The increasing risk that Casement Park GAA stadium in Belfast could not be redeveloped in time for the Euro 2028 championship gave the British government an opportunity to hit pause on a project that was in danger of spiraling out of control financially.
Something that was expected to cost £77.5 million at its inception in 2009 could have ended up costing £450 million. With only £120 million currently committed from the Irish Government and the Stormont Executive along with some GAA funding, calling halt was a difficult but prudent decision by a cash-strapped UK government which was on the hook for the balance.
The main driver of the overrun was planning delays due to objection from local residents to the scale of the development on the Andersonstown Road in Belfast. Consequently, the project did not get formal final approval until 2020, which was upheld on appeal in 2022. The GAA must take some of the responsibility for the delay. It sought to increase the stadium’s capacity from 31,500 to 40,000 fully seated spectators. It the end it had to settle for a capacity of 34, 578.
The on-again, off-again nature of power-sharing in Northern Ireland over the intervening years deprived the project of political support at critical junctures. The Covid pandemic was also a factor. The delay itself opened the door to mission creep in the form of upgrading Casement Park to the standard required by UEFA for use in the Euros. It also brought the offer of €50 million from Dublin.
There is an opportunity – if not in fact a necessity – to now revisit the scope and ambition of the project. The business case for having a large all-seat stadium in Belfast may seem self-evident but is worth testing. Any such review is unlikely to conclude that a UEFA standard stadium is warranted. Reportedly those requirements doubled the cost of building.
That still leaves a significant financial gap between the cost of the stadium and the funds that have been pledged but it is one the British and Irish governments could conceivably bridge.