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CROKE PARK
by
Liam Gibbons, Sarah Mulchrone and Orla Grealis
Attendances
.
In 2009 nearly 2million people visited Croke
Park.
The largest attendance at Croke Park was in
1961, when 90,556 turned up to watch Down
play Offaly in the All Ireland Football Final.
Croke Park has held the world record for
largest attendance at a club rugby union
match since 2nd May 2009
© GAA
Size
© GAA
Croke Park is a three tier stadium with 7 levels. The total
area cover by Croke Park is 16 acres. Total area covered by
the roof is 5 acres.
The volume of concrete used during construction was
45,000 cu. m. There was 2,000 tonnes of steel used in the
roof of Croke Park. The pipe work used in the plumbing of
the stadium covers 10,000 m.
 Underground drainage covers 8,000 m. The Hill 16 terrace
houses the biggest outdoor screen in Europe. There are
approx 116 turnstiles and additional portable ones which are
brought out for full house matches
© GAA
Match Day
The media area is on Level 7 in the stadium – there are
approx 145 seats: approx 90 for print journalists, 40 for radio
and 15 for TV. There are 87 corporate boxes, which are sold
to businesses who want to bring clients to games. The boxes
are on Level 6 in the stadium and contain between 12 – 33
seats.
© GAA
History
Part I
Today Croke Park is home and headquarters to the GAA, however prior
to the Association’s purchase of the stadium in 1913 the grounds had
been in private ownership.
In the early years of the GAA All-Ireland Finals were played at a variety
of venues around the country. The first finals played at what is now
Croke Park took place in March 1896 with Tipperary successful in both
codes, beating Kilkenny in the All-Ireland Hurling Final and Meath in the
All-Ireland Football Final. Frank Dineen decided to buy the grounds and
he paid £3,250 for it on 17th December 1908.
On 27th July 1913 Central Council decided to buy the grounds and rename it as Croke Memorial Park, a title which was never subsequently
used. Dineen sold the grounds to the GAA for £3,500 and Croke Park
became the principal grounds of the Association and also its
administrative headquarters.
© GAA
Part II
The GAA’s first effort at modernisation was the construction of a terrace
area at the northern end of the ground, in what is now Dineen-Hill 16.
This was created in 1917 using the rubble from O’Connell Street in
Dublin, which had been destroyed in the 1916 Rising.
In 1924 the GAA built a new stand along the Jones Road side of the
stadium and took the historic decision to name it the Hogan Stand, in
honour of Michael Hogan of Tipperary who had been shot during Bloody
Sunday. The Cusack Stand was finally completed in 1938 and cost
£50,000 and was regarded as one of the finest in Europe at the time.
In the 1980’s a grand plan for the entire redevelopment of Croke Park
was set in train.
 This redevelopment was staged in four phases starting in 1993 with a
new Cusack Stand and culminating in 2005 with a new Hill 16. The
redevelopment was completed in just over 12 years with no disruptions
to any All-Ireland Finals. Today Croke Park is one of the largest stadiums
in Europe and is the crowning glory of the Association
© GAA
Seating
© GAA
The Cusack Stand
Phase one of the Croke Park redevelopment began in 1993
with the demolition of the old Cusack Stand. By summer
1995 the new Cusack Stand became part of the Dublin
skyline. Completed in 1997, this new Cusack Stand is 180m
long, 35m high, has a capacity for 25,000 people and
contains 46 hospitality suites.
As more of a stand-alone project, in mid-1998 a major high
technology Museum incorporating numerous items of GAA
memorabilia was opened underneath the Cusack Stand.
© GAA
The Canal End
Phase two started in late 1998 with the demolition of the
Canal End Terrace and extension of the new stand
completed in time for the 2000 All Ireland finals. In April 2006
The Canal End was renamed the Davin Stand, in honour of
Maurice Davin, the first president of the GAA.
This phase also saw the creation of a tunnel which was
later named the Ali tunnel in honour of Muhammad Ali and
his fight in Croke Park.
© GAA
The Hogan Stand
.
Phase three saw the building of the new Hogan
Stand which completed the stadium's famous
'horseshoe' effect. This required a greater variety of
spectator categories to be accommodated including
general spectators, corporate patrons, VIPs,
broadcast and media services and operations staff.
Extras included a fitted-out mezzanine level for
VIPs along with a top-level press media faciliity
© GAA
Hill 16
After the 2003 Special Olympics, construction began in
September on the final phase, replacing the old Hill 16 and
Nally Stands with modern terraces that increased the
capacity of the stadium to 82,300.This final phase was
completed and the new Dineen Hill 16 and Nally Terrace
were officially opened by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in
March 2005.
The entire redevelopment of the Stadium cost approx €260
million.
© GAA
Thank you