Dublin Gaelic Athletic Association's plans to build a new stadium at the Spawell complex have been "shelved after being frightened off" by the €50M ($59.1M) cost of construction, according to Paul Keane of the LONDON TIMES. Dublin County Board Chair Sean Shanley confirmed that the 35-acre site, which was purchased earlier this year, will instead be developed "solely" as a center of excellence. The complex in south Dublin is understood to have cost about €9M ($10.6M) and it is hoped that five training pitches, including one main pitch with a small stand, will be "up and running within two years." Dublin teams have no dedicated training center and the senior footballers "spend part of the season training at the modest Innisfails club grounds." Shanley's statement "appears to put an end to Dublin's long-running plans" to double its capacity at a new venue that can host, among other games, Allianz National Football League matches during the spring. Dublin has outgrown its 10,000-capacity Parnell Park base, though it has found Croke Park "far too spacious for Division One games which regularly draw crowds of about 20,000," a quarter of the venue's overall capacity. Shanley declined to comment on the estimates received for building works but the cost of the project is understood to be between €45M ($53.2M) and €50M. He added that it "ultimately came down to what best represented value for money." Shanley: "Pitches are more important [than a stadium]. Instead of having one stadium, we can have five quality pitches with floodlights and one of them an all-weather astro. That's the plan" (LONDON TIMES, 8/24).
