New €9 million Gaa Campus in Dublin

http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=193943

What's going in here. Dublin are getting a €9 million investment under the guise of some kind of national campus. How it could be national when it's sitting on the eastern seaboard is beyond me, but what really sticks out to me is that other counties including us have put themselves in huge debt by building their own centres of excellence. Here we have Dublin getting one built for them by the GAA. You can bet your life that as soon as it's finished Kettle and his cronies will be in there like a shot and all Dublin county teams will be using it.

They already get the use if Croke Park so they don't' have to invest in that kip Parnell park. Now they don't even have to build their own training centre. It's done for them.

With county grounds around Leinster crying out for funding it seems the GAA gave decided ignore them and throw more money at Dublin. It's wrong that it takes congress a full vote for trivial matters yet the decision to spend such a large sum of money can be made by a couple of people.

Kildare and other Counties are no longer just competing against Dublin but it seems they are competing against the Dublin and the GAA in tandem.

It's a forum you idiot. It's used to discuss topics. How about if you don't like what's being talked about you stop posting on a Kildare forum.

Not with standing that the GAA made this decision with no discussion with it's delegates kind of negates your spotlight shifting post

There's clearly a bit of politics at play here from the GAA. This facility is to be part of a National Sports Campus so it's not really the GAA who decide its location. The benefits of it are probably negligible and it strikes me as something of a vanity project by Varadkar but the GAA obviously see this €9 million as a long term investment. They're shrewd enough to know that the current economic situation won't last forever and that when the national finances eventually recover, they will be in a strong bargaining position with the government of the day having been seen to have backed this project (before their competition in the IRFU and the FAI too).

From a GAA perspective, I don't really see the benefits of these centres on a regional level. I think the dedicated county facilities like our own at Hawkfield or Meath's at Dunganny have obvious benefits but that is not the case with these regional centres which are white elephants as far as I'm concerned. The Connacht Council have recently completed one in Ballyhaunis at the same time when Sligo do not have the finances to complete their own facility which is not finished. The National Hurling Centre is located in Waterford IT - what benefits does that have to counties like Kerry, Meath, Down, Kildare, Mayo, Derry etc? These are places where there is potential to grow the game of hurling yet because of the location of this facility, it is of no use to these counties.

Facilities are all well and good but they are useless without quality coaching which is where the GAA should be focusing. €9 million divided up between county boards could be used to appoint countless full time dedicated county coaches. Get these coaches travelling around their counties helping clubs and schools to improve their own coaches and develop new talent. The more that is invested in coaching, the more the games will prosper.

Also interesting to note that this Campus is located in Varadkar's own constituency.

Come on the Boys in Blue wrote:

Like you say it a forum you bitter narrow mind gombeen where a opinion can be expressed whether you agree or don't. I don't think I have said anything that is not fair on this thread. But your inbreed attitude is so predictable it a tool like you that has football in kildare where it is. Constant bitching about everyone else. Grow a pair

Kettle, pot, black

And your gone for good this time.

Admin3 wrote:

And your gone for good this time.

o i'll buy the first round

What do you think the reaction would have been if Charlie McCreevey had of announced a €9 million investment in the heart of Kildare. You can bet every tracksuit wearing dub would have been shouting from the roof tops never mind the Dublin centric media. Not a word about this anywhere.

Who is going to use it apart from Dublin. No other county is going go anywhere near it. €9 million for nothing, think if what you could do if that was shared out to upgrade all county grounds that need it. Newbridge, Navan, Aughrim, Drogheda could all be sorted out for half that money .

If county squads are not excluded from using it then it's a pure farce and an obvious case of Dublin being propped up by the GAA.

Michael Ring is doing the same in his own constituency. http://www.thejournal.ie/sports-funding-michael-ring-699181-Dec2012/

We get what we deserve in this country.

nuxer wrote:

Admin3 wrote:

And your gone for good this time.

o i'll buy the first round

I'll buy the second.

It's political, nothing to do with favouring counties. Sports campus plan was drawn up a long time ago, and the major and mid-major sporting bodies all signed up to take space. Not all have been able to fulfill their commitment but those that do will be in the good books when there's money and grants again. To be fair, it doesn't suit most of Dublin either. If you don't drive, it's impossible to get to and even if you do, it's fairly out of the way.

So if it doesn't suit anyone why build it and if it's political then it's obviously to gain favour in Dublin by helping Dublin GAA not Meath or Kildare or any other County.

A national campus would be situated in a central location. This is not a national campus. It's purely for the benefit of Dublin GAA as Dublin GAA will be the only ones who use it.

€9 million, f*ck me the regeneration you could do with that.

Pretty much every national sports campus in the world is in the capital to be fair. It's to garner political favour with the government through the Department of Tourism, Transport and Sport, this isn't internal GAA politics. That 9m will be seen as an investment to please the government and there'll be payback down the line. To be fair, don't think Dublin will be using it a whole lot anyway, given the DCU sports science connection and facilities there.

It's one thing having the national campus in the capital when It's an international sport as in the boxing for example as all the elite in the country benefit but that's not the case with gaa and ad regards needing to drive to get there I wouldn't fancy using public transport to teach hawkfield