'A timely facelift' - Seats being ripped out of Croke Park for very good reason

Seats are being ripped out of Croke Park's Cusack Stand this week to make way for a €12m refurbishment.

The GAA shared images of workers taking up the famous seats with a new facelift planned for the 27-year-old stand. 

The old Cusack was knocked in 1993 after the All-Ireland football final that year and was re-opened in 1996 as part of the redevelopment of the whole stadium. 

This refurbishment of the stand involves replacing the seats, upgrading the conference centre, suites, and bathrooms as well as an upgrade to the heating system to make it more energy efficient.

Croke Park Stadium Director, Peter McKenna said: “We do need to keep the building at an appropriate presentation for both our Monday to Friday clients but also for premium seat customers, suite holders, and the general GAA fan,” he told GAA.ie.

“If you only reflect on where you live yourself, then anyone will tell you that a carpet will only have a certain life before you have to change it, the same with your settee, tv, wall-paper, everything else.

“It's a constant upkeep, repair and maintenance. You can take that domestic environment and multiply it by 1,000 because Croke Park is just a massive facility.

“We take half the population of Galway in here every time we have a full-house, it's massive. So, there's lots of repairs and maintenance that goes on a regular basis.

“Then material hits its natural life cycle. Big pieces of kit like lifts and escalators, heating systems and so on, all need to be switched out. So, we’re doing a massive job in the Cusack terms of upgrading things that people might never see because they'll be covered up again.

“It also gives us an opportunity to reposition the Cusack Stand as a very important mid-sized conference centre compared to what we're doing in the Hogan side.

“I think it's an opportunity too for us to put a degree of signature to it. The Hogan side is very much focused on the player and the elite athlete.

“What we want to do with the Cusack side is focus on the unsung heroes of the GAA - the volunteer, the mentor, the coaches, and the backroom. The men and women who have made the GAA great without a big song and dance about it. I think that's probably in keeping with the Cusack as well.”

The refurbishment will take around six months so will be completed in time for next season.

“We've got a fairly busy year next year with our games and there's a window of six months for us start and finish the works and people are confident we'll do it in that time-frame," McKenna added.

“I think we're all really proud of Croke Park. It really is like a house, it's where we all belong. There's something just really special about the place so there will be a huge satisfaction when we complete these works.”