in attendance at times but even thus year for the Cork fixture, there was only about 7k there. All the league games would have only seen 4-6k spectators recently. Except for the recent Croke Park games where huge numbers travelled this year, the core number of Meath fans are not huge.
Perhaps success will increase this number but I think a new stand is a sensible option for the time being without a significant need for a large stadium.

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 798 - 25/07/2025 14:07:26    2627925

Link

Replying To winatallcost:  "I'm not sure there is an urgent need to be pushing ahead for a large increase in capacity. The new stand will be an improvement of approximately an extra 3k on the existing one and the large terrace can still hold over 5k. I know in the early 90s for championship games there were up to 20k or more in attendance at times but even thus year for the Cork fixture, there was only about 7k there. All the league games would have only seen 4-6k spectators recently. Except for the recent Croke Park games where huge numbers travelled this year, the core number of Meath fans are not huge.
Perhaps success will increase this number but I think a new stand is a sensible option for the time being without a significant need for a large stadium."
Agree with all this; there's no need for major stadium expansion.

It's great to get 20 or 30000 to Croke Park but looking at our league games, and our non-Croke Park games our core crowd is realistically about 5000.

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1699 - 25/07/2025 14:59:38    2627944

Link

Replying To CastleBravo:  "Agree with all this; there's no need for major stadium expansion.

It's great to get 20 or 30000 to Croke Park but looking at our league games, and our non-Croke Park games our core crowd is realistically about 5000."
True, mind you a capacity of say 20k, or at least 18k would be desirable in ensuring PT gets a number of neutral games which given its geographical location, motorway access and hopefully, in the not too distant future, rail access, it should certainly achieve. PT could be a decent economic driver for Meath GAA if developed to full potential which I can see happening, the final capacity will basically be decided by H&S who seem to have the final say on these matters and change their mind each year but a new 5000 stand and a spruced up terrace should get 12k for a start minimum, the terrace is pretty big and well capable of holding 7k

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3763 - 26/07/2025 05:17:50    2628036

Link

Replying To Richieq:  "True, mind you a capacity of say 20k, or at least 18k would be desirable in ensuring PT gets a number of neutral games which given its geographical location, motorway access and hopefully, in the not too distant future, rail access, it should certainly achieve. PT could be a decent economic driver for Meath GAA if developed to full potential which I can see happening, the final capacity will basically be decided by H&S who seem to have the final say on these matters and change their mind each year but a new 5000 stand and a spruced up terrace should get 12k for a start minimum, the terrace is pretty big and well capable of holding 7k"
I think people saying we only need a small stadium are missing this point.
It's great to get the new stand moving, it will be a big improvement.
But if Navan wants in future to get more big games the smaller stand size will work against it.
7k seats would have, I think, have been similar to Portlaoise or Tullamore.

How is funding for ground development in the GAA sorted and decided upon?
Is it mostly government/ central GAA funding for these upgrades and how much is left to county boards to raise?

It seems odd that 2 stadiums in the midlands fairly close to each other in low population counties (Portlaoise and Tullamore) have had more development and higher capacities than the 2 stadiums in high population (and fast population growth) counties of Meath and Kildare.

People saying we don't draw big crowds are forgetting the crowds we drew in the late 80s/ 90s and early 2000s.
If we get back to a higher standard or the Leinster championship becomes competitive again we will draw bigger crowds.

GreenMan1987 (Meath) - Posts: 110 - 26/07/2025 16:38:58    2628127

Link

Replying To GreenMan1987:  "I think people saying we only need a small stadium are missing this point.
It's great to get the new stand moving, it will be a big improvement.
But if Navan wants in future to get more big games the smaller stand size will work against it.
7k seats would have, I think, have been similar to Portlaoise or Tullamore.

How is funding for ground development in the GAA sorted and decided upon?
Is it mostly government/ central GAA funding for these upgrades and how much is left to county boards to raise?

It seems odd that 2 stadiums in the midlands fairly close to each other in low population counties (Portlaoise and Tullamore) have had more development and higher capacities than the 2 stadiums in high population (and fast population growth) counties of Meath and Kildare.

People saying we don't draw big crowds are forgetting the crowds we drew in the late 80s/ 90s and early 2000s.
If we get back to a higher standard or the Leinster championship becomes competitive again we will draw bigger crowds."
I've been following the subject of PT redevelopment over the past 10 years and it's disappointing that the original proper development is now pie in the sky. The original plan was to realign the pitch and for stand and terrace developments on all four sides. The current proposal is a far cry from this. I appreciate that the Terrace is still fit for purpose but it is 37 years in existence and somewhat dated. Covering the Terrace is probably a non runner. The town end is very sparse and has very little scope for improvement due to its proximity to the O'Mahoneys building. Since the green light for the redevelopment was announced no detail has been given for development of the O'Mahoneys or Hospital ends. Maybe I'm expecting too much too soon but I fear that in the future we will look back on this as a lost opportunity to build a decent home for Meath football and hurling.

Lonetone (Meath) - Posts: 17 - 26/07/2025 18:03:22    2628137

Link

Replying To Lonetone:  "I've been following the subject of PT redevelopment over the past 10 years and it's disappointing that the original proper development is now pie in the sky. The original plan was to realign the pitch and for stand and terrace developments on all four sides. The current proposal is a far cry from this. I appreciate that the Terrace is still fit for purpose but it is 37 years in existence and somewhat dated. Covering the Terrace is probably a non runner. The town end is very sparse and has very little scope for improvement due to its proximity to the O'Mahoneys building. Since the green light for the redevelopment was announced no detail has been given for development of the O'Mahoneys or Hospital ends. Maybe I'm expecting too much too soon but I fear that in the future we will look back on this as a lost opportunity to build a decent home for Meath football and hurling."
I agree - as stated in my own posts, this project has been stripped back and changed from the initial design with zero development actually being carried out.

It's very likely that the 5,000 seater stand will be the only tangible development carried out

I would much preferred to have seen incremental development over 10-15 years to arrive at a modern stadium.

What's worse is that we can all see what's going to happen, we all know what's going to happen and at the end of the day we will shrug and accept a sub optimum outcome.

Royalio11 (Meath) - Posts: 809 - 27/07/2025 18:49:01    2628356

Link

Replying To Royalio11:  "I agree - as stated in my own posts, this project has been stripped back and changed from the initial design with zero development actually being carried out.

It's very likely that the 5,000 seater stand will be the only tangible development carried out

I would much preferred to have seen incremental development over 10-15 years to arrive at a modern stadium.

What's worse is that we can all see what's going to happen, we all know what's going to happen and at the end of the day we will shrug and accept a sub optimum outcome."
I asked in an earlier post how these developments are funded as I'm unaware how county ground development in GAA is organised.

I don't think our county board have done that much wrong in recent years in terms of trying to upgrade Pairc Tailteann, maybe they were a little over ambitious in the plans put forward in wanting a all seater ground.

The reason it seems to me for a relativately small upgrade for Navan (compared to say Tullamore/ Portlaoise) is central GAA prioritising developing other county grounds over ours despite our large population/ large number of GAA clubs and also unlucky timing (Ukraine war leading to big hikes in construction costs).

GreenMan1987 (Meath) - Posts: 110 - 28/07/2025 09:31:47    2628504

Link

Replying To GreenMan1987:  "I asked in an earlier post how these developments are funded as I'm unaware how county ground development in GAA is organised.

I don't think our county board have done that much wrong in recent years in terms of trying to upgrade Pairc Tailteann, maybe they were a little over ambitious in the plans put forward in wanting a all seater ground.

The reason it seems to me for a relativately small upgrade for Navan (compared to say Tullamore/ Portlaoise) is central GAA prioritising developing other county grounds over ours despite our large population/ large number of GAA clubs and also unlucky timing (Ukraine war leading to big hikes in construction costs)."
A €20 million plus spend can hardly be called a "relatively small upgrade". O'Moore Park has a 6500 capacity stand out of a total capacity of 22'000, O'Connor Park 7000 seats out of a total.of 18'000, the new stand in PT will be 5000 and who is to say a few more seats won't be added to one of the goal ends in time. The terrace, as another poster said, is a bit dated but that can be rectified very simply with a complete refurbishment of the toilet blocks, all new barriers & fencing etc and some cosmetic work like a lick of paint, structurally its fine and usable and the aim should be to maximise its capacity. All we can do is see what the tender comes back at and what can be afforded in this phase but this is a big job that's going to have us out of PT for up to 18 months so let's not downplay all this.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3763 - 29/07/2025 22:04:31    2629146

Link

Replying To Richieq:  "A €20 million plus spend can hardly be called a "relatively small upgrade". O'Moore Park has a 6500 capacity stand out of a total capacity of 22'000, O'Connor Park 7000 seats out of a total.of 18'000, the new stand in PT will be 5000 and who is to say a few more seats won't be added to one of the goal ends in time. The terrace, as another poster said, is a bit dated but that can be rectified very simply with a complete refurbishment of the toilet blocks, all new barriers & fencing etc and some cosmetic work like a lick of paint, structurally its fine and usable and the aim should be to maximise its capacity. All we can do is see what the tender comes back at and what can be afforded in this phase but this is a big job that's going to have us out of PT for up to 18 months so let's not downplay all this."
20m is a lot of money no doubt but typically when ever you do a stadium upgrade it will always seem like huge money, they usually take years to plan so costs usually spiral to some extent.

It will be a huge improvement but scale of it in limiting upgrade to just replacing one stand with a new 5k seated stand will mean PT unlikely to start getting more big games (when first muted the stated aim was to make PT Leinster's second stadium).

It seems to me (maybe I'm wrong) the main driver in to what extent county grounds get developed is central GAA.
For example years ago GAA were determined Galway got a big ground as they have a big population (even though there are other big grounds in Connaught), that's why Salthill got a big upgrade.

GreenMan1987 (Meath) - Posts: 110 - 30/07/2025 12:00:02    2629241

Link

Replying To GreenMan1987:  "20m is a lot of money no doubt but typically when ever you do a stadium upgrade it will always seem like huge money, they usually take years to plan so costs usually spiral to some extent.

It will be a huge improvement but scale of it in limiting upgrade to just replacing one stand with a new 5k seated stand will mean PT unlikely to start getting more big games (when first muted the stated aim was to make PT Leinster's second stadium).

It seems to me (maybe I'm wrong) the main driver in to what extent county grounds get developed is central GAA.
For example years ago GAA were determined Galway got a big ground as they have a big population (even though there are other big grounds in Connaught), that's why Salthill got a big upgrade."
I welcome the decision to finally start this development and look forward to having the option of sitting comfortably in the new stand or standing on the terrace in 2 years time.
I have not changed my view on this development from the time I first posted on here when the initial proposal incorporated a stadium with stands on all four sides.
The over €600,000 design fees paid out to the design team for that original proposal was very poor governance on the part of the committee responsible at the time.
I am all for forward planning but the original design idea was absolute nonsense from the start, (even if we had the money) as the proposed design did not work and could not have been built as designed.
I had said from day one, we urgently need a new stand and to leave the terrace as is.
It is very frustrating after wasting all that money on the original design, what I and others had said at the time, advising what should be done, is now what they are going to do.
It is bad enough that clubs will be levied €500 per month for the next 20 years, imagine what the levies would be if we had to fund a four stands stadium.
In any case that is in the past and all Gaels in Meath will now have to get behind this development.
I hope the tender process is done well and the contractor appointed will do a great job with no overruns.
Having seen the waste of money splashed out on design fees already (pre this phase) I hope there is due diligence and with proper oversight from Croke Park and everything will run smoothly and on budget.

madmeath (Meath) - Posts: 102 - 30/07/2025 19:33:20    2629351

Link

Replying To madmeath:  "I welcome the decision to finally start this development and look forward to having the option of sitting comfortably in the new stand or standing on the terrace in 2 years time.
I have not changed my view on this development from the time I first posted on here when the initial proposal incorporated a stadium with stands on all four sides.
The over €600,000 design fees paid out to the design team for that original proposal was very poor governance on the part of the committee responsible at the time.
I am all for forward planning but the original design idea was absolute nonsense from the start, (even if we had the money) as the proposed design did not work and could not have been built as designed.
I had said from day one, we urgently need a new stand and to leave the terrace as is.
It is very frustrating after wasting all that money on the original design, what I and others had said at the time, advising what should be done, is now what they are going to do.
It is bad enough that clubs will be levied €500 per month for the next 20 years, imagine what the levies would be if we had to fund a four stands stadium.
In any case that is in the past and all Gaels in Meath will now have to get behind this development.
I hope the tender process is done well and the contractor appointed will do a great job with no overruns.
Having seen the waste of money splashed out on design fees already (pre this phase) I hope there is due diligence and with proper oversight from Croke Park and everything will run smoothly and on budget."
It is because of due diligence and oversight from Croke Park that the green light was only given last week, there have been many frustrations, such as the ones you mention, in this process over the past 10 years, the house draw being another to mention, but now we have a development on the verge of beginning, perhaps we should now focus on that and bring positivity to the fore rather than look back.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3763 - 30/07/2025 23:11:49    2629382

Link

The next job would be a roof to partially cover about 1/2 the terrace . That would be brilliant for wet weather which is very common during Meath matches from February to April now

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 887 - 31/07/2025 00:01:51    2629386

Link

Replying To GreenMan1987:  "I asked in an earlier post how these developments are funded as I'm unaware how county ground development in GAA is organised.

I don't think our county board have done that much wrong in recent years in terms of trying to upgrade Pairc Tailteann, maybe they were a little over ambitious in the plans put forward in wanting a all seater ground.

The reason it seems to me for a relativately small upgrade for Navan (compared to say Tullamore/ Portlaoise) is central GAA prioritising developing other county grounds over ours despite our large population/ large number of GAA clubs and also unlucky timing (Ukraine war leading to big hikes in construction costs)."
The stand in Portlaoise was built in 2002, and Tullamore's in 2006.

Meath GAA only set up an Infrastructure Committee to look at Páirc Tailteann 2013, and even then they recommended developing Dunganny first.

There's no conspiracy about developing other county grounds instead of ours.

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1699 - 01/08/2025 17:06:12    2629687

Link

Replying To CastleBravo:  "The stand in Portlaoise was built in 2002, and Tullamore's in 2006.

Meath GAA only set up an Infrastructure Committee to look at Páirc Tailteann 2013, and even then they recommended developing Dunganny first.

There's no conspiracy about developing other county grounds instead of ours."
I never ever said there was a conspiracy.
On a big picture I just don't see the logic in the GAA upgrading 2 stadiums in low population counties close to each other to relatively big capacities and developing Meath and Kildare's grounds (2 counties with big and fast growing populations) to a lesser extent.

GreenMan1987 (Meath) - Posts: 110 - 04/08/2025 00:36:44    2629983

Link

Replying To GreenMan1987:  "I never ever said there was a conspiracy.
On a big picture I just don't see the logic in the GAA upgrading 2 stadiums in low population counties close to each other to relatively big capacities and developing Meath and Kildare's grounds (2 counties with big and fast growing populations) to a lesser extent."
It's not to do with a counties individual population, Portlaoise was initially developed due to its central geographical position, it was always a marquee ground, Tullamore similar. Looks like the finished capacity of PT will be somewhere between the capacities of the two mentioned above, between 22k and 18k, probably closer to the 18k and following the same general layout, one side seated and 3 other standing, although another area of seating behind one of the goals would be great if it could eventually happen. So in reality I don't think thete will be much of a difference between the three grounds.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3763 - 04/08/2025 12:07:30    2630009

Link

Replying To GreenMan1987:  "I never ever said there was a conspiracy.
On a big picture I just don't see the logic in the GAA upgrading 2 stadiums in low population counties close to each other to relatively big capacities and developing Meath and Kildare's grounds (2 counties with big and fast growing populations) to a lesser extent."
The GAA don't centrally organise county ground development though. The individual county boards run the project and ask the GAA for approval and funding. Other sources of funding are government grants, Provincial GAA funds, lotto funding, loans, and a county's own fundraising (club levies, house draws, immigrant investor programmes etc.)

So in the early 2000s Laois and Offaly organised their own developments and got them funded, while Meath were doing nothing. They got their developments finished before Meath even started thinking about developing PT.

I'm curious what you think should have happened; should the GAA have refused Offaly and Laois permission to go ahead with redevelopment until Meath and Kildare got their act together even if they weren't doing that for another 20 years?

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1699 - 04/08/2025 13:39:53    2630021

Link

Replying To Richieq:  "It's not to do with a counties individual population, Portlaoise was initially developed due to its central geographical position, it was always a marquee ground, Tullamore similar. Looks like the finished capacity of PT will be somewhere between the capacities of the two mentioned above, between 22k and 18k, probably closer to the 18k and following the same general layout, one side seated and 3 other standing, although another area of seating behind one of the goals would be great if it could eventually happen. So in reality I don't think thete will be much of a difference between the three grounds."
I didn't intend to get in to an over and back on this as in the main it's a good news story that our ground is getting a new upgraded stand.
I'm looking forward to sitting in new stand when it's finished for league games.

Whether the GAA should be building as many big capacity grounds around the country is another question but all I'm trying to say is having a bigger capacity ground in the past has often being advantageous to counties who have them and therefore it is good if we push to get as big of an upgrade as possible while its on the agenda, other counties seem to be able to push for big ground upgrades (again without someone telling me different I'm assuming most of the funding for ground development comes from central GAA/ state).
Hosting big games can bring in money and prestige.

A lot of the top hurling counties (who have big grounds) have been able to have home and away arrangements in place for championship matches over the years where every second match is played in the opposing county.
Also there have been examples of teams not being allowed to host home qualifier games due to their stadiums not deemed to have enough seats to cover GAA season tickets.

Less championship games looking like being played in Croke park in future and recent years teams seem to have more home games in the championship I just want to get as much advantage for Meath as possible.
If we can push on a bit we will hopefully be involved in more big games and play more high profile games than we have in last 10 years and draw more fans to watch the games.
We played Dublin in Tullamore this year, I'd love in the future to play them in Navan in championship.

GreenMan1987 (Meath) - Posts: 110 - 04/08/2025 19:05:04    2630054

Link

Replying To CastleBravo:  "The GAA don't centrally organise county ground development though. The individual county boards run the project and ask the GAA for approval and funding. Other sources of funding are government grants, Provincial GAA funds, lotto funding, loans, and a county's own fundraising (club levies, house draws, immigrant investor programmes etc.)

So in the early 2000s Laois and Offaly organised their own developments and got them funded, while Meath were doing nothing. They got their developments finished before Meath even started thinking about developing PT.

I'm curious what you think should have happened; should the GAA have refused Offaly and Laois permission to go ahead with redevelopment until Meath and Kildare got their act together even if they weren't doing that for another 20 years?"
I'm a little disappointed we weren't able to stick with a 7k stand as I think it would have left us in good shape to be able to host certain games in the future that we may not be able to host now (I don't think anyone ever thought we'd get the 4 stands as was in the original long term plan but starting with a 7k stand seemed to be realistic).

Truth is the GAA often seem to be able to get these type of developments pushed through even if costs start to spiral to some extent.

I used Portlaoise and Tullamore as examples as they did well to justify getting both grounds developed in low population counties despite being relatively close to each other.

GreenMan1987 (Meath) - Posts: 110 - 05/08/2025 07:54:22    2630098

Link