Tourism, Sport and Recreation

THE redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the establishment of an adjoining Centre of Excellence will provide Cork city and region with a wonderful sports, recreation and community resource for the future, the chairman of Cork County Board, Bob Ryan, has said.

Speaking after the release by the Board of preliminary artist’s impressions of the new stadium and Centre of Excellence. Mr. Ryan said that the integration of the project elements as flagship amenities within a new 80 acre public park would open up the whole Marina area and add value to sport, tourism and business in Cork.

The draft Masterplan for the first phase of Marina Park, incorporating the stadium and Centre of Excellence, was comfortably voted through at a meeting of Cork City Council last week.

This allows the County Board project to proceed to full design and planning application stages. It is expected that a planning application for the €67 million project, which will include an environmental impact statement and a comprehensive traffic plan, will be submitted in October by the Board’s project managers, Malachy Walsh and Partners.

The new stadium is set to give a timely €22 million boost to the local construction sector, with the creation of over 300 jobs at the building phase which is expected to take two years, when planning is achieved. The new project will also provide additional jobs in facilities management, hospitality and games development.

“The primary purpose of the development is to restore Páirc Uí Chaoimh as one of the premier sports stadia in the country and to provide a development worthy of the city and the largest county”, said Mr. Ryan.

“Marina Park, incorporating the stadium and Centre of Excellence, will be a major transformational project for Cork.

“It will re-furbish the former, near derelict Munster Agricultural Society lands and create a wonderful, new public amenity which will be part funded by the land purchase price.

“Within Marina Park, Páirc Uí Chaoimh will showcase GAA games, attract more visitors, open up the Marina area, optimise river-based recreation and create significant community dividend, ” he said.

The project will see a complete modernisation of the existing stadium to house 45, 000 spectators, the re-development and roofing of both stands, the incorporation of new dressing rooms, a pre-match warm up area, medical facilities, restaurants, meeting and conference rooms, media facilities, museum, new and additional turnstiles, the elimination of the existing stadium tunnels and the creation of new access and egress points for spectators.