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CORK’S LARGEST STADIUM will be renamed “SuperValu Pairc Uí Chaoimh” with immediate effect following a Cork GAA County Board meeting this evening.
Yesterday, Cork GAA confirmed it intended to rename Páirc Uí Chaoimh to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh as part of a 10-year partnership with the retailer.
Earlier this month, reports of plans to rename the stadium “Supervalu Páirc” drew national criticism from GAA fans, politicians, as well as the grandson of Pádraig Ó Caoimh, who fought for Irish independence and was General Secretary of the GAA.
The renaming situation was also discussed at a meeting of Cabinet, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stating that work would be done to ensure that stadiums that have received substantial sports capital grants from the State cannot be renamed for commercial reasons without government sign-off.
The government allocated €30 million towards the development of the stadium.
Cork GAA said yesterday that naming rights will be finalised at a special meeting of delegates to the Cork County Board.
That meeting of club delegates to the Cork County Board took place this evening.
A statement from Cork GAA said: “They voted unanimously to support the renaming of the stadium as “SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh”, effective immediately.”
Speaking yesterday to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland earlier, Cork GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan rejected the suggestion that the revised name was a “climb down”.
“We were going through a process and unfortunately there was a leak before we got to organise a consultation process with our clubs,” he said.
“We had no communication with Government throughout this process, but we’re sure they’re happy and we’re happy and all parties are happy now with the outcome,” he added.
He also said the plan to communicate the renaming of the stadium to the Ó Caoimh family was “derailed by the leak”.
“We had a special plan in place to communicate with the family, we had special plans to commemorate Pádraig Ó Caoimh within the stadium, but all of those were derailed because there was a leak,” O’Donovan said.
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Truly truly shocking.
@DianeRyanONeill: truly truly shopping. So much for our past lol
@John H Green: will they have a vegetable section end, a fruit section end, frozen food stand and a meat counter stand lol
Footballs to be replaced with melons, hurling gear with mops, oranges and SuperValu bag helmets. Future looks good
@DianeRyanONeill: what’s truly shocking is the amount of opinionated idiots who rarely if ever attend a hurling or football match getting so worked up about a simple commercial arrangement with a reputable company that already contributes so much to the GAA around the country! Cop on….
Project managing the build correctly from the start in the first place might have prevented the extent of the debt. It beggars belief that the GAA centrally & the State who both invested Millions in this project, seemed to have none or very little oversight on their spend during construction. Remember, that the Cork County Board gave one figure, GAA in Croke Park gave another & the Govt another figure of the overspend & final cost at the time, these figures are still available online, incredible & indicative of what went on, that they couldn’t arrive at the one figure.
@SV3tN8M4: you make no sense
@Patrick Cadogan: I understood 100%. Read it again, but sloooooowlyyyyy!
No matter how many Real Reward points SuperValu give them, they still won’t beat Limerick
@Bryan Mc Mahon: unfortunately not every county has a tax dodging billionaire to fund a so called amateur team!
Will SuperMacs Galway beat SuperValue Cork ?
Where’s the county & history pride gone ?
@Tom: History……a story written by the winners. Pride……. the feeling of knowing that people did their best and did the right thing. Once you go down the nationalistic ‘people be proud of your history’ route you need to ask yourself questions.
Absolutely Disgraceful, Do the Irish People have No Say in anything anymore??
@John H Green: because they helped pay for it
@Alan: who exactly helped pay for it?
We collectively pay for a lot of things, doesn’t mean we have control on what those things are…
@Alan: . They helped to pay for the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road. It’s now called The Aviva Stadium and has been for years. Have you got a problem with that too or is it just GAA grounds that shouldn’t be renamed?
Next thing we know will be football clubs with poor goalkeepers asking Dunnes Stores to sponsor grounds with their double savers slogan.
@Larry Betts: four points for a goal if you have a loyalty card
Better Supervalu than some betting company.
@Peter B (V Eight): rangi corner shop stadium
what a joke. its not the jaysis point depo..
Chicken hut park, has a ring to it.
That last part about the leak . . . sounds, eh, odd, more to the story I suspect.
Funny that the (Cork) GAA are more than happy to besmirch the name of one of it’s founding members in their pursuit of more money. Is it getting a bit FAI-ish over there?
So has the Gov signed off on this deal or have they no say. They said they will now create rules regarding this practice and where they have invested in the project. Have they created those rules yet, can we see them, are they riddled with loopholes?
With the prices SuperValue charges it’s not surprising they have E2.5m lying around to spend on a folly. Let me guess, the boss is from Cork?
Me hole Martin
Didn’t agree with name change
Now he thinks its (super)
Up the Rebels!
Shock everyone by saying “we’re calling it Supervalu Pairc” Then after the outrage a pretend climbdown to a supposed compromise. Oldest trick in the book, aim for higher than what you want and end up settling for what you would be happy with. This naming rights craic is farcical
Still call Aviva Landsdowne
Still call Three arena The point
The 3Olympia is the gasest of them all
If plans to communicate the renaming can be proven via emails or other communications, I would feel much better about their statement.
Cork supporters will be expecting Valu now..
they’ve been waiting for years.
No problem with other sports renaming their stadiums though
@Peter Byrne: No, but it’s nice to have Irish stadiums, where you play the national sports, named after historical figures. Especially given our history!!!!
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: Named after historical figures from the ‘correct’ side, of course.
The tickets are super value into Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the cork match
Over a century and a bit more the gaa give all there holes to the highest bidder ,Mehole a proud langer
Money talks. Still could have been worse, Durex Park doesn’t really work but who knows?
Chokers .
The Lidl league is next… Mark and Spencer my words..
How long did it take them to sort that out? Masterminds to be sure!
Any chance of a car park for the 3 ball game venues in the area to stop parking on grass verges, bicycle lanes, house entrances, double yellow lines and blind corners ?
@Tanner Taylor: Exactly. For the Munster match tomorrow one of the recommendations is to park in the Black Ash, get the bus into Cork centre and then walk! Pairc Ui Caoimh is in a nuts location.
Let’s get Pennys to sponsor Croke Park…. C’mon, who’s with me…???
Look ,the langers got one over on us dubs and croke Park.probly had a bit of help getting 30 million of tax payer money from A big ****** langer working on there behalf in kildare Street. Lsp lip
@Christopher Fealy: Bertie Ahern contributed enough to the Dublin Footballers when he was in power. What goes around, comes around!
Someone’s havin a laugh
I hope SuperValu got a substantial discount, because they didn’t get the full naming rights that they were p[aying for.
Of course, the whiners will complain about that too. “They should have paid more than they did! Waah!”
Supermac’ s Porky Quiff.
Or cex sounds better
Londis sounds better
Joke
have your say