Cooney: Soccer and rugby out after May

by GAA staff , 04 November 2009

GAA president Christy Cooney insists that Croke Park will not be made available to the Irish Rugby Football Union or the Football Association of Ireland after work is completed on the redeveloped Lansdowne Road next summer.

When construction began on the old Lansdowne Road the IRFU and the FAI turned to the GAA, who, after much internal debate, eventually decided to relax its ban on other sports being played on its grounds (Rule 42) and allow its rival governing bodies to rent Croke Park for international matches.

Those agreements will expire at the end of next May and, according to Cooney, there will be no need or desire from any of the parties involved to see extensions.

"In fairness to soccer and rugby, they will have their own stadium then. I don't believe there will be a need or a demand for it from rugby or soccer," he said.

"One of the options that was being bandied around was if a (rugby) World Cup was coming to Britain and Ireland and the possible use of Croke Park for a World Cup final, but that is off the agenda now as the World Cup isn't coming here. Genuinely, I don't believe there will be a demand for rugby or soccer."

With the money generated from renting Croke Park to other sports now set to dry up, Cooney's next challenge is to find alternative sources of revenue for the GAA.

"We have planning permission for a number of concerts a year and we plan to continue with those," he revealed.

"We will always be looking at alternatives but we have no plans at the moment. Let's get over the May-June period next year when rugby and soccer will be finished and we will see what we do.

"We have an excellent facility here and we may play more of our National League games here, like we did with the Tyrone-Dublin game earlier this year. Play them under lights, which would attract significant crowds. There is a lot for us to look at to promote and develop our own games."

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