Croke Park

Lots of people seem to have a problem with this, i think it looks good though!

@patty wrote:

Croke Park:

Whats the story?

Are they going to develop Hill 16? I think they should because the stadium presently looks a bit like a horse shoe with the absence of a big tier at Hill 16 unlike the other stands.

There is alot more discussion about this further back on older threads that is worth looking at. I did not realise until recently, but Twickenham is very similar in that it is not fully enclosed.

I believe there have been quite a few stadiums with a similar horseshoe design. Twickenham is similar, although it does have a large multi-tier stand at the “open” end too. I believe a big problem is the presence of a rail line immediately behind Hill 16. Another would be that any increase in capacity would have the local residents even further up in arms.

You are correct that the railway is a major problem in relation to the stadium although with two parallel and connected rail lines they were able to get around this problem with the Canal end in the mid 1990’s.

I would disagree with the residents being up in arms at this location as being why the height of the stadium is not uniform, it is not a nimby issue but it simply couldn’t have been possible because the Croke Park site is simply too small. The plot pattern in this area was defined by the two (originally competing) railway lines, the houses were developed right up to the railway embankment and what is Croke Park today consisted of a site that had very poor access and a highly constrained pattern as a result of the rail lines.

If Croke Park were finished numerous houses directly to the North would have all their sunlight completely obliterated for 12 months of the year. These same residents have to live with numerous matches in which their own county has absolutley no involvement whatsoever and the resulting parking restrictions and having to show passes just to gain access. The GAA has to their credit spent a fortune on managing the problem including a large annual budget on consultation with the residents and addressed their concerns where possible and probably persuaded them with free tickets where not possible.

Croke Park must have the highest capacity of any similar stadium and its design is outstanding from a number of perspectives not least the way it looks on the inside.

The best stadium of all must be the San Siro in Milan which overcame a similar height problem by going down into the ground as opposed to up.

There was the choice of building a national stadium at abbotstown

why do we want to make Croke Park bigger? It is finished, Hill 16 is a modern terrace.

Interesting article in the Finanica Times re stadium design. Interviews Jacques Herzog, who was involved with the stunning new Allianz Arena in Germany (built for World Cup next year). Also looks at British and US stadium design.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/68de7650-cda3-11d9-9a8a-00000e2511c8.html