Páirc Uí Chaoimh has been included on the list of potential venues for Ireland’s bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup,
.With a planned capacity of 45,770, the Páirc will be the third largest of 12 stadiums on the ‘long list’, behind Croke Park and Lansdowne Road.
As seen in the above video, the exterior of the main stand, which will house the premium level priority seats (due to be launched tomorrow evening), media and conferencing facilities, is starting to mirror the architect’s plans.
The next big move will be hoisting that roof onto the stand…
Work on the pitch began in earnest, too, with the installation of a drainage system and seeding.
Here’s how the demolition and reconstruction has progressed to this point...
October 2016
In the month of the 2017 Championship draws, it was confirmed that Páirc Uí Chaoimh wouldn’t be ready in time to host the Cork hurlers’ opener against All-Ireland champions Tipperary.
“We won’t be in a position to host the Cork/Tipperary game because our schedule is for July and it's a tight schedule as it is,” Cork chairman Ger Lane told Red FM.
On the construction site, the City End Terrace began to be built up as work also starts on the Blackrock End Terrace.
September 2016
The roof over the ‘uncovered’ Northern Stand has been completed this month, while work begins on building up the City End terrace.
Meanwhile the chair of the Cork County Board’s stadium business committee John Mullins told the Irish Examiner that the expenditure won’t take from investment in Cork teams.
He added that the redeveloped Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be “as good a consumer experience as anything in the country.”
August 2016
A start on the roof over the previously uncovered stand is the most eye-catching expansion this month, although the skeletal terrace structures still remain.
The multi-storey main stand, which will house dressing rooms, premium level, restaurants, a new press box, gym and museum, continues to bulk up.
June 2016
Building work is going full steam ahead as the Northern and Southern Stands begin to form the familiar bowl-shape of the Ballintemple stadium.
Under the shadow of the tower cranes at either side of the still-intact field, trucks carry in the ready-made frame supports for the stands.
April 2016
Behind schedule but up and running, Páric Uí Chaoimh is a hive of activity as building work is underway.
January 2016
The first of the tower cranes was in position by the start of the new year as the demolition work expanded to all four sides of the ground, with corrosion of steel reinforcements cited among the reasons for the extra demolition.
September 2015
Here’s a close up of some demolition work, after the levelling of the uncovered Northern Stand was added to the plans.
May 2015
Large sections of the covered Southern Stand were already removed within a month of demolition work commencing.
April 2015
In case you’ve forgotten, here’s what the old stadium looked like in its final moments before being demolished.
There’s a pic of the stadium’s initial construction, back in 1975, in there too, but with less big cranes visible than are there today.