Top Law Firm behind Casement Move

A leading Belfast law firm is to advise the Ulster Council GAA on the multi-million pound redevelopment of Casement Park stadium in the city.

Tughans, one of Northern Ireland’s largest firms, will provide strategic legal advice to the province’s governing body on the transformation of the West Belfast venue into a modern 40,000 capacity arena by 2015.

Of the three major sports stadium projects due to take place in Belfast (the others are at Windsor Park, home of Linfield and Northern Ireland, and Ravenhill, home of Ulster Rugby), the Casement Park project is the largest and most ambitious at a planned £78.5 million.

The Tughans legal team will be headed up by the firm’s Head of Projects, John George Willis, and will include John Turley from Tughans’ newly-formed Sports Law unit.

“We’ll be carrying out the work  with a team of lawyers who are  specialists in defined areas of law including; procurement, construction, corporate law and real estate,” explains John George Willis.

“Our new Sports Law & Sports Management unit adds another string to our bow, and John and his colleagues will be very relevant to the Casement Park project.”

Danny Murphy, Chief Executive, Ulster Council GAA said “Ulster GAA are in the process of developing the Casement Park stadium project which will result in Belfast having a Provincial stadium that will service the GAA into the future. This stadium will both be a social and economic driver for West Belfast and the entire City. We are glad to be working with Tughans who are supporting us through the development process as our legal advisers.”

About Tughans

Tughans is one of Northern Ireland’s largest commercial law firms employing over 115 staff. The main practice areas include corporate, property, dispute resolution, employment, banking & finance, sports and private client work. For further information visit www.tughans.com

Media Contact: Lesley Delaney, Absolute Marketing Communications,  lesley@absolutemc.com  M: 07720290728/ 028 90471380

Notes to the Editor:

The Executive has endorsed up to £110m for regional stadium development. This is the key capital programme for DCAL and is also a priority within the Executive’s Programme for Government. When contributions from the sports are taken into account the overall Programme will invest up to £129m.

Thanks to DCAL support, the Ulster Council of the GAA will completely demolish the existing stadium at Casement Park and rebuild to create a stadium capable of holding 40,000 spectators. The cost of this is expected to be around £76.4m, with £61.4m coming from government funds.