Proposal to increase capacity of Kingspan Breffni to 31,000

GAA news

Paul Fitzpatrick at Stradone

Ambitious plans to increase the capacity of Kingspan Breffni to 31,000, including roofing a large part of the main terrace to bring increase seated capacity to 15,200, were revealed by outgoing Cavan GAA county board chairman Kieran Callaghan at last night’s annual convention.

Planning permission for the first phase of the redevelopment, which includes four full-size pitches, was officially granted on Wednesday.

In his final address as chairman after five years in the role, Callaghan outlined in detail the breadth of the regional sports hub project, with a contractor to be appointed for same in September 2025.

“This is going happen, the funding is in place. So we started looking at what will be next for Cavan,” he said, before outlining the proposal to increase the capacity of the stadium “to become a regional stadium”.

“This is only a proposal. I’m showing this for the first time tonight, obviously I couldn’t show it (before now) as we were going through the planning process elsewhere,” he said, explaining that overall capacity will be 31,100 including covered stand seating (4,200), northern terrace (7,500), eastern stand (11,000 seats) and southern terrace (8,300).

“We will increase the capacity to 15,200 seats,” said Callaghan, who paid tribute to Kingspan for their contribution to the entire development project.

“The vision Kingspan has and what they’ve done for Cavan GAA is unbelievable.

“Kingspan funded the entire cost of the design process of the stand, the reports that had to be done for the planning application and everything to do with the planning application, Kingspan funded.

“We will have a regional stadium and a centre of excellence in the same location, there is nothing else in Ireland like it,” he said, describing the project as “phenomenal”.

Callaghan believes that the project can be funded by external bodes.

“How is it going to be paid for? I have no problem saying, the Apple tax windfall – this is the place to put it… I have no problem saying we are entitled to it here. We put so much work in and so many volunteers. This is a legacy project that will be there for hundreds of years and cater for so, so many young people in sport.

“The other fund is the Shared Island Fund – due to our location, we’re entitled to that too.”

While it was not stated on the night, it is understood that Kingspan Breffni would be in line to host major fixtures such as Ulster finals – the stadium has not hosted an Ulster SFC final since the 1960s – and events such as concerts, with ongoing uncertainty around the redevelopment of Casement Park and the unsuitability of other stadiums in the province thought to be favouring Cavan's proposal.

Elections

In other news on the night, Mark O’Rourke (Ballyhaise), John Keating (Ballinagh) and Mark Gilsenan (Bailieboriugh Shamrocks) were elected unopposed as chairman, vice-chairman and PRO respectively.

Ita Smith (Laragh United) was elected as Asst Secretary, replacing Amanda Brady who has stepped down, in a contest with outgoing PRO Susan Brady (Ballyhaise).

Denn clubman Callaghan and Tom O’Reilly (Shannon Gaels) were elected as Ulster Council delegates in a four-way contest which also included Gerry Sheridan (Mullahoran) and Angela Hamilton (Shercock).

Elsewhere, total income for the year was €4,177,313, up from €2,869,249, although the figure included the €1m donation from JP McManus which was distributed to clubs.

Expenditure increased from €2,600,620 to €3,942,709, again including the McManus money.

Cavan spent €960,052 preparing teams, up by €52,000. These figures were presented under the headings of senior football, senior hurling and U20/U17/Development.

The figure for ‘Backroom Team Personnel’ stood out as having increased from €163,113 to €237,288; this was explained by secretary Martin Cahill, in response to a question from the floor, as having related to “a period of time when we had an employee who left us” and a “six-month separation payment”.

Cavan made a modest €6,000 profit on the inaugural Breffni Bash music festival, which cost over €150,000 to run. The profit was due to sponsorship of €24,000 from Donal Keogan of the Imperial Bar, Cahill stated.