thomond park redevelopment

🙂 What’s up lex ?
Munster Look To The Future
Munster Branch President Niall O’Driscoll has unveiled plans to develop Thomond Park and Musgrave Park in a new €30m redevelopment programme. The plans include upgrading Thomond Park into a 26,000 capacity stadium, a new 6,500 capacity stand in Musgrave Park and the provision of additional playing and training facilities to develop age grade rugby in the province. A major fundraising drive was also unveiled by the Munster Branch to fund the redevelopments. A tax based scheme is at the centre of the fund raising drive, which operates under the Sports Capital Tax legislation.

The development sub committee hope to submit planning applications in early 2005
i can;t seem to find any plans for view of the thomond park redevlopment,(hopefully domeone will be able to)

here is PDF of limericity happenings of 2005
http://www.limerickcorp.ie/general/finance/documents/Managers_Report_for_2005.pdf
http://www.limerickcity.ie/services/planning/devplan2004/DevelopmentPlan2004.pdf
http://www.limerickcity.ie/general/clerks/Agenda/Agenda-050501.pdfSome areas of interest for people who would like to know a bit more about Limerick.

http://www.businesslimerick.ie/
http://www.limerickcity.ie
http://www.limerick.com
http://www.limerickcoco.ie
http://www.lit.ie
http://www.ul.ie
http://www.limerickpost.ie
http://www.limerick-leader.ie
http://www.limerick.ie
http://www.clarionhotellimerick.com
http://www.limerickcity.net
http://www.lcoeb.ie/
http://www.shannondev.ie
http://www.limchamber.ie/

more updates…. Riverpoint ready for September!

Great to see Thomond Park receiving investment it has been Limericks most noted feature in popular culture for a few years since the European Cup arrived. I’m sure the stadium will do very well once completed as it symbolises all that is good about Limerick being youthful in a mature setting, independent and viable.

From a planning perspective Thomond is a good model being served by numerous hosteleries that put much needed turnover into the local area and its proximity to the City Centre. I wonder just how many bed-nights this venue is responsible per year?

This type of investment symbolises exactly what was wrong with ‘National Sporting Campus’ at Abbotstown as regional projects like this would have been starved of the required resources to get them off the ground.

Dave I like many others on this forum would I suspect like to see some images.

P.S. Do I have any unique attributes to get some consultancy work out of this one?

@lexington wrote:

Usually I keep up to date-ish on these things, but any word from Shannonside about teh IRFU’s redevelopment of Thomond Park? (The venue not the contributor! :p )

I know someone involved in the development of T park, who tells me that it is awaiting approval at the moment for the creation of a 25000 seater. Perhaps you are aware of this.

That’s great news 🙂 hope the Thomond park, gets the go ahead soon as possible as this has been on the agenda for years now. This project will be tremendous benefit, not just for Limerick city but the whole of Munster!!! It will bring people down this side of the country,
Munster have its very own state of the art stadium!!
It will give tourists and foreigners and people a whole new perspective of the city,
Limerick will become the sporting capital of Ireland, and will show what positive attributes Limerick has to offer. Thomond Park will heighten this.

The “Meedia” are probably the only bunch to be negative about the development of this kind in Limerick, it will be interesting to know what they say when Thomond park will capable of holding international games outside of Dublin 🙂 as another alternative.

WHAT’S GOING WITH THOMOND PARK REDEVELOPMENT?

There are too many stories going around about the Stadium, whether it is closing,moving or waiting on the final go-ahead to rebuild the stadium etc…? :confused:

Havent been on in a while, i think the novelty of being back in college is still kicking in!

Well according to reports in the local media, the future of thomond park looks pretty bleak, the limerick leader even went as far as saying that it was “closing down”, apparently the deadline for the residents to take up the irfu’s offer was sometime last week and as this has come and gone they say they are now examining other locations, already the old greenpark racecourse has been touted as a possible location, the munster branch recently bought lands in groody but this is only being used as a training base. Thomond park was bought by the irfu in 1998 and refurbished for the rugby world cup the following year, if it was still in local ownership there might be some hope of keeping it in its original location but tradition dosent mean much to that crowd up in d4. Whatever about the location within the city, if Limerick was to lose out to cork completely, it would be an absolute disaster as heineken cup games bring significant income into the city, apparently musgrave park is ready for its revamp while the plans for limerick are in limbo, i think its time for a bit of leadership from politicians in limerick to stop this nonsense going any further!

As for some of the developments mentioned over the last week or so- the hoel on the childers road has indeed started construction, the foundations and steelworks are in progress at the moment, i think theres going to be around 100 or so bedrooms, theres supposedly a retail element associated with it, there was talk of a town centre for southill and roxborough but there hasnt been much news about it recently!, the old jurys on the ennis road was also levelled over the last few weeks, a new 4/5 star hotel and apartment complex will surface from the rubble here, preliminary work has also begun on the new hotel at the savoy site, some buildings here have yet to be demolished but are sure to follow soon, although work hasnt progressed much on the bedford row pedestrianisation project, i suppose with all the construction work in the vicinity its not surprising. By the way that site that was referred to on denmark st is supposed to be where finns are building a new super pub, 3 floors apparently, not much of a fan of these places, they’re pretty soulless and are often basically empty during weeknights!

The bank of scotland development is nearing completion, elverys opened there a few weeks back and a number of other retailers have reserved space, the finishing touches are being put to the units nearest to the george site, the entrance to the revamped hotel will be next door to the bank of scotland development on shanon street. Also the ESB are shortly to vacate their premises on bishops quay, this is an interesting one as their property here had been holding back the continued development of the riverfront, the current building is fairly well dwarfed by the riverpoint tower,it’ll be interesting to see what happens here over the next few weeks or so, as far as i know the bank of scotland now own this site, speaking of riverpoint does anyone have an opening date?, as soon as it opens its doors the end is nigh for munchins house, looking forward to that! 😀

Finally its really sad to see newsoms closing after all these years, another limerick institution bites the dust, also i see meteor has taken over the prime unit at the corner of william st and o connell st, oh dear, another opportunity lost 🙁

What will happen to Shannon if Thomond Park goes then? Will the whole place be sold off? Can’t say I’m too excited about the idea of a superpub on Denmark St. – it’s a bit annoying to hear about something like that, when Quinns on Ellen St. just closed it’s doors a few weeks ago – now that was a super pub in a good sence. It will be interesting to see what happens to the ESB offices – one of the most underutilised sites still left by the river, great news that it’s closing anyway for starters.

Well,
First of all the IRFU is just trying to scare the hell out of the limerick Rugby fans. They keep changing their minds on whether to keep the stadium or lump it!
They know how much the Limerick fans would react if it was to close down Thomond park and pack in
There would be uproar, I can’t see the scenario of IRFU leaving limerick :rolleyes:

The ESB building sale is exciting news to the city centre, I myself am looking forward to hear what comes out of this site in the near future, 😀
St Munchins house behind it will be knocked soon, and of course the amazing Riverpoint, this should give hints for a new high-rise or retail complex on the ESB grounds. This is probably one the last prime stretches of investment on Henry Street that needs attention.
Also there is a new development that was recently granted which is across the road from the ESB building will
Consist of the existing building, which will be demolished, and replaced with a new 2-storey building comprising 2 retail outlets on the ground floor and 2 offices on the first floor. This is part of a Protected Structure, on 20 Henry Street.

I’m not a fan of super pubs either, But speaking of that area.

There is a huge development on Ellen street which got granted planning permission, which is, of a mixed use development comprising of 6 storeys over basement to maximum height of 23.7m above grade comprising 34 no. Underground car park spaces, 5 no. Ground floor retail units totalling 916.8 sq.m, 43 no. 2-bed apartments and 3 no. 3 bed apartments on first to fifth floors with associated balconies, roof garden and associated site development works
The site is currently derelict I think. And across the road I heard that there a five storey building with apartments which is under planning permission, I’ll keep my eyes on these developments on that street.

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Turborg the hotel complex you mentioned I heard that a storey or two was knocked off, Is this right from its current proprosals of 12 storeys? I cant wait to see this addition to the skyline 😀

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Williams street
agggh how do all these gawdy bland retailers put thier shops in that street meteor is going to give a bit of orange to the street 🙁 I cant understand why anybody would shopp down Williams street anymore, 😡

http://www.limerick-leader.ie/issues/20060128/news01.htm

Good news re Thomond Park, I think everyone will agree?

good news indeed. I thought it was going to be a 26,000 ALL SEATER. I hope they build modularly so they can bring the capacity up with ease in the future

Thomond development gets green light
Tuesday, 14 March 2006 11:52

Thomond Park

Thomond Park will be re-developed as a 26,000 capacity rugby stadium by the IRFU Development Committee, it was announced today.

It had been expected that Musgrave Park would become the home of Munster rugby since talks with the residents of Knockalisheen Road over the purchase of their homes, necessary to allow for the development of Thomond, had stalled.

Though full details of the project have yet to be announced, it is now certain that the development will go ahead at Thomond Park.

Looks like I’m to get a makeover 😀

In relation to the above post,

good on Kathy Synnott the Peoples Park incident is a disgrace and there can be no excuses on this one; it was a public park a fact which is inescapable.

Thomond redevelopment is unveiled
Friday, 26 May 2006 5:05

Thomond Park

The home of Munster rugby, Thomond Park, is to be given a €40 million facelift that will bring the capacity of the ground to 26,000 and should be open for business in the autumn of 2008.

Known world-wide already as a ground which hosts the most animated supporters in the world the new look Thomond Park will have two new stands in addition to new changing rooms, medical suite, executive boxes, banqueting facilities and supporters bars.

Two sweeping arches of the new stands will ultimately become an image that everyone will associate with the famous ground at which Munster have never lost a Heineken cup game in its eleven seasons and where the All-Blacks were beaten on October 31st 1978, the only defeat of that tour.

Planning permission will be sought in July of this year and all the work will be completed within eighteen months.

When completed there will be seating for 15,000 and terrace capacity of 11,000.

Pat Whelan, former International and former Irish team coach, said: “The re-development represents a major project for Munster and Irish rugby.”

Munster Branch President, Ken Lyons, said: “There are very few rugby followers in the world who are not aware of the history and great traditions associated with rugby at Thomond Park. This re-development is entirely fitting, more so in view of Munster’s magnificent Heineken European cup win last week-end”.

Richard Leng, Chairman of AFL, stadium architects, said “The development will provide state of the art facilities for spectators, supporters, and players in an environment where the unique atmosphere of Munster rugby will be retained and intensified.

Down the years what has made Thomond Park legendary for its atmosphere has been the proximity of supporters to the pitch. This, according to Hugh Murray of Murray O’Laoire architects, “will enhance the legendary intensity of the Munster experience by having 15,000 as close to the pitch as possible.”

To facilitate the new plans the IRFU purchased several houses adjacent to the ground at Knockalisheen Road which, if not sold by the owners, could have jeopardised the project.

Looks like I am for demolition 😀

Thomond Park
Thomond redevelopment is unveiled

Click here for photos from launch of the Thomond Park Re-Development at the Clarion Hotel in Limerick.

http://www.irishrugby.ie/newspage/76718.html 🙂

The demolition of Thomond Park is now well underway. All of the houses are now a couple piles of rubble and most of the east stand is gone



http://www.munsterfans.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2955&PN=2&TPN=4

(June 1st 2006)

Just seen more Thomond Park redevelopment imagery
posted by squid of Billy the Squid fame

https://archiseek.com/content/showpost.php?p=51654&postcount=634

Good images; it looks impressive and it looks like the pitch is lower than street level. Which if correct will make it much more impressive inside than outside. It is great to see the Munster Branch building a proper home.

@PVC King wrote:

Good images]more impressive inside than outside[/B]. It is great to see the Munster Branch building a proper home.

It’s a bit late in the day to revisit the poker game the IRFU played with the local Ballynanty residents last year, as they required a row of houses from them to redevelop the rugby grounds. If that was not possible then, the unthinkable alternative would have been to build on a new green field site, most likely somewhere near the university. Well we were all spared that horror scenario.

I suppose the relief of the location decision, thoughts of an extra 10,000 tickets and images of a sea of red fans in a modern rugby stadium blotted out two issues.

Visual impact and car parking.

Thomond park is situated in a predominately residential area of Ballynanty, Mayorstone and Thomondgate which are all low built housing estates. The images below show that the new stadium will have a very dominant visual impact on the whole area (Positive or negative?).

Whereas car parking is very limited, sure the nearby Limerick Institute of technology car park helps out on match days but imagine the traffic at a top Friday night game with 26,000 fans?

Images http://www.limerickblogger.org

Where the west stand once stood.

View of the East terrace with Houses behind demolished

Redevelopment Progressing Well
23 April 2007, 4:54 pm
By Pat Geraghty

The work to redevelop Thomond Park continues apace with the demolition of the old structure almost complete and plans to commence construction of the new stand right on schedule.
It is envisaged that the ground will host European Cup rugby later this year with the capacity (13,000 approx) the same as it has always been for the three 2007/2008 Pool games. After those games have been completed the ground will close again and work will resume to bring the capacity up to 26,000 in time for the 2008/2009 season.
John Hartery, a member of the Thomond Park Redevelopment Committee explaining the current state said, “The project started on time and I would say that in terms of progress, we are where we need to be at this point in time”.

Hartery also confirmed that the sales target for 10 Year Tickets has been achieved and he expects that details of the availability of the proposed 20 Corporate Boxes will be announced in the coming weeks.

In relation to the existing tenant clubs, the Shannon clubhouse will remain in its existing location while UL Bohemians will be accomodated in the new West Stand.

The finished stadium will incorporate numerous hospitality facilities including hospitality suites and general public bars. Car parking will be as before, limited to match day personnel.

http://www.munsterrugby.ie/19_3414.php

That’s great news hope the Thomond park, gets the go ahead soon as possible as this has been on the agenda for years now. This project will be tremendous benefit, not just for Limerick city but the whole of Munster!!! It will bring people down this side of the country,
Munster have its very own state of the art stadium!!
It will give tourists and foreigners and people a whole new perspective of the city,
Limerick will become the sporting capital of Ireland, and will show what positive attributes Limerick has to offer. Thomond Park will heighten this.

Yes then they will invest billions in the local economy making the inhabitants of limerick city rich beyond their wildest dreams and all the social problems in limerick will dissapear thanks to ‘ Thomound park’. Its only a stadium calm down in england every small sized town has a stadium of this size.

Red Bull Park and Hand Me Downs

A lot of talk about renaming Thomond Park in a lucrative sponsorship deal. Needless to say it brought out a lot of adverse comments around the city but my favourite to date would be “Red Bull Park”, so Paul Clerkin you might have to rename the title of this thread yet!

The parallel re-development of Thomond Park and Landsdowne Road brought a bitter remark from a friend of mine. As he is working on the Thomond Park re-development, he is rather somewhat irate with the consultants overseeing this project that they were offloading second-hand equipment from Landsdowne road to Thomond park (i.e. Floodlighting etc.)

Let these Leinster consultants be forewarned if they think reciprocal offloading of any part of Thomond Park to Landsdowne road is possible, especially our playing pitch. Too much sweat, blood and tears have fallen on it’s soil and this “field” still belongs to John “Bull” Hayes.:D

I believe the first phase of the stadium will be ready for their opening Heineken game in Autumn. Any up to date images of Thomond Park about?

Some good ones here.

http://www.munsterfans.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3919&PN=1&TPN=6

looking good gotta say. The fact that they demolished those crappy nearby houses also helps its image a lot too. Hopefully the development of the stadium will help regenerate that whole area which if you’ve ever driven in that area needs to be completely demolished.

@tfarmer wrote:

looking good gotta say. The fact that they demolished those crappy nearby houses also helps its image a lot too. Hopefully the development of the stadium will help regenerate that whole area which if you’ve ever driven in that area needs to be completely demolished.

Ah that area is slowly coming up in the world, it’s the real far side of Moyross where the greatest problems are now. Places like Thomondgate still have massive issues obviously, but they seem to be progressing forward.

I wonder what kind of impact the new Thomond will have on the area, especially if they get licenses for concerts there? Can only be positive.

Update Thomond Park (as seen on other Forum / Blog)

Photos courtesy of carriecott (munsterfans.com) and Paddy (Limerickblogger Posts 3806 3739)

Thomond Roof Supports Arrive (According to Point)

The first steel supports for the roof of the new stand in Thomond Park will be bought on site over the next few weeks.
Motorists are being advised of the movement of the abnormally sized loads starting from 10 O’Clock tonight.

The steel sections, each about 85foot long, and 15 foot wide will be transported on telescopic extendable trailers from Foynes in County Limerick.

I’d like to know what people would think of Limerick 37 becoming tennants in the redeveloped stadium?

The idea was put out in another forum by a certain anti-archiseek poster.Seeing as this poster does’nt come on here, as we’re all cluless idiots in his eyes, i’d like to gauge what the reaction to it would be here.

Personnally think it would be a brilliant cross sporting gesture and help stabilise a struggling club.

it’s a good idea – turns thomond park into a city stadium

It’s a good idea, don’t forget, Limerick FC did play games in the old Thomond and there’s there’s no bar to them doing so in the future.

Limerick soccer is going through a rough patch at the minute but certainly I think most sports fans would be delighted to see them bringing titles back to Limerick.

@demolition man wrote:

I’d like to know what people would think of Limerick 37 becoming tennants in the redeveloped stadium?

The idea was put out in another forum by a certain anti-archiseek poster.Seeing as this poster does’nt come on here, as we’re all cluless idiots in his eyes, i’d like to gauge what the reaction to it would be here.

Personnally think it would be a brilliant cross sporting gesture and help stabilise a struggling club.

It was I that put up the posting and I never said anything anti-archiseek or do I conider anyone clueless idiots.

they should have put the new stadium in a better site…. it cant really be extended much on two sides.

This looks cool……glad to see it well underway. A great contemporary addition to Limerick.

@Maskhadov wrote:

they should have put the new stadium in a better site…. it cant really be extended much on two sides.

Tradition

Munster’s first Heineken home game against ASM Clermont Auvergne on the 18th of November at Thomond Park looks to be very tight. I think the plan is to have one stand open plus the terraces behind the goal????

Below an aerial image, from around the end of August.

Here a link to recent images.

won’t there be safety issues – it is a building site afterall

@Paul Clerkin wrote:

won’t there be safety issues – it is a building site afterall

Hmmmm…… Paul, definitely a new Munster fan merchandise opportunity here for 10.000 red hard hats and 10.000 red steel-capped wellies!]http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-38637167768280_1972_51402431[/IMG]

To be sure it will be a steward’s nightmare keeping x-thousand non-ticket holders at bay. With the perimeter wall gone and if anarchy beckons, expect an almighty scrum to mount the crane mast!

Just thinking in terms of insurance – it will be hard to find a company to underwrite the game

As CologneMike said, that image is from 2 months ago, there has been considerable progress since then. I presume at some point soon, they’ll need to pause construction and just work on getting everything tucked away and ready for the game.

@Paul Clerkin wrote:

Just thinking in terms of insurance – it will be hard to find a company to underwrite the game

I would think the insurance company would like to see a health and safety clearance done first by the relevant authority (Fire Chief?).

It’s does seem to be a reckless attempt to have the East Stand finished by November 18th , especially when the 50.000 Pairc na nGael Stadium just lies there idle 😡 a couple hundred yards down the road.

I can’t understand how Croke Park can accommodate Landsdowne Road during their reconstruction in Dublin, but a reciprocal arrangement in Limerick for Thomond Park could not be achieved?

Below Pairc na nGael Stadium and Thomond Park’s East Stand (J McCoy)

Thomond rises from the rubble

By JOHN HOGAN Limerick Leader

THOMOND Park is set to rise from the rubble once again as builders prepare the ground for its first Heineken Cup game since Munster’s only ever defeat in the competition to Leicester Tigers last January.

While the naming rights to the famous ground have been a source of controversy over the last number of months, it is safe to say the ground will still be named Thomond Park for the visit of ASM Clermont Auvergne on Sunday, November 18.

Pat Whelan, chairman of the Thomond Park Redevelopment Committee said the new stadium is starting to take shape and supporters who come to the first game will be able to get a glimpse of what to expect when it is completed.

“It’s starting to get exciting, the terraces are fully completed and a lot of one stand is more or less completed. For the first match against Clermont Auvergne, there will be 200 seats occupied in the stand and all the other fans will be in the terrace or in the temporary stands at each corner.”

For the first Heineken Cup game of the 2007/2008 season, Thomond Park will have a capacity of around 12,000. The 200 seats in the new stand will be taken by ERC officials, members of the Munster Branch and players and coaching staff from the two teams.

The stadium is due to be completed by August 2008 at which point it will have a capacity of 26,000.The new ground will feature two new stands adjacent to the existing main pitch, offering a seating capacity of 15,000 and terrace capacity of just over 11,000. The total cost of the redevelopment is estimated to be €40m.

Mr Whelan pointed out that during the course of the development, construction workers have been very careful to stay outside the pitch bounds. He maintains the hallowed turf on which so many famous victories have taken place, has remained virtually untouched.

Ken Lyons, former president of the Munster Branch and current member of the Thomond Park Development Committee, says the opening game of the new season will be a showcase for the progress that has been made so far. “It’s looking brilliant and all the signs are that the health and safety people will give us the go ahead today,” said Mr Lyons this Thursday.

“Hegarty’s have done a fantastic job and have complied with every request we have made.”

The former president is hopeful that Munster can get off to a winning start in their new but familiar surroundings.
“The old stadium finished up with our first defeat in the Heineken Cup but hopefully we will set out our marker for the season in the new ground with a victory.”

02 November 2007

Some September images from inside the ground. Courtesy Munster Rugby

Here an up to date image from the very same source.

The Construction of the roof structure has begun.

Courtesy of jmccoy from Munsterfans

East Stand

Plenty of images about of the “building site” at today’s game in Thomond Park. It must have been a very dull day (apart from the result;)) with the floodlights switched on at 13:00! Here views courtesy of Tippryan and BlackWarrior.

West Stand

Courtesy of BlackWarrior.

it really is going to be dominant on the skyline when its finished..you can really see the effect it will have coming in on the Shannon dual carriageway. Good addition to Limerick

Here is another picture “borrowed” from munsterfans.com

It is only the first section of the arch. another section will be added to either end soon

they’re really flying with this, going to be a great little stadium when done 🙂

its really taking shape alright. Surprised how big it actually is and so dominant on the skyline. One of the roof trusses/arch is in place now and you really get a feel for the size of it! For a 26K stadium it is so much more impressive than the 55k Gaelic Grounds down the road..

Picture totally robbed from this thread on Munsterfans! Loads more on that thread

From the City Centre

@Goofy wrote:

It is only the first section of the arch. another section will be added to either end soon

It already visually dwarfs everything on the Thomond Gate side of the town!

“Bock the Robber” drew my attention to the following images on his blog.

Bruff Rugby Club

Construction Photoset Gallery (courtesy Richard Leonard) 😎 22.11.2007 23.11.2007

Video Material 😎 Link

A Landmark in the Making…

Woodcockhill’s “Golf Ball” keeps an eye on the progress of the magnificent new Thomond Park rugby stadium in Limerick City. (best viewed in full size). Look out for the three special visitors in the shot! 🙂

Photo and comment by climberhunt

Looks like the three are taking a short-cut from Corbally Baths to Barrington’s Pier! 😉

Here is a fine close up done by derhur

See photo taken by Gerry Horan from the roof of the University of Limerick main building (9 kilometres away!).

Below a floodlight shot from around the end of December.

A couple of cool arial shots courtesy of Beir Bua

This will be a cool addition to Limerick when finished! it looks great.

The West Stand has got it’s Arch up today. Image courtesy of beir bua.

From http://standupandbuild.com/ by Shannon Images

View from Thomondgate

This image gives the residents of Mayorstone, Ballynanty Beg and Thomondgate a fair idea as to how dwarfed their neighbourhood will be by this modern day cathedral. Car parking infrastructure to follow?

Image courtesy of Paddy Whac

Rumour has it there’s a multistory car park going on the site of the Old Hassetts bar..

Fantastic images – it really looks hugely impressive and very elegant. Compare and contrast with the ugly utilitarian lump thats just materialized in Donnybrook…

The Shannon Images website has been updated with a new video Linky

Vkid – Any more info on the carpark? Has Hassetts been bought yet?

According to The Limerick Post, Hassets has been bought to be turned into a Shopping Centre.

Thomond Park Update

Check out Paddy Whac’s (phogpix) Thomond Park Album.

Rear East Stand

Under Roof East Stand

Under Roof West Stand

Rear West Stand

Below Socks cousin was doing a bit of flying at the weekend. (munsterfans.com)

Thomond Park seems to be on Schedule for Autumn. The pitches turf has been removed. Nice contrast of stadiums with the GAA Pairc na nGael in the foreground. I wonder could Richie Bennis twist JP’s arm for an auld roof! 😉

@CologneMike wrote:

Thomond Park Update

Thomond Park seems to be on Schedule for Autumn. The pitches turf has been removed. Nice contrast of stadiums with the GAA Pairc na nGael in the foreground. I wonder could Richie Bennis twist JP’s arm for an auld roof! 😉

Well he’s forked out around €5M already to pay off the debt on the stadium plus he’s sponsoring both the hurlers and footballers at the moment so we’d probably be taking the piss asking him to shell out again!

Seriously though, Pairc na nGael or the Gaelic Grounds (whichever you prefer) is very much the poor relation compared to the new Thomond, Im sure its casting an envious eye at those shiny new stands. Unfortunately PnaG has turned out to be a serious white elephant. Since it re-opened in 2003, it has yet to be filled to its 48,000 capacity, the nearest it got was the 2nd tipp replay last year which drew just over 30k.

The vast, windswept terracing and uncovered stand arent exactly the most pleasant places to be on a cold,wet day. This type of design certainly isnt suited to the tropical climes of Ireland.:rolleyes: Obviously cost was a huge factor in the ommission of a roof but apparently the proximity of housing on this side of the ground and the resultant fears of overshadowing and loss of light would have meant securing planning permission would have been difficult. However this hasnt impacted on the new structures at Thomond Park. Of course many people would have you believe that the value of Munster rugby to the city results in TP receiving preferential treatment in comparison to PnaG.:eek:

Next on the agenda for the Gaelic Grounds is the introduction of floodlighting. Permission was refusedlast year but a new application is likely to be submitted in the near future. Unfortunately the prospect of the 3 open sides of Limerick GAA’s HQ being roofed is pretty remote, however serious consideration should go into developing a nice stylish, cantilevered roof for the open stand. After all the view from this side of the ground is far superior due to a much steeper incline than the abomination that is the Mackey stand.:o

Thomond Park looks fantastic though, such a towering and elegant feature on the Limerick skyline.:)

The answer is in your own post. Apart from Croke Park the GAA only need grounds with one covered stand and terracing, the amount of over-capacity grounds they will never fill even once a year that are on the drawing board is an astounding waste of resources, especially seeing as they are not governed by an international bodies standards re; stadium criteria. Was also interested to hear thomond mooted in the smash and grab planned to nick the 2012 euros of the Polaks and Ukrainians.

Polaks? Does that equal Paddies? Language.

Thomond looks cool. It’s flying up!

@tommyt wrote:

The answer is in your own post. Apart from Croke Park the GAA only need grounds with one covered stand and terracing, the amount of over-capacity grounds they will never fill even once a year that are on the drawing board is an astounding waste of resources, especially seeing as they are not governed by an international bodies standards re; stadium criteria. Was also interested to hear thomond mooted in the smash and grab planned to nick the 2012 euros of the Polaks and Ukrainians.

Well its about time the GAA started treating its spectators with a bit more respect, people are starting to get fairly sick of paying ridiculous prices to stand on a crumbling terrace with the rain pelting down. The events at Pairc Ui Chaoimh the other week only further highlighted the GAA’s head in the sand approach. When are they going to realise that smaller, more user friendly stadiums are the way to go?

Theres a lot of rumours floating around about Euro 2012, but in fairness its always the same, just think back to the Athens olympics, Euro 2004 and even the Beijjing games. All of these were the subject of speculation about whether or not the facilities would be completed on time. Even if the tournamnent were to be taken off Poland & Ukraine, apparently it would then go to either Italy or Spain.

Still, it would be fantastic if we did get it. The only problem is that the new Thomond park falls around 14,000 seats short of the minimum UEFA requirement for a finals venue. This would mean that extra capacity would have to be built behind both goals. The net result being that more houses would have to be bought up at one end while the opposite end is extremely close to the road, making any expansion here pretty tricky.

@Tuborg wrote:

Well its about time the GAA started treating its spectators with a bit more respect, people are starting to get fairly sick of paying ridiculous prices to stand on a crumbling terrace with the rain pelting down. The events at Pairc Ui Chaoimh the other week only further highlighted the GAA’s head in the sand approach. When are they going to realise that smaller, more user friendly stadiums are the way to go?

Theres a lot of rumours floating around about Euro 2012, but in fairness its always the same, just think back to the Athens olympics, Euro 2004 and even the Beijjing games. All of these were the subject of speculation about whether or not the facilities would be completed on time. Even if the tournamnent were to be taken off Poland & Ukraine, apparently it would then go to either Italy or Spain.

Still, it would be fantastic if we did get it. The only problem is that the new Thomond park falls around 14,000 seats short of the minimum UEFA requirement for a finals venue. This would mean that extra capacity would have to be built behind both goals. The net result being that more houses would have to be bought up at one end while the opposite end is extremely close to the road, making any expansion here pretty tricky.

The regeneration of Moyross should make it easy enough to incorporate the land behind Thomond into a greater Thomond Park/LIT site to be developed fully at a later stage.

With the link road opening from behind Moyross to the Coonagh roundabout (I think it’s on schedule) the road beside Thomond should become far less congested, which may make it possible to develop the South Terrace slightly. Don’t think we’ll ever see much done with it, but if it meant bringing top level European football to Limerick, I suspect an effort would be made by Limerick City Council, the FAI and probably the IRFU. The Council are painfully aware that sport and Thomond Park are one of the few good news stories that they can use to change Limerick’s image. They would love the chance to have a Euro match here.

Of course, I don’t think this will happen by 2012 but down the line the option will be one worth considering.

Does anybody else agree with me that the GAA would be better off putting seating in on the terraces in the Gaelic Grounds similar to that on the open stand?

This would not cost very much but combined with a cantilevered roof on the open stand would make it a very comfortable all-seater stadium which would still cater for most munster championship matches even though the capacity would be reduced to 40k or so.

Longer term a replacement for the Mackey stand would really make it a quality ground. I cant understand the GAAs obsession with terracing when comfortable, modest sized seated grounds will attract much more people to games instead of standing getting wet on a terrace

Thomond Park looks amazing and its great to see it almost complete.

@niall murphy wrote:

Does anybody else agree with me that the GAA would be better off putting seating in on the terraces in the Gaelic Grounds similar to that on the open stand?

This would not cost very much but combined with a cantilevered roof on the open stand would make it a very comfortable all-seater stadium which would still cater for most munster championship matches even though the capacity would be reduced to 40k or so.

Longer term a replacement for the Mackey stand would really make it a quality ground. I cant understand the GAAs obsession with terracing when comfortable, modest sized seated grounds will attract much more people to games instead of standing getting wet on a terrace

Thomond Park looks amazing and its great to see it almost complete.

The ideal scenario for the Gaelic Grounds would be to roof the three open sides but thats probably being way too ambitious. Although now that Croke Park is completed I think the GAA should be making money available to the major provincial grounds for gradual improvements to facilities.

The reality is that Munster championship attendances have declined hugely in the last decade, mainly due to the fact that the knockout format is gone and every team gets a second chance if they are beaten. Nowadays only the Munster final is guaranteed a gate of over 40k. The result is that we are left with a number of grounds with capacities much larger than required.

There probably would be outrage if standing space was removed from the GGs, however I think it would be a logical move. As a compromise a dedicated standing area could be retained while the majority of the terrace would be converted to all seater. Indeed this approach is used in many grounds in the German Bundesliga. In fairness to the new sections of the GGs, the sightlines are excellent so a conversion to seated accomodation wouldnt cause any problems in terms of the ability to view a match properly.

As for the Mackey “Stand”, it really cant be replaced quick enough, its so bad it actually has to be seen to be believed!:o Due to the re-alignment of the pitch, the stand is now even further away from the action. This combined with the purchase of the ESB sub station at the rear of the stand would provide ample room for the development of a proper structure. The potential exists to turn the Gaelic Grounds into an impressive, medium sized stadium, all we need now is a bit of ambition!

Two quick points:
1/ Why would anyone bother turning the Gaelic Grounds into a 40k-all seater stadium when clearly there is no demand for such a facility. As has been said, there are insufficient important matches in Munster to require three very large stadiums: Thurles, Cork & Limerick.
2/ GAA stadiums are always going to be more inclined towards uncovered stands/terraces because it is a Summer sport. A roof is expensive, as was seen at Croke Park, where the roof does not cover the first twenty odd rows in the stands because of the price of overhanging that far. Logic for this would obviously include the fact that all important matches take place from May to September.

Possibly one of the worst locations for a stadium ever. If they had any real vision for the place they would have moved it to a green field site and made a fortune on the site. I think GAA is always going to be the poor relation of rugby in Limerick city though.

Always going to be the poor relation of rugby? Ask yourself how long the Heineken Cup has been in existence and even then remember the old Thomond Park didn’t sell out for most Magners/Celtic League matches.

Sorry but GAA has always been the poor relation to rugby in Limerick City…be it in schools, clubs, etc..nothing to do with recent Heineken Cup games or that Magners thing…Most recent Magners games have been played in Cork.

The city GAA clubs are not as strong, I think it would be the opposite in the county

Success and novelty can be very fleeting things. Simple fact is Limerick is going to have two large stadiums, and there’s every chance neither of them will sell out regularly.

Obviously a Leinster supporter…:rolleyes:
Limerick rugby has never been solely about Munster..

Shannon RFC has a planning application 08157 for new facilities at Thomond Park.

Planning Permission to demolish existing pavilion within the grounds of Thomond Park and to construct a proposed pavilion facility to include sports hall, gymnasium, sports injury clinic, changing and shower room areas and reception rooms with bar amenities and associated site works.

Below an image of UL Bohemians club house (work-in-progress).

Looking at this aerial shot from April, I wonder what plans are for the terraces behind each of the goalposts. Are they to be upgraded as part of the redevelopment too?

See also images from munsterrugby.ie April June

@kefu wrote:

Two quick points:
1/ Why would anyone bother turning the Gaelic Grounds into a 40k-all seater stadium when clearly there is no demand for such a facility. As has been said, there are insufficient important matches in Munster to require three very large stadiums: Thurles, Cork & Limerick.
2/ GAA stadiums are always going to be more inclined towards uncovered stands/terraces because it is a Summer sport. A roof is expensive, as was seen at Croke Park, where the roof does not cover the first twenty odd rows in the stands because of the price of overhanging that far. Logic for this would obviously include the fact that all important matches take place from May to September.

If we were to use your logic, why not just give fans a couple of grassy banks to stand on? Sure tis a summer sport, they’ll be grand! If you go to the bother of building a new stadium, why not build a half decent one while you’re at it. “Summer” is a bit of an irrelevant term in Ireland, it dosent exactly mean much, which is why I cant understand the fascination with wide open stands. Obviously there are too many over capacity stadiums around the country at the moment and the way to go is to develop smaller, more manageable stadiums with better facilities.

The Gaelic Grounds current capacity is 49,000 so replacing most of the terracing with seats would bring the capacity down to below 40k which is a much more suitable number. Obviously I was indulging in a bit of fantasy when talking about the Gaelic Grounds, the stadium is never going to be fully covered but it would definitely make sense in the long term to erect a roof over the current open stand as this is where the majority of spectators prefer to sit because of the far superior sightlines compared to the Mackey stand.

Of course in an ideal world, Limerick and Munster would share the same stadium but thats a discussion for another day!

@vkid wrote:

Possibly one of the worst locations for a stadium ever. If they had any real vision for the place they would have moved it to a green field site and made a fortune on the site. I think GAA is always going to be the poor relation of rugby in Limerick city though.

I really dont think theres a whole pile wrong with the location, its not that different from Thomond Park, although the Ennis Road is slightly busier. The real problem is that common Irish disease where everyone wants to get there by car, despite the fact its only a mere 20 minute walk from the city centre.

The idea of a souless stadium built beside a retail park in the middle of no where with parking for 50,00 cars just dosent appeal to me at all. These type of grounds create absolutely no atmosphere whatsoever, everyone arrives by car, watches the match and goes home. Championship games or heineken cup games are all about savouring the atmosphere in the city, having a few pints and then heading to the game. You just dont get that with out of town grounds.

@CologneMike wrote:

Looking at this aerial shot from April, I wonder what plans are for the terraces behind each of the goalposts. Are they to be upgraded as part of the redevelopment too?

As far as i know the plan is the leave the terraces as they are.
They got planning permission to fill in the corners and make it 29000 capacity but they decided that 26000 was big enough so the corners were shelved.

UL Punch Lecture 2008 (Limerick Post)

Spirit and Substance: The New Thomond Park Stadium

Engineers Ireland / Michael Punch & Partners

Tuesday September 23rd

UL Concert Hall (7.30pm)

Has anyone got up to date photos of Thomond Park?
Thanks

Try this link.
http://www.munsterfans.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3919&PN=1&TPN=51

I tried to upload the pictures but couldn’t due to their size.

Seems that they’re startin to install the different coloured seating on the west stand.Has anybody heard or seen what the new Shannon clubhouse will look like? Will be interesting to see how it will integrate/or not with the new west stand.

Thank you DemolitionMan – it looks fantastic I have to say. 2 weeks to first game there I believe.:)

Bruff RFC have a comprehensive set of pics HERE.

@goofy wrote:

As far as i know the plan is the leave the terraces as they are.
They got planning permission to fill in the corners and make it 29000 capacity but they decided that 26000 was big enough so the corners were shelved.

Really hope they complete the terraces to blend with the lower tier of the new stands, they won’t have a problem filling the place & surely it cant cost that much in the overall context.

Looking at the shot, the scope of the existing terraces had a significant impact on the design of the stands, it would be crazy to abandon that now & leave us with four disjointed stand alone structures.

[ATTACH]8363[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]8364[/ATTACH]Latest pics of Thomond Park

If Munster beat the All Blacks this time will 100,000 claim to have been there?

Great vision on this which I’d love to confirm if only I had a ticket!!!!

Some video
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1117/nationwide_av.html?2450340,null,228

ok overall it looks great, but what is the story with the mottled seating ? and obviously as i said before like, they really need to redevelop the terraces to connect with the stands as originally planned.

What exactly is wrong with the multi coloured seats? They can be found in many stadiums throughout Europe. Christ, talk about knit picking!:rolleyes:

not something i would have done thats all i’m saying ! the way it has to change to solid red so that ‘munster’ is legible doesn’t help.

The mottled seating is nice, its the lettering thats clumsily done.

I really dont see an issue with them to be honest!

Paul Clerkin’s correct, the “Munster” lettering just dosent look right!

its the variation from mottled to solid colour, the point being it doesn’t work, & yes i know a small issue in the context of a successful redevelopment.

i think the logic behind the seating is that when the stadium is less than full it is supposed to mask that a little..an ieda robbed from other stadiums. Looking directly from the West stand to the east stand at the Canada game, i didnt think it really did that but personally after last night, i couldnt care less what colour the seats are. Its a magnificent venue imo. The new stands are a pleasure to be in for a game.

Shannon RFU Pavilion

(08211) Permission granted 17th February 2009

Demolish existing pavilion within the grounds of Thomond Park and to construct a proposed pavilion facility to include sports hall, gymnasium, sports injury treatment area, changing and shower room areas and reception rooms with bar amenities and associated site works.

What a mess!

@CologneMike wrote:

Shannon RFU Pavilion

(08211) Permission granted 17th February 2009

Demolish existing pavilion within the grounds of Thomond Park and to construct a proposed pavilion facility to include sports hall, gymnasium, sports injury treatment area, changing and shower room areas and reception rooms with bar amenities and associated site works.

Is this a joke ?

@CologneMike wrote:

Shannon RFU Pavilion

(08211) Permission granted 17th February 2009

Demolish existing pavilion within the grounds of Thomond Park and to construct a proposed pavilion facility to include sports hall, gymnasium, sports injury treatment area, changing and shower room areas and reception rooms with bar amenities and associated site works.

@NevilleNeville wrote:

What a mess!

@Dreamstate wrote:

Is this a joke ?

Lads are you stuck for words to make complete sentences or what? Elaborate . . . . .

I gave it the thumbs up as my first impressions are one of a very promising looking club house with good facilities for a top rugby club. Do you think they deserve better?

Suffice to say that the brevity of my initial response was due to my dismay at the poor quality of design in the vicinity the city’s newest icon. Agreed this is only an opinion but nevertheless the overuse of materials and window types, the lack of coherence of the elevations, the thickness of the fascias which are without detail, the poor appreciation of scale and order are what makes this a mess in design terms. I appreciate the difficulty created by the context of the proposal however a good designer would have overcome this, with the clues being in the quality of the brief itself. Do the Shannon RFU deseve better? The design wreaks of having too many cooks so perhaps the designers were pushed by a committee. The location of the project however certainly deserves better.

I thought at first the image above might have given the wrong impression in that the pavilion will be directly behind the West Stand, but in fact it will be tucked well away on its original site in the far corner.

However, since I have yet to venture into the redeveloped ground, so much so that I’m amazed to see the true length of the West Stand. The proposed Pavilion and corner of the West Stand are really close to each other.

On top of that I presume the main entrances are still in place here too. Will it be a bit of a squeeze here on match days when 26.000 turn up?

Was there not also talk of relocating the Garda Station next door to Moyross thus freeing up space to expand next door?