Although the UK government has joined the Casement Park project as a fourth player, £90m is still missing from the jigsaw. The stadium now faces three options - finding more funding, simplifying the redevelopment project or getting into an impasse that would leave the stadium still abandoned.

UK Government finally announces help, but money still missing

After months of uncertainty, the UK government announced in mid-June that it would provide £50m to upgrade Casement Park. However, this is not enough, as the other investors - the Gaelic Athletic Federation (GAA), the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of the Republic of Ireland - have committed £15m, £62.5m and £43m respectively, which totals £170m. Meanwhile, the estimated cost of the project is £260m, meaning the budget hole reaches £89.5m.

The stadium has been abandoned for many years, but the refurbishment project was to transform it into the major Gaelic sports arena and Northern Ireland's only stadium for the Euro 2028. The initial intended capacity of 38,000 was cut down to 34,578 seats and the design was simplified to reduce costs, but even this failed to deliver. With three years to go until the European Cup, the chances of getting the redevelopment done by then are almost to zero, so Casement Park fell off the list of hosts.

The main purpose of the new Casement Park is to host Gaelic sports, including Gaelic football, hence the raised posts in the visualisation.

3 options for the future of Casement Park

Now, the most optimistic option is that the missing funds will be found and Casement will again become Northern Ireland's main stadium after the upgrade. However, if not, it may be necessary to further simplify the project. In the worst-case scenario, the stadium would be left abandoned.

With this sum [the £170m raised so far - editor's note] you could cut down either on capacity or spec - which would mean perhaps terraces instead of seats in certain parts - and still build a very presentable stadium, believes Paul Scott, a former Sports Council for Northern Ireland safety expert, quoted by Irish News. According to him, a 25,000-seater would cost around half of what the currently planned stadium would.

Casement Park has been closed since 2013.