Cork GAA CEO Kevin O'Donovan: Vision is for SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh to be a municipal stadium

Cork GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan has said his vision is for SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh to be open to all sports moving forward.

The West Cork native was speaking on The Rebel Army Podcast ahead of Cork City’s match with Celtic down the Páirc next Tuesday evening with kick-off at 6pm.

The Cork Super Cup game between the two teams is only the fourth ever soccer match to be staged at the GAA stadium and is the first ever competitive men’s game.

The contest is also expected to provide a potential €6 million economic boost to the area.

The Cork Super Cup is a joint initiative between Cork GAA and sports marketing agency Druid Sport to bring another record-breaking mid-summer event to the stadium.

“It’s a significant match in terms of the city and sport in the city," O'Donovan says.

"I think Cork people have that in their DNA, this ecumenical approach to sport, whether it’s Roy [Keane], Sonya [O’Sullivan] or Ronan O’Gara.

“I played junior football against John Caulfield in West Cork, so that cross-pollination, we’ve always seen that. I’ve always seen Cork people supporting a team regardless of the sport.

“When we won underage titles over the last decade, Cork City were the first to invite us to parade the cup at a match in Turner's Cross. While we’re all competing for the hearts and minds probably every day and promoting our sports, when it comes to the teams, there’s just nothing there, everyone is just on the same bus. So, it’s great to have a match like this to symbolise that.

“We had the Liam Miller match in 2018, that really broke down the door and since then, we’ve been racing through. We’ve had the two Munster rugby games, we’ve had the two women’s soccer internationals, so this is kind of just another evolution of that.” 

This game between two historic clubs will attract a bumper crowd that will help reduce the €31 million plus debt on SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“All these matches not involving GAA are a little bit symbolic,” O’Donovan said.

“They’re showing the stadium as the people's stadium. My vision is for it to be a municipal stadium. I think stadiums are expensive public goods that need public support and funding and need to be multi-sport. SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh wasn’t built for that, but this is our way of maybe retrofitting a little bit of that. Building multi-sport training facilities in the future will be harder.

“Roy Keane is here for most of our games. Roy is up there in his seat for a lot of the Cork GAA games. So, I just think ecumenical sports, we all wear the shirt.” 

O’Donovan came in as Cork GAA CEO in December 2018, succeeding the great Frank Murphy after 45 years of distinguished service as secretary. Bringing in other sports to the redeveloped Páirc was a big thing.

“The Liam Miller testimonial match was a turning point in that it brought in the change of rule. Now, the rules were very restrictive after that in that it must be an event of national importance. It must not conflict with the values of the GAA.

“I think there’s a growing appreciation that it’s the right way to go. It has been a case of one game at a time for us.

“This stadium is actually used far more than people actually know because we’ve all the club programmes, several inter-county teams and the camogie and ladies football are in here now. But, is it used 365 days a year? No, should it be used 365 days a year? It kind of has to be to pay the bills, the rates, the energy costs and so on.

“Of course, the pitch can’t be played on seven days a week, so the pitch is kind of the limiting factor. It’s a world class pitch though, it has five percent artificial fibres in it. We know that we can take a Munster rugby game and turn it around three days later for it to be ready for Nemo Rangers in a Munster club championship game.”