Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna, who doubles up as the GAA’s commercial director, spoke about plans for the grounds of nearby Clonliffe College, which the GAA is purchasing.
The GAA will develop two 4G pitches, dressing rooms and a clubhouse as well as building a hotel and the remaining land on the 32-acre site has already been sold to international property development company, Hines.
McKenna explained that the GAA will pay for the site over the course of four tranches up to 2022, just one of which has been paid so far.
The GAA cannot disclose the total outlay on the site at present though the first tranche was listed as €22.2m in the financial statements published yesterday.
McKenna said: “The acquisition is not done in one lot, it's done over a period of time.
“It's what really makes the deal exciting from our perspective.
“So the Archbishop (Diarmuid Martin) is very anxious that he would sell to the GAA and he really wanted to deliver a social and affordable housing to complement that part of the city.
“He also wanted to have GAA pitches there as part of the overall vision for it. So we're the ideal partner to get involved there.
“It's probably going to take a year of planning and then the pitches will go down in three or four months. They will be 4G pitches.
“The hotel will take 18 months to build from when we get receipt of planning permission.”
Meanwhile, McKenna confirmed that the Croke Park pitch will be replaced after this year’s Championship and will be sourced from the GAA’s farm in Naul, North County Dublin.
“It gives us the security that we don’t have to rely on the transport of pitch over such a long distance.
“One of the real advantages too is that because it grows so close to where Croke Park is, the colour of the grass, the depth of the roots, everything is very similar to what we have already in situ so it knits together far quicker than when you are importing it.
“And of course Brexit happened, so it insulates us in several ways.”
