Páirc Tailteann redevelopment works gathering pace
A section of the new main stand at Páirc Tailteann.
By Paul Keane
When the first players exit the new dressing-rooms at the redeveloped Páirc Tailteann in Navan, they will navigate a tunnel that brings them up towards the sky and out onto the pitch.
It will feel a little like ascending the steps that lead up to the Croke Park pitch from beneath the Cusack Stand.
It's one of the many intriguing aspects of the new build in Meath's principal town which will be capable of seating 5,000 spectators when completed next April.
Former TD and government minister Noel Dempsey is chair of the redevelopment committee and offered an update on progress during a guided tour of the site.
The old south stand was originally constructed in 1953 and was in operation until late 2025.
Meath teams played at various club venues throughout 2026 while the county's senior football team opted for Croke Park for their home games in the Allianz Football League, as they will again in early 2027.
Club championship games were spread around the county this year also, as well as being played at Meath's Devenish Park training centre. Trim will host the Meath SHC final this Sunday, between Kilmessan and Kiltale, while Donaghmore-Ashbourne will enjoy home advantage for Sunday week's county SFC decider against Wolfe Tones.
It goes without saying that a brand-new, fully functioning, state-of-the-art county ground, redeveloped at a total cost of EUR26m, and with a 17,000 capacity - the existing terrace on the opposite side of the ground can accommodate 12,000 - will be warmly welcomed when Páirc Tailteann comes back on stream in spring.
The pristine Páirc Tailteann pitch won't be affected during construction work.
"It will probably be a soft opening and hopefully we get some club matches into it first," said Meath GAA chair Jason Plunkett. "It could be June when you could be playing an inter-county match there. It will be in the middle of the season for that but we will have to have that soft opening first and we'll be looking to see can we get an underage final or something along those lines."
At the rear of the new stand, which is currently around 30 percent completed, will be a three-story building which will house dressing-rooms, a medical centre, matchday shop units, an Ard Chomhairle area, meeting spaces, a sensory room and media facilities.
Brand new floodlights will also be installed at each corner of the pitch, lighting the Brews Hill venue up for the first time since the previous lights were decommissioned in 2015. This will provide a welcome boost to fixture makers and will also deliver an economic boost to the entire town.
It is an exciting period for the venue which is at the centre of a regeneration plan for the area while the stadium is adjacent to the proposed rail station in Navan.
Builders Sisk have confirmed that the project remains on schedule for completion in Q2 of 2027 and, significantly, they will be able to complete all construction works without encroaching on the Páirc Tailteann playing surface.
The venue has twice won the prestigious GAA Pitch of the Year Award, in 2021 and 2023.
Dempsey, who is the chair of Páirc Tailteann CLG (Company Limited by Guarantee), noted how the pandemic halted initial plans to begin redevelopment back in mid-2020. As a result of that delay, and a subsequent surge in construction costs, the overall price increased significantly.
"Total costs of everything is EUR26m," said Dempsey. "From the Immigrant Investor Programme we have earmarked EUR12.8m, we've EUR8.5m from the LSSIF (Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund), we have EUR2.6m already earmarked from the GAA, and a further EUR1.6m loan from them and there's EUR800,000 from Leinster Council.
Meath's Summerhill took on Killoe Young Emmets of Longford in the 2025 AIB Leinster club SFC, one of the last games to be played at Páirc Tailteann before redevelopment work. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
"We've a loan then that the clubs are guaranteeing and paying through a levy, up to EUR2m. So it's a huge project. If we could have finished it when we were halfway through it before, it was EUR10m less."
When completed, it will be the start of a brand-new era for Meath GAA, which has also developed impressive training facilities at Dunganny across the last decade. That venue is now known as Devenish Park, under a naming rights agreement.
Dempsey explained that a commercial committee is currently considering a separate naming rights deal around Páirc Tailteann while a new Royal Way will provide another source of revenue.
"As part of the funding model for this project, there's central funding, there's investment programme funding but there's also our own tranche of money that we're looking to, and have, put in at various stages," said former Meath footballer Séamus Kenny, who is secretary of Páirc Tailteann CLG.
"So we are going to market for naming rights, we're currently building up a package, a suite of assets to accompany that. That's probably one of the key parts of the commercial side of things, along with other opportunities like pre-sale of seats, which is a relatively common practice with new stands.
"The other one then is we're looking at a one-off novel Royal Way, which is akin to...for anyone who has ever been to Anfield, or Thomond Park, it's where you can buy a block, or something similar, at the stadium and put a personal engravement on it, so we're looking at selling those in the lead up to the opening."