Croke Park
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Location | |
| Area: | Dublin 3 |
| County: | Dublin |
| Country: | Republic of Ireland |
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Facility Statistics | |
| Broke Ground: | 1884 |
| Opened | 1913 |
| Renovated | 2004 |
| Surface : | Grass |
| Owner: | Gaelic Athletic Association |
| Original Construction Cost: | IR£ 3,500 |
| Reconstruction Cost: | € 260 million |
| Architect: | Gilroy McMahon |
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Seating Capacity | |
| Capacity: | 82,500 |
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Dimensions | |
| Dimensions: | 144.5 m x 88 m |
Croke Park (Irish: Páirc an Chrócaigh) in Dublin, Ireland is the largest sports stadium in Ireland and the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Ireland's biggest sporting organisation. Since 1884 the site has been used primarily by the GAA to host gaelic games, most notably the annual finals of the All-Ireland gaelic football championship and hurling championship. Music concerts by major international acts have also been held in "Croker," as it is often called. During the refurbishment of Lansdowne Road the stadium will also host the Irish national rugby union and soccer teams. Following a redevelopment program started in the 1990s, Croke Park has a capacity of 82,500, making it the fourth largest stadium in Europe, the largest stadium in the 2007 Six Nations Championship and the largest owned by an amateur organisation.
Contents |
[edit] History
The area now known as Croke Park was originally an Athletics Course known variously as the City and Suburban Racecourse and 'Jones Road' Sportsground. It was originally owned by Maurice Butterly. From the foundation of the association in 1884 this sportsground was used by the organisation regularly for Gaelic Games and Athletics. In 1896 both All-Irelands were played in the ground signifying the growing importance of the suburban plot for the ever expanding GAA. Recognising the potential of the Jones Road sportsground a journalist and GAA member, Frank Dineen, borrowed much of the £3,250 asking price and bought the ground personally in 1908. Only in 1913 did the GAA come into exclusive ownership of the plot when they purchased it from Dineen for £3,500. Once bought, the ground became known as Croke Park in honour of Archbishop Thomas Croke, one of the GAA's first patrons.
In 1913 Croke Park had two stands on what is now known as the Hogan stand side and grassy banks all round. In 1917 the rubble from the Easter Rising in 1916 was used to construct a grassy hill on the railway end of Croke Park to afford patrons a better view of the pitch which by now hosted all major football and hurling matches. Immortalised as Hill 16 it is perhaps one of the most famous terraces in the world.
On November 21, 1920 Croke Park was the scene of a massacre by the Auxiliary Division. British police auxiliaries entered the ground, shooting indiscriminately into the crowd killing 13 during a Dublin-Tipperary football match. The dead included 12 spectators and one player, Michael Hogan. The latter, Tipperary's captain, gave his name posthumously to the Hogan stand built four years later in 1924. These shootings, on the day which became known as Bloody Sunday, were a reprisal for the assassination of 12 or 13 British Intelligence officers, known as the Cairo Gang, by Michael Collins' squad earlier that day.
In the 1920s the GAA. set out to create a high capacity stadium at Croke Park. Following the Hogan Stand, the Cusack Stand, named after Michael Cusack from Clare (who founded the GAA and served as its first secretary), was built in 1927. 1936 saw the first double-deck Cusack Stand open with 5,000 seats, and concrete terracing being constructed on Hill 16. In 1952 the Nally Stand was built in memorial of Paddy Nally, another of the GAA founders. Seven years later, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the GAA, the first cantilevered 'New Hogan Stand' was opened.
The highest attendance ever recorded at an All-Ireland Senior Football Final was 90,556 at the 1961 Offaly v Down final. Following the introduction of seating to the Cusack stand in 1966, the largest crowd recorded since has been reduced to 82,516.
[edit] Stadium Design
In the 1980s the organisation decided to investigate ways to increase the capacity of the old stadium. The design for an 80,000 capacity stadium was completed in 1991. Gaelic Sports have special requirements as they take place on a large field. A specific requirement was to ensure the spectators were not too far from the field of play. This resulted in the three-tier design from which viewing games is possible: the main concourse, a premium level incorporating hospitality facilities and finally an upper concourse. The premium level contains restaurants, bars and conference areas. The project was split into four phases over a 14-year period.
[edit] Phase one
The first phase of construction was to build a replacement for Croke Park's Cusack Stand. Completed in 1997 at a cost of £35 million, the new stand is 180 metres long, 35 metres high, has a capacity for 25,000 people and contains 46 hospitality suites. The new Cusack Stand contains three layers from which viewing games is possible: the main concourse, a premium level incorporating hospitality facilities and finally an upper concourse.
[edit] Phase two
Phase Two of the development commenced in late 1998 and involved extending the new Cusack Stand to replace the existing Canal End terrace. It is now going to be known as The Davin Stand, after Maurice Davin, the first president of the GAA.
[edit] Phase three
Phase Three saw the building of the new Hogan Stand. This required a greater variety of spectator categories to be accommodated including general spectators, corporate patrons, VIPs, broadcast and media services and operation staff. Extras included a fitted-out mezzanine level for VIP and Ard Comhairle (Where the dignatories sit) along with a top-level press media facility. The end of Phase Three took the total spectator capacity of Croke Park to 69,500.
[edit] Phase four
After the 2003 Special Olympics, construction began in September 2003 on the final phase, Phase Four. This involved the redevelopment of the Nally Stand and Hill 16 into a new Nally End/Dineen Hill 16 terrace. It was officially opened by the then GAA President Seán Kelly on March 14, 2005. For logistical reasons (and to a degree - historical reasons), and also to provide cheaper high-capacity space, the area is a terrace rather than a stand, the only remaining standing-room in Croke Park. Unlike the previous Hill, the new terrace was divided into separate sections - Hill A (Cusack stand side), Hill B (behind the goals) and the Nally terrace (on the site of the old Nally Stand). The fully redeveloped Hill has a capacity of around 13,000, bringing the overall capacity of the stadium to 82,500. This made the stadium the fourth largest in Europe after the Nou Camp in Barcelona, the San Siro in Milan and the Olympic Stadium in Kiev.
[edit] Future Expansion
Although the stadium has completed all four phases, there is speculation that future development will include a roof for the stadium. The Hill 16 end is unlikely to be completed in the near future with a second upper tier (in line with the other 3 sides) due to the proximity of the railway line and the fact that there are houses immediately behind the raised wall on which the rail line runs meaning the GAA would have to buy a street of houses to expand Hill 16 to anything more than a terrace.
[edit] Pitch
The pitch in Croke Park is a Desso GrassMaster pitch which was laid in 2002 replacing the existing grass pitch. This is a modern development in pitch design which couples natural grass with a stitching of synthethic fibres. The close proximity of the stitching and the natural grass roots growing around the stitching is what gives the pitch its stability and is the key to the success of this type of surface. The system is employed in a number of English football stadia, including Anfield (Liverpool), Boleyn Ground (West Ham United), Madejski Stadium (Reading) and Villa Park (Aston Villa).
Since January 2006, a special growth and lighting system called the SGL Concept has been used to assist grass growing conditions, even in the winter months. The system, created by Dutch company SGL (Stadium Grow Lighting), helps in controlling and managing all pitch growth factors, such as light, temperature, CO2, water, air and nutrients.
[edit] Floodlighting
With the 2007 Six Nations clash with France and possibly other matches in subsequent years requiring lighting the GAA installed floodlights in the stadium. Indeed many other GAA grounds around the country have started to erect floodlights as the organisation starts to hold games in the evenings, whereas traditionally major matches were played almost exclusively on Sunday afternoons. The first game to be played under lights at Croke Park will be a National Football League Division One match between Dublin and Tyrone on 3 February 2007 with Irelands Six Nations match with France following on 11 February [1].
[edit] Today
There is great debate in Ireland regarding the usage of Croke Park. As the GAA was founded as an organisation to maintain and promote indigenous Irish sport, it has felt honour-bound throughout its history to oppose other, rival sports. Up until the early 1970s, rule 27 of the GAA constitution stated that a member of the GAA could be banned from playing its games if found to be also playing soccer, rugby or cricket. That rule was abolished but another rule, #42, still prohibited the use of GAA property for games with interests in conflict with the interests of the GAA. In the belief that rugby and soccer were in competition with football and hurling, and that if the GAA allowed these sports to use their ground it may be harmful to Gaelic games. Therefore rule #42 has been taken to mean the sports of Rugby union and Association football as the playing of three games of American Football (two between Notre Dame and Navy, both (but Notre Dame especially) popular schools among Irish-Americans) and a third American Bowl game between the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers [2] on the pitch during the 1990s showed. On 16 April 2005, a motion to temporarily relax rule #42 was passed at the GAA Annual Congress. The motion gives the GAA Central Council the power to authorise the renting or leasing of Croke Park for events other than those controlled by the Association, during a period when Lansdowne Road - the venue for international soccer and rugby matches - is closed for redevelopment. The final result was 227 in favour of the motion to 97 against, 11 votes more than the required two-thirds majority. In January 2006, it was announced that the GAA had reached agreement with the FAI and IRFU to stage two Six Nations games and four soccer internationals at Croke Park in 2007.
In October 2006, both the FAI and IRFU made a further initial request to use Croke Park again for 2008. This would be possible without a further vote of the GAA Congress, as the amendment to Rule #42 is for the entire period covering the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road. However, the GAA Central Council has not committed to allowing the use of the stadium beyond 2007 as yet. [3]
[edit] See also
- All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship
- All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
- Australian rules football
- Bloody Sunday, 1920
- Camogie
- International Rules
- Gaelic Athletic Association
- Gaelic football
- Hurling
- Handball
- Sport in Ireland
- Stadiums of Ireland
[edit] External links
| GAA Stadiums capacity greater than 25,000 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Breffni Park | Casement Park | Croke Park | Cusack Park | FitzGerald Stadium | Gaelic Grounds Healy Park | McHale Park | Nowlan Park | O'Moore Park | Pearse Stadium | Páirc Uí Chaoimh Semple Stadium | St. Jarlath's Park | St. Tiernach's Park | Wexford Park | ||
| Six Nations rugby stadiums |
|---|
| England - Twickenham (London) | France - Stade de France (Saint-Denis) | Ireland - Croke Park (Dublin) |
| Italy - Stadio Flaminio (Rome) | Scotland - Murrayfield (Edinburgh) | Wales - Millennium Stadium (Cardiff) |
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