LAST SUNDAY AFTERNOON it was the centre of the hurling world.
After a weekend of one-sided inter-county hammerings, the standard of the Munster championship clash that Cork and Tipperary produced was both engrossing and redemptive.
Páirc Uí Chaoimh housed an excellent spectacle and boasted a healthy attendance as well with 32,568 supporters filing through the turnstiles.
The day was a success story and Páirc Uí Chaoimh was part of that.
But the storm clouds quickly gathered and that bright outlook for the stadium has been eradicated over the last few days. It’s status as one of the most maligned sports stadia in this country was reinforced by the controversy that erupted on Monday over the choice of venue for next month’s provincial senior hurling decider. The prospect of Páirc Uí Chaoimh hosting the final in the eventuality of Tipperary and Waterford qualifying had been well-flagged in advance and the transparency of the provincial body cannot be faulted.
Yet that did not stop Waterford making a last-ditch attempt to shift the game to Semple Stadium. It was always unlikely to succeed and yet they opted to press ahead with those plans anyway. It’s a strange state of affairs for a county to eschew the option of playing a game of this magnitude at a neutral venue in favour of handing home advantage to their opponents. And stranger still when that push to change the game came from the Waterford players.
It may be a stadium that was the location for that landmark day in 2002 when Waterford claimed their first Munster senior hurling title in 39 years but Páirc Uí Chaoimh is a ground that the current players seem to have little affection for. The views of the squad were encapsulated by full-back Liam Lawlor who stated on Twitter: “We want to play in Thurles. Best field in the land — let’s hope common sense prevails.”
There is plenty anecdotal evidence from a variety of inter-county teams about the cramped nature of the dressing-rooms in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and that has ranked high on the agenda of the Waterford players. For the county’s supporters there are issues with the accessibility to the stadium and complaints have also been made about the lack of comfort in the seating.
Páirc Uí Chaoimh has one of the best playing surfaces in the country and on championship Sundays in front of a large crowd, there is a vibrant and cracking atmosphere created. But ultimately Semple Stadium is viewed as providing a superior matchday experience for players and supportes alike. Waterford would not be alone in holding that viewpoint and it is feasible that their suporrters will now opt to stay at home rather than travel to attend the game.
Clearly there is a problem here. Yet it is not one that Cork GAA chiefs have been unaware of. Páirc Uí Chaoimh was an impressively modern facility when it was initially constructed in 1976, but the passing of the years have visibly taken their toll and the need for refurbishment became glaringly clear with the amount of top-class facilities sprouting up around the country.
The difficulty in redeveloping Páirc Uí Chaoimh has always been getting ownership of the land in the Showgrounds next to the stadium that were simply essential for any construction plans. After years of painstaking negotiations, the breakthrough was finally achieved last October when a deal was brokered. There are still obstacles to be overcame but the hopes are still intact of starting the construction project by the end of this year and concluding in early 2015.
The decision as well to scale back the capacity of the stadium from an initial plan of 60,000 to a figure of 43,000 is a sensible one. Over the past decade, inter-county stadiums have mushroomed in Ireland but there is a serious danger that some will end up mothballed given the lack of games for them to hold. That is a wider issue for the GAA to address and leads into concerns about declining crowds. How can a sustainable policy be implemented to ensure grounds are filled more regularly?
Those are difficult problems to solve. But any fears that Páirc Uí Chaoimh would become a white elephant should not means the refurbishment plans are shelved . The wider public image of the bowl by the Lee is not a positive one. It needs to be redeveloped. And the episode over the past week simply highlighted the urgency at doing that.
Just A Thought…
There were many reasons to be impressed by Kilkenny hurling over the past week. The wonderful goal by TJ Reid in Portlaoise last Saturday left us considering how many players would simply have tapped the ball over the bar when the creator Richie Power first got possession on the 45-yard line? The intensity that Brian Hogan and Jackie Tyrrell displayed in the finale as they hounded David O’Callaghan and forced him to over-carry the ball despite the match being already finished as a contest. And off the field there was the class gesture in handing over home advantage to opponents Laois for the upcoming Leinster U21 final. Of course there is not a huge distance for Kilkenny to travel and they are still heavily tipped to win the game, regardless of where it is played. But it was a nice touch and one that Laois, a county fighting desperately to promote hurling, will appreciate.
