Jarlath Burns has insisted that the GAA should not be expected to increase its contribution of £15M towards building the new Casement Park stadium.
The GAA’s president-elect was speaking at a media event on Thursday at the Box-It Athletic Grounds ahead of the Ulster GAA charity skydive on Sunday, March 12. Burns is Armagh’s representative with GAA figures from all Ulster counties taking part in order to raise funds for the Air Ambulance NI and Prostate Cancer Research at Queen's University, Belfast.
According to the GAA’s own most recent estimates, the final cost to complete the West Stadium stadium could be £140M.
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Under the original funding model in 2013, the cost was expected to be around £77.5M, with the GAA contributing £15M with the remainder funded by the NI Executive.
Despite the spiralling cost of the project, Burns stressed that the delays in completing Casement wasn’t because of the GAA and that other major infrastructure projects needed financial support from the association.
When asked if the GAA should increase its contribution of £15M to ensure the Casement Park project was delivered, Burns replied: “Definitely not, I would not be in favour of us giving one more penny to that.
"If you look all around the country, there are so many major infrastructural projects that have to go ahead.
"Right down the east coast you have Kildare, you have Páirc Tailteann, you have St Brigid’s in Louth.
"You have Waterford, you have Killarney, Thurles needs a lot of money spent on it, even Croke Park needs upgraded. There are so many grounds that need a lot of work done.
"If you look at the history of Casement Park, that began as a project that was going to be a stadium for all (at the Maze). GAA was the last man standing in that process. We were happy to remain right at the end and keep Casement as the Antrim county ground.
"Whenever the other sports pulled out we were left and we were told that we would get a regional stadium.”
He added: "It’s not unreasonable that Belfast, Ireland’s second city, should have a stadium that would match Páirc Uí Chaoimh, which is our other second city.
"It’s not our fault that all of this delay has happened - it has to do with planning and other issues beyond our control.
"Obviously with the executive being out of action for many of those years, we have kept our side of the bargain which was that we would give that £15m. But the stadium has to be built.”
The comments from Burns echoes what the GAA’s Director General, Tom Ryan, said in his annual report last month.
Burns, who won a landslide victory to succeed Larry McCarthy as GAA President in 2024, said that patience was required and the new Casement Park stadium would be worth waiting for.
“Stadiums in built-up areas are controversial projects,” said Burns.
“If you look, for example, Wembley Stadium. It took a similar amount of time to get it across the line. It was 10 years of wrangling to try and keep to the Twin Towers.
“It was supposed to be built for £300M - it cost £900M. Then, the latest stadium, which is the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the centre of London. It was supposed to cost £150M and ended up costing £1.2 billion - again with many, many delays and difficulties and it was two years before they were even able to open it.
“It isn’t a novelty for a stadium in a build-up area to be a controversial project - it is always being to be controversial. Even Croke Park was controversial because you are impacting on people’s lives. You have to be sensitive to the needs of residents and their feelings.
“It is worth waiting for though. I think there has been a good interim job done at Corrigan Park. It is a really good ground and, perhaps, there could be further upgrades done to that.
“We should be very patient with Casement Park because it will be worth waiting for.”
Despite the continued uncertainty surrounding finding of the project, Casement Park has been included as one of the 14 stadiums in the bid dossier to host Euro 2028 - a joint venture between the English FA, Scottish FA, Welsh FA and the IFA and FAI.
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