Brandywell Stadium Development

[eugenio]

Any way pressure can be brought to,get back to,grass -putb3g into show grounds

[Keyser Soze]

It would be great to see grass back in the Brandywell, but since it would cost the council a huge sum of money to remove the astro and redo it, I can't see it happening.

It definitely affects the standard of football played by all teams. We always look a better team playing on grass.

[marcoloco]

It would be great to see grass back in the Brandywell, but since it would cost the council a huge sum of money to remove the astro and redo it, I can't see it happening.

It definitely affects the standard of football played by all teams. We always look a better team playing on grass.

Apologies, i know we discussed this before but what is the lifespan of the current plastic pitch?

[Keyser Soze]

Probably depends on the amount of use it gets.

[marcoloco]

Probably depends on the amount of use it gets.

Fair point. our pitch is now used weekly and for training.

Whilst grass is what we all want to see it also would not have stood up to the current level of usage.

Maybe what we need is a superior hybrid surface like those found at Windsor Park?

[rodgers]

I don't think it would be trained on as much if it was back to grass.

I can't see the council willing to spend any money on going back to grass so I suspect we are going to have to wait until the pitch becomes so much of a disgrace that they have no option to do anything. They have already to had to row back on some commitment not to use a certain type of weedkiller because of the poor quality of the pitch.

[brandyball]

Were we not eligible for these grants?

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/02 ... ash-boost/

[Nige92]

Were we not eligible for these grants?

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/02 ... ash-boost/

I'm happy to be corrected but this money is coming from the FAI via the Irish Government.
Any investment we get needs to come from Stormont/UK Gov.

[stevebradley]

Stormont has £36.2m set aside for stadia like the Brandywell. The minister for Communities (Deirdre Hargey) has failed to do anything to release it. It's clearly being held as a hostage to help the GAA get the extra funding it wants for Casement.

It's an absolute digrace that nothing has been done to move this forward since the Minister started in office in 2020. Especially as inflation is eating away at that sum of money every ywar and menaing that less can be delivered with it. And now she;s using deflection tactics to say that women's football needs to get a share of the pie (when almost all women teams in NI use existing club facilities, so do not need additional funding).

Remember this when parties come looking for your vote. Ask the local SF MLAs why their Minister has done nothing about the stadium funding that Martin McGuinness promised years ago would be available to complete the Brandywell. Talk about undermining the man's legacy.

[brandyball]

Stormont has £36.2m set aside for stadia like the Brandywell. The minister for Communities (Deirdre Hargey) has failed to do anything to release it. It's clearly being held as a hostage to help the GAA get the extra funding it wants for Casement.

It's an absolute digrace that nothing has been done to move this forward since the Minister started in office in 2020. Especially as inflation is eating away at that sum of money every ywar and menaing that less can be delivered with it. And now she;s using deflection tactics to say that women's football needs to get a share of the pie (when almost all women teams in NI use existing club facilities, so do not need additional funding).

Remember this when parties come looking for your vote. Ask the local SF MLAs why their Minister has done nothing about the stadium funding that Martin McGuinness promised years ago would be available to complete the Brandywell. Talk about undermining the man's legacy.

Added to the fact there may not be an Executive after the election depending on the results and who becomes the largest party.

[Keyser Soze]

Remember this when parties come looking for your vote. Ask the local SF MLAs why their Minister has done nothing about the stadium funding that Martin McGuinness promised years ago would be available to complete the Brandywell. Talk about undermining the man's legacy.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of politics in the North, many fans who might be annoyed at SF for not sorting out release of funds, would vote for SF anyway, no matter what they do.
How many votes do you really think SF will lose in Derry because the Mark Farren stand hasn't been completed? I'd hazard a guess at very very few.

[mokendismucker]

Regardless of your politics it’s still worth asking the questions and raising the profile.

I’m ready to pounce. #ourshare

[stevebradley]

Remember this when parties come looking for your vote. Ask the local SF MLAs why their Minister has done nothing about the stadium funding that Martin McGuinness promised years ago would be available to complete the Brandywell. Talk about undermining the man's legacy.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of politics in the North, many fans who might be annoyed at SF for not sorting out release of funds, would vote for SF anyway, no matter what they do.
How many votes do you really think SF will lose in Derry because the Mark Farren stand hasn't been completed? I'd hazard a guess at very very few.

It's impossible to know how may votes would be affected. That's upt o each individual Derry City fan to decide. Remember that in a PR election transfers are key - so even if people choose to raise or drop a party down their transfer priorities as a result of something, it can add up to have a big impact. Especially as SF will be in danger of losing an Assembly seat in Foyle after the 2017 General and 2019 council election results, and the controversy aroiund changing their MLAs.

Regardless - as Mokendismucker said, even just raising it will put pressure on. The alternative is we all just sit back and take whatever sh!te we have to put up with. Belfast is being lavished with taxpayer funded stadiums to an extent that no other city in the UK has - even places much bigger than Belfast. I'm not going to just shrug my shoulders about all of this personally. I'm fuming, and it will definitely impact my vote anyway.

[marcoloco]

Remember this when parties come looking for your vote. Ask the local SF MLAs why their Minister has done nothing about the stadium funding that Martin McGuinness promised years ago would be available to complete the Brandywell. Talk about undermining the man's legacy.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of politics in the North, many fans who might be annoyed at SF for not sorting out release of funds, would vote for SF anyway, no matter what they do.
How many votes do you really think SF will lose in Derry because the Mark Farren stand hasn't been completed? I'd hazard a guess at very very few.

It's impossible to know how may votes would be affected. That's upt o each individual Derry City fan to decide. Remember that in a PR election transfers are key - so even if people choose to raise or drop a party down their transfer priorities as a result of something, it can add up to have a big impact. Especially as SF will be in danger of losing an Assembly seat in Foyle after the 2017 General and 2019 council election results, and the controversy aroiund changing their MLAs.

Regardless - as Mokendismucker said, even just raising it will put pressure on. The alternative is we all just sit back and take whatever sh!te we have to put up with. Belfast is being lavished with taxpayer funded stadiums to an extent that no other city in the UK has - even places much bigger than Belfast. I'm not going to just shrug my shoulders about all of this personally. I'm fuming, and it will definitely impact my vote anyway.

Wasn't it SF that declared the Brandywell 'world class'?

Maybe that's an urban myth but i recall something spouted along those lines...

[stevebradley]

Wasn't it SF that declared the Brandywell 'world class'?

Maybe that's an urban myth but i recall something spouted along those lines...

Raymond McCartney did anyway.

[doll]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60378769

A £36m funding package to upgrade and redevelop regional football stadia in Northern Ireland has been shelved.

Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey said she will no longer be able to progress the plan following the collapse of Northern Ireland's power-sharing Executive.

In 2015, the Executive had allocated £36m for the sub-regional programme for local football.

But Hargey said the proposal required Executive sign off.

The Sinn Féin minister said she had been committed to delivering the funding before the end of the mandate but said "it is not my fault people walked out of the Executive".

"I had aimed this was to be done before the end of the mandate, but because some walked away, this can not now be done," said Hargey in response to criticism from DUP MLA Peter Weir.

The Department of Finance confirmed to the BBC that there will be no impact on the redevelopment of Casement Park.

"Casement Park is a designated Executive Flagship project and funding will be provided in line with that prior commitment," the department said.

In line with the Irish Football Association's 2011 Facility Strategy, the Stormont Executive had committed £36m to the development of football stadia after the completion of Windsor Park.

In its 2015 consultation, the then Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (now Department for Communities) had divided the pot of money into five areas.

The Oval, the home of Glentoran, was set to receive an investment of £10m so it would be suitable for "hosting high-level competition matches with a moderate capacity level of 6,000 to 8,000 persons".

A second strand of £17m was to be made available to other Premiership clubs who were capable of hosting fixtures with a 5,000 capacity.

They could apply for funding of up to £3m to provide "stadia which can sit at the hub of key communities and can offer quality football facilities and community facilities which bring revenues into the club tenants, thus making football in these areas more sustainable".

IFA Championship clubs were also set to receive a total of £3m, with a potential sum of £500,000 available to clubs who applied, while a further £3m would be put towards "a single high quality facility" for intermediate and junior football.

The final strand was meant to be a sum of £3m put towards a national training centre to "support current talent and nurture future generations".

[stevebradley]

Now the Communities Minister is saying the £36m stadium noney is shelved because there is no functioning Executive :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60378769

Which is pure nonesense, as Ministers can still progress decisions that have already been made.

A shameless attempt to blame others at the last minute for 25 months of inaction. We'll just have to pray that Stormont continues after the election, and that a Minister gets appointed who is willing to release the money and not use it as a hostage over a white elephant gaelic stadium in a city with far too many big stadiums as it is

[marcoloco]

Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey said she will no longer be able to progress the plan following the collapse of Northern Ireland's power-sharing Executive.

Utter crap. She's not progressed anything even when there was an Executive. Usual dis-functional politics holdings everyone, us included, back.

[brandyball]

It's all kicked off @ Stormount. The DUP have accused the Shinners of being sectarian as they've protected the money for casement but not the stadia money.

[marcoloco]

It's all kicked off @ Stormount. The DUP have accused the Shinners of being sectarian as they've protected the money for casement but not the stadia money.

Can't argue with that...