It has been a long time coming but it seems that the much-vaunted national sports stadium will, eventually, materialise, sometime in the next century. The Government announced last night a feasibility study to consider the various options and the expectation is that an 80,000 capacity, state-of-the art stadium will be in place by around 2005. It is expected that the stadium - in keeping with the general European practice - will be built on the outskirts of Dublin city along main transport routes. The study is expected to be completed by June of next year.
Like the 50-metre swimming pool (for which tenders have been invited) the question of a national sports stadium has acquired a kind of mythological importance in Irish sport. The lack of suitable facilities has meant that Dublin - virtually alone among EU capitals - has been denied the opportunity to host major European soccer finals or international athletics grand prix. It is a curious state of affairs. As a people, we are well known for our passionate love of sport, as a nation we punch well above our weight on the running track and on the football field. But successive governments have failed to give sport at all levels the funding priority it deserves. Against this grim background, yesterday's development is most welcome. The challenge now is to ensure that the stadium is in place without any undue delay.
For all that, it is a pity that some accommodation was not reached with the GAA about the use of Croke Park. It scarcely represents good housekeeping for the State to award £20 million in support for Croke Park and only then proceed with plans for another 80,000seater stadium a couple of miles away. In retrospect, it is quite clear that any funding for Croke Park should have been contingent upon an agreement with the GAA that the stadium would, where possible, serve all sports. Instead, for the sake of a quiet life, the Government was content to allow the GAA maintain its less than splendid isolation. The GAA concern for the hearts and minds of the young, who might be lost to rugby and soccer, is understandable. But there is a strong sense that its antipathy to "foreign games" on the sacred turf of Croke Park has more to do with cultural chauvinism.
All of this, it appears, has now been confined to the history books. The new stadium will, at a stroke, remove the accommodation crisis that now afflicts both the FAI and the IRFU; no bad thing in itself. Much remains to be worked out, not least the final cost of the project and the extent of co-operation between the public and private sectors.
It is to be hoped that the huge cost of the project will not blind the Government to the very real need for a new and much more comprehensive programme of support for sport at community level, where facilities - even in deprived urban areas - are often reminiscent of the dark ages. In practically every corner of this State there is a need for improved playing, training and changing facilities. The Government, in building a new stadium, is to be commended for providing a shiny front door. But it must, no longer, neglect the foundations.