Casement Park ‘deserves same support’ as football and rugby stadiums – Long

A new stadium at Casement Park “needs to be built” and “should be supported as other stadia were”, Alliance leader Naomi Long has said.

Ms Long was speaking amid uncertainty around the project after reports that the cost of the development of the west Belfast site could top £300 million, and that the UK government has concerns around plugging the funding gap.

The GAA stadium is one of the venues selected to host matches in the Euro 2028 football tournament, which is being jointly hosted by the UK and Ireland, and Uefa officials visited the derelict site last week.

There are reportedly plans to build it to a capacity for 30,000 spectators when it opens, and increase to 34,500 after the Euros.

Ms Long said she is very concerned about the project.

“I believe it needs to be built. I believe that some of the opposition to it, I think, smacks of sectarianism in many cases,” she told the BBC’s Sunday Politics Northern Ireland programme.

She said she would have preferred to see a national stadium built on the site of the former Maze Prison to accommodate football, rugby and GAA.

After that plan fell through in 2009, football proceeded with the National Stadium at Windsor Park while rugby redeveloped the ground at Ravenhill.

However, the redevelopment of Casement has been delayed by a series of planning disputes and legal challenges and the initial estimated cost of £77.5 million has spiralled to the latest reported estimate of £308 million.

The Government has pledged €50 million for the stadium while the GAA has committed to provide £15 million.

The UK government is facing calls to make up the shortfall to ensure it is rebuilt on time.

Ms Long said officials cannot bid for something in 2010, and then expect it to cost the same