Boucher Road vote part of angle to shove major concerts into long-delayed Casement Park GAA grounds - TUV

That’s according to the TUV, who argue that the long-delayed and trouble-hit stadium in west Belfast is “being positioned not simply as GAA grounds, but as a major commercial concert and events venue”.

On Tuesday, party MLA Timothy Gaston is to launch a Stormont bid attacking the idea that Casement Park may not be just a sports ground, arguing that it’s “unjustifiable for public money to underwrite a major commercial venue”.

Suggesting the GAA shouldn’t be allowed to keep all the profits from staging any large-scale gigs, he wants to see some way of enabling the public purse to share in cash non-sporting events at Casement would bring in, partially recouping funding spent on it.

In the wake of Friday night’s vote, a TUV spokesman said nationalist attempts to drive all major events to the as-yet unbuilt west Belfast stadium “have been thrown into even sharper focus”.

He said: “The TUV has long argued that it is totally unacceptable for Casement to receive hundreds of millions of pounds in public funding while the GAA remains the sole beneficiary of the substantial revenues generated by non-GAA events.

“[Timothy Gaston’s move] will force every party in the Assembly to face up to a simple question – why should taxpayers bankroll a venue only for others to profit?

“We look forward to the support of all those who genuinely have the public interest at heart, rather than those who remain unwilling to confront the GAA on an issue of basic financial fairness.”

Boucher Road’s playing fields can hold crowds of up to 40,000 at major-league gigs. On Friday, nationalists pushed through a surprise move that will see two GAA pitches and an intermediate soccer pitch built there by 2028 – which Sinn Fein says will mean no more summer concerts can happen.

Casement is to hold 34,500 people, but the project has been delayed for years.

Part of the reason for that hold-up was legal action from nearby west Belfast residents, who feared traffic chaos the enlarged stadium will bring.

Casement Park isn’t well served by public transport; the nearest train halt is close to half an hour’s walk away, for example, whereas there’s one relatively close to Boucher Road. The upshot is people mainly drive to Casement, often parking in the area’s surrounding residential streets.

Although budgeted at £400m, the stadium project downsized after it became clear it wouldn’t be ready in time for 2028’s Euro football championships, which are to be held across the UK and Ireland.

Now priced at £270m, it’s still struggling to get under way. A combination of money from Stormont, Dublin, Westminster and the GAA has roughly £210m in the Casement pot – still well short of its target, though some demolition and clearing work at the site started last month.

Thanks to the nationalist-driven vote on Friday night, Boucher’s GAA and soccer pitches are to be built in 2028. So far a replacement large-scale outdoor concert venue hasn’t been found, but Sinn Fein has argued the two-year gap before the pitches get under way is plenty of time to find an alternative.