Thurles is grand apart from the location.
Its location is absolutely perfect for hurling counties bar maybe cork.
It’s an excellent pitch as well.
I’m not sure. The town is brutal and parking is becoming more of a hassle. Trains have to go through the junction ect it takes ages to get home out of there.
The pitch is certainly excellent though
The GAA needs to turn O’Moore Park into a 50,000 all seater stadium and be done with it.
The only problem with Croke Park is it’s proximity to Dublin
I love Dublin.
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You’d have to try hard to have a bad day after going to Croker win or lose.
You could die.
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The GAA can do nothing about the rail line at the Hill 16 end, it cuts right in near the pitch at the Nally. Dublin has feck all rail lines as it is and needs to use them for commuter traffic. The rail line is up on a big bank because it has to go over roads and you cant do anything with it, you can’t build a stand over it, you can only work with what you have. It isn’t like the rail line at the Canal End which is at ground level and goes under bridges, as opposed to over them.
To do something major with the Railway End at Croke Park would entail the digging up of the entire line between Glasnevin and Connolly so that it goes under bridges as opposed to over them, and that would be a mammoth and utterly pointless public works project that would take years and cost hundreds of millions of euro, maybe billions.
The GGA’s financial success is most driven off the number of concerts it holds. It has just lost one of its major broadcasting contracts and they are if the middle of a money pit exercise with GGA Go. They will need that cash.
The reality is there’s no need for it. It’ll be a gigantic white elephant. They should have done a modest upgrade to the place and left it as it was. The terracing there only dated from 1996, so it only lasted 16 years before the place was shut.
An Ulster final was the only game you possibly justify having there, and there are two problems with that. One, the Ulster final already has a traditional venue which is loved. Two, the Ulster final has been severely downgraded by this new system and the GAA is moving towards home and away fixtures. There are basically no fixtures at neutral venues now which would justify a 37k all seater stadium in Belfast. Even within Ulster and within Belfast, Casement is in a shit location, non-central in the province and well out from the city centre and there’s fuck all to do around there, it’s in a terrible location for parking, and doesn’t have good public transport links.
The other sports don’t need it.
An absolute clusterfuck of a project.
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Another part of the GGA’s problems- they have too many (shit) stadiums to maintain. The reason why many have crumbled is because they wouldn’t pay to maintain them.
I guarantee Croke Park will need a huge amount of cash thrown at it before the end of the decade. The likes of this already looks drab- that Celtic Tiger wood and leather style that has shed horribly. It looks like the bar of a provincial hotel still in NAMA.
the stench of carvery in there too - its vile
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You have been to Croke Park? 
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I watched the 95 football final from the Upper Deck of the new Cusack. I watched the 96 hurling final from the Lower Deck of the Old Hogan. The Old Hogan was still there for the 97 Hurling final.
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Ulster also has the Box It Athletic Grounds which is perfectly suited as the Home of Ulster Club Football.
Corrigan Park has actually become a bit of cult venue too for Antrim.
Fact finding missions.
Very old school. When the premium section opened first it was a real treat to get your hands on a ticket to the premium. Now you can’t give them away.
The new Cusack Stand was constructed quicker than the new Canal End and the new Hogan. The Cusack was basically finished by about May 1995. The demolition crew were already on site by the day of the 1993 All-Ireland football final.
I don’t think the new Canal End was fully finished by the time of the 2000 football final, which was a full two years after the Canal end terrace had been demolished.
The GAA were very slow about knocking down the old Hogan, most of it was still there by November-December 1999. By July 2001, which was 22 months after the 1999 All-Ireland football final, construction of the new Hogan was only around the same stage of construction the Cusack had been at at by the time of the 1994 All-Ireland finals. It was June 2002 before the place was at what you might term a state of completion.
The bottom tiers of the new Hogan were used for the 2001 All Ireland finals