IFA Programme 2016

The new West Stand takes shape towards the end of last year.

Construction work continues at the stadium (February 2016)

New safety requirements kicked in during 2010 and the knock-on effect was a reduced capacity in the South Stand at Windsor Park as well as the provision of temporary seating for international matches. In March 2011 the Northern Ireland Assembly announced a funding package for the redevelopment of Northern Ireland’s three main sporting venues and around £30m was made available to the Irish FA to upgrade Windsor Park. A Project Manager – Geoff Patterson – was appointed to oversee the stadium project and by early 2012 a design team, featuring architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and so on, was in place. The planning consultation process began in the early part of 2012 and planning approval for the redevelopment of the stadium was granted later that year. Negotiations with Linfield over the lease of the stadium ran parallel with the planning consultation. Eventually a deal was hammered out. The Irish FA agreed to develop and lease the stadium for 51 years. The start of building work on the project was delayed by a judicial review. It had been due to begin in September 2013. However, there was a successful outcome to the JR which meant building could get under way in May 2014. Everything was going smoothly until March 2015 when a structural failure meant the Kop (West) Stand had to be demolished. The outcome was that the stadium redevelopment project was extended to the creation of three new stands rather than the proposed two - and overall cost rose to £38 million. Now, 29 months later and with many snags ironed out along the way, the stadium is fully prepared and ready for action. Acknowledgement: books by Joe Cassells and the late Dr Malcolm Brodie MBE were among the research documents used in the compilation of this article. Pictures by Press Eye and Pacemaker

as their base just prior to competing at Euro 96 in England. The next major works at the ground involved an extension to the South Stand – adding 1,350 seats – and 400 bucket-type seats replacing the bench seats in the Railway Stand. The extended South Stand was first used for a Northern Ireland v Albania match in September 1992, while the official opening took place at a Northern Ireland v Spain match the following month. The other major building project of the 1990s was the construction of a new Kop Stand. The £2m 4,000-seat stand opened in July 1997 when Linfield faced Liverpool in a friendly. The new millennium sparked plenty of debate about Windsor Park’s suitability for international football going forward. In 2001 an advisory panel chaired by former Northern Ireland international Billy Hamilton called for the creation of a National Stadium. It echoed a previous recommendation made by a National Stadium Working Group set up under the auspices of the Sports Council in 1999. The Sports Minister at the time, Michael McGimpsey, rejected the national stadium idea on the grounds of cost, however by 2005 the UK Government was warming to the idea but proposed a 30,000-seater stadium for football, GAA and rugby on the site of the old Maze Prison rather than a pure football stadium. As the debate over a multi-sport stadium at the Maze raged, Windsor Park was starting to show signs of wear and tear. Severe weather damaged part of the roof of the North Stand at Christmas 2006, while in March 2007 the Railway Stand was barred from future use following a Health and Safety Executive/Fire Authority assessment. Then Sports Minister Gregory Campbell kicked the Maze Stadium plan into touch in 2009, saying it did not enjoy sufficient political support. He proposed he would instead help the Irish FA, Ulster Rugby and the GAA to develop solutions to their stadia needs.

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