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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: 556 - 25/07/2025 11:05:30 2627858 Link 0 |
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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. winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 760 - 25/07/2025 14:07:26 2627925 Link 1 |
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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: 1694 - 25/07/2025 14:59:38 2627944 Link 1 |
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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: 3755 - 26/07/2025 05:17:50 2628036 Link 0 |
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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: 91 - 26/07/2025 16:38:58 2628127 Link 0 |
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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 1 |