St Conleth's Park

Lilywhite forever wrote:

The stand is actually quite small to look at.

Agree with this and in fairness it is good to see it happening though..........from some of the photos shown on here will there be massive gaps in the corner from stand to terraces behind goals.......especially where dressing rooms used to be. Anyone know if there are plans to extend the terraces?

I know we are getting a newly laid pitch and new floodlights (which again is brilliant) but a figure of 17 million overall was mentioned at the convention last nigth and to me this seems a very high figure for what we are actually getting

JP McManus to donate 1 million euros to every county. Fair play to the man



https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2023/1214/1421977-jp-mcmanus-to-donate-1m-to-every-gaa-county-board/

TheBigDog# wrote:

JP McManus to donate 1 million euros to every county. Fair play to the man



https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2023/1214/1421977-jp-mcmanus-to-donate-1m-to-every-gaa-county-board/

Great hopefully the county board will cop on in the new year and stop charging our players at the gate to play games. Think we're the only county in Ireland still at it.

NorthernLily89 wrote:

TheBigDog# wrote:

JP McManus to donate 1 million euros to every county. Fair play to the man



https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2023/1214/1421977-jp-mcmanus-to-donate-1m-to-every-gaa-county-board/

Great hopefully the county board will cop on in the new year and stop charging our players at the gate to play games. Think we're the only county in Ireland still at it.

Is this for both league and championship games?

The County Board has nothing to do with charging players into league games. Thats totally down to home club who push this. Your right we are the only county that this goes on in. Its embarrassing. No players or mentors on either side should have to pay. Some of them have already taken time off work on a Saturday to play the league games.

How many spectators will the new stand in St. Conleth's accommodate.

I could be wrong on this, but I think the design is future proofed to extend either side, should it be required.
Let’s face it, league attendances will comfortably be still accommodated in what we’re getting, no point over building now and creating a ground that will never look near being full.

Would not be a kildare thing for a bit of happiness around especially this time of year progress with a new pitch and hopefully a good run in all ireland series, happy Xmas to all

Badger85 wrote:

I could be wrong on this, but I think the design is future proofed to extend either side, should it be required.
Let’s face it, league attendances will comfortably be still accommodated in what we’re getting, no point over building now and creating a ground that will never look near being full.

I don’t disagree, but I think there’s definitely extension work and improvements to be done on the terraces and while the grounds are shut you’d think they may as well attack those.. what’s the harm in having an 18k capacity? The population of the county is growing and growing, we should be looking to the future and have ambition to have a huge following behind our county teams.

17 million seems like a lot of money for a new stand, dressing rooms and a new pitch. Obviously costs and materials have gone up, but yea its expensive. The new stand doesn't look like the one in the drawings which seemed to have more rows and seats. Its small looking from the photos the guys are sending in. I'm sure when it's completed it will be fit to hold leinster and qualifier games for other county teams playing in neutral venues.

The town end of the stadium has plenty of space to extend the terrace there. I was hoping they'd at least make that bigger. Give us a proper place to be proud of. Maybe I'm just being selfish.

I’m a far bigger fan of the terrace anyway so I probably won’t be in the new stand too often… but I’d rather spend any additional funds we have on developing players rather than the terraces. They’re never full… why waste it? Just look at Portlaoise. Big empty terraces… nobody wants that. Leave the terraces alone and employ a few extra GPA officers.

Badger85 wrote:

I’m a far bigger fan of the terrace anyway so I probably won’t be in the new stand too often… but I’d rather spend any additional funds we have on developing players rather than the terraces. They’re never full… why waste it? Just look at Portlaoise. Big empty terraces… nobody wants that. Leave the terraces alone and employ a few extra GPA officers.

Did you not want a new state of the art stadium, Badger? Sure a new stadium can hold big championship games for the qualifiers on neutral venues, not only involving kildare games. I'm sure kildare GAA get a cut of the ticket sales that those matches would bring. Ticket sales too from the leinster council if they involved leinster games, no? Be a nice cut if Newbridge was to host the Dubs for a leinster championship match no doubt.

Kildare hosting Dublin in a championship match? G’way outta that. Are you at the work Christmas party??? That’ll never happen.
The terraces are fine. We don’t need to over expand on the hope that we MIGHT get a few neutral games a year. Incidentally, Carlow holds neutral games and with the new stand, we’d be a better venue than there. Carrick also holds neutral games and we’ll be far better than them with the new stand. Mullingar, Longford… the list goes on.
All im saying is we’d be better off investing in games development officers for the cost of revamping the terraces.

Badger85 wrote:

Kildare hosting Dublin in a championship match? G’way outta that. Are you at the work Christmas party??? That’ll never happen.
The terraces are fine. We don’t need to over expand on the hope that we MIGHT get a few neutral games a year. Incidentally, Carlow holds neutral games and with the new stand, we’d be a better venue than there. Carrick also holds neutral games and we’ll be far better than them with the new stand. Mullingar, Longford… the list goes on.
All im saying is we’d be better off investing in games development officers for the cost of revamping the terraces.

with all due respect Badger, you're talking shite. Why wouldn't it be able to host them? With your shitty attitude of not wanting a decent stadium, then it definitely won't. A new stadium should be fit to hold a large capacity, especially with a growing population as someine already said. Look at this as an investment.

Even the main terrace opposite the stand, the preferred terrace we all go to, cuts off close to the 45 on the Kilcullen side.. surely that can be brought over a bit?

The reason that terrace is 'cut off' is a long standing planning issue with one of the neighbouring residents.

Lilywhite forever wrote:

Badger85 wrote:

Kildare hosting Dublin in a championship match? G’way outta that. Are you at the work Christmas party??? That’ll never happen.
The terraces are fine. We don’t need to over expand on the hope that we MIGHT get a few neutral games a year. Incidentally, Carlow holds neutral games and with the new stand, we’d be a better venue than there. Carrick also holds neutral games and we’ll be far better than them with the new stand. Mullingar, Longford… the list goes on.
All im saying is we’d be better off investing in games development officers for the cost of revamping the terraces.

with all due respect Badger, you're talking shite. Why wouldn't it be able to host them? With your shitty attitude of not wanting a decent stadium, then it definitely won't. A new stadium should be fit to hold a large capacity, especially with a growing population as someine already said. Look at this as an investment.

So how big would you make it? We don’t get league attendances over 3/400… so that would be approximately 1/4 full at what the new capacity is… the stand, dressing rooms, toilets and a general tidy up will make our place better than most other grounds. Why build a white elephant? Spend the funds developing players supports for our teams. Full time s&c, more development officers… we’ll benefit from that. Not a load of empty seats..

Stand roof almost complete and lights in place

https://photos.app.goo.gl/g1WPsv9goktMJZj56

lilysavage wrote:

The reason that terrace is 'cut off' is a long standing planning issue with one of the neighbouring residents.

I had a feeling that was the case alright.. have always thought there’s a house with the best window view in the county just behind the scoreboard.. Pity though, it makes the grounds feel incomplete and that terrace is the best place to be generally

Badger85 wrote:

Lilywhite forever wrote:

Badger85 wrote:

Kildare hosting Dublin in a championship match? G’way outta that. Are you at the work Christmas party??? That’ll never happen.
The terraces are fine. We don’t need to over expand on the hope that we MIGHT get a few neutral games a year. Incidentally, Carlow holds neutral games and with the new stand, we’d be a better venue than there. Carrick also holds neutral games and we’ll be far better than them with the new stand. Mullingar, Longford… the list goes on.
All im saying is we’d be better off investing in games development officers for the cost of revamping the terraces.

with all due respect Badger, you're talking shite. Why wouldn't it be able to host them? With your shitty attitude of not wanting a decent stadium, then it definitely won't. A new stadium should be fit to hold a large capacity, especially with a growing population as someine already said. Look at this as an investment.

So how big would you make it? We don’t get league attendances over 3/400… so that would be approximately 1/4 full at what the new capacity is… the stand, dressing rooms, toilets and a general tidy up will make our place better than most other grounds. Why build a white elephant? Spend the funds developing players supports for our teams. Full time s&c, more development officers… we’ll benefit from that. Not a load of empty seats..

See you’re wrong there for sure. We hosted kerry in 2022 and u16s were in free and I’d swear there was 15,000 in the place! Similar demand for the other games but they stopped letting 16s in free and I’m pretty sure we were the only county in Ireland that had to do that which was a result of capacity being too low. Definitely sold out for the Dublin and Monaghan games. Maybe the attendance is lower when we’re in division 2.. but we have to have aspirations for being a tier 1 county, if not, what are we doing with ourselves? 18k should be the aspired capacity of the grounds. Not 15.

It’s a great development and a credit to Kildare GAA especially when you look at where the likes of Louth and Meath are at now with their development.
There will always be nay sayers and definitely a few on here…
Just looking at the light poles obviously there was issues with planning etc. looks like about 56 light fittings which is similar to Hawkfield so about 500lux does anyone know the light levels?

The ongoing work on the redevelopment of Cedral St. Conleth's Park - video at link

https://kildaregaa.ie/cedral-st-conleths-park-redevelopment-update-december-2023/

Seating installation almost complete. Seats all covered with black plastic ATM.
Work on pitch drainage has begun.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/p97Krn9R3bMuznzq7

All down the line wrote:

Seating installation almost complete. Seats all covered with black plastic ATM.
Work on pitch drainage has begun.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/p97Krn9R3bMuznzq7

Since construction began (Now coming up to the final stages) Kildare have only won 2 competitive matches.