Cork board let problem build up when delay easy to predict

IT IS unfortunate that Cork’s trusting nature got the better of them in not anticipating the over-run of the Páirc Uí Chaoimh development.

The thing is that dogs were barking on street corners around Cork in the middle of May that the builders would not deliver on that deadline. But such was the trust that they showed in the capacity of the contractors to deliver on deadline, that even last Monday morning the county board were still officially in denial that the stadium would not be open for July 2, with a three-week delay.

We would love to have been the fly on the, no doubt, unplastered wall when the builders turned up last Monday morning and decided that really what should have been a week of tidying up, was actually four weeks’ work.

If there is a flip side, the ignorance of the Cork board to the unexpected delay was blissful in that it should not have hurt the sale of those 2,000 10-year premium season tickets, especially with well-heeled punters eyeing up the mouth-watering prospect of a Kerry-Cork Munster final as part of the package.

Apparently there are a ‘limited’ number of those tickets still available, although our sources in the deep south suggest that they may be more than just ‘limited’ in terms of how many have not been snapped up.

However, it is hard to imagine that the Cork footballers will be thankful of their board’s trusting nature. True, there is nothing they could have done about the over-run that has left Peadar Healy (inset) and his team facing a daunting trip to Fitzgerald Stadium.

But had the delay become public prior to the footballers playing Tipperary, it would have spared them the extra pressure to deliver a result to ensure that there was a warming party for a home not yet even built.