Urgent Solution to Garth Brooks Concert Impasse Must be Found--Costello

4 July 2014

by Cllr Joe Costello

The decision by Dublin City Council to grant three Garth Brooks concerts and to refuse two other concerts is “final” and “irrevocable” according to City Council officials.  There is no appeal process. The decision was made on the grounds that five consecutive concerts would be “unacceptable” and “unprecedented”.

 

Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of the licensing and consultative process  and the unhappy relationship between the local Croke Park Community and Croke Park Stadium Ltd, our immediate concern must now be with the disappointed fans.

 

In the first instance Garth Brooks should withdraw his threat that “it would be five concerts or none at all.”  Three Garth Brooks concerts are more than the number originally planned for Croke Park which was just two and was agreed by Garth Brooks.  

Both the promoter Aiken Promotions, and Mr Brooks have a responsibility to the quarter of a million fans who will be accommodated by the decision of the City Council to license three concerts.

Moreover, they should now work with the City Council and the GAA  to seek to provide a series of options for the remaining 160,000 fans whose hopes were dashed by the refusal to grant permission for the remaining two concerts.

Approximately 30% of the tickets were sold abroad – 130,000.  The influx of these ticketholders, their friends and family members would be almost the equivalent of the number of people  who came to Ireland last year as part of the successful “Gathering” promotion which brought a huge financial lift to the economy in 2013.

 

Thus an economic grounds as well as compassionate  grounds, the Government should play a role in endeavouring to find a viable solution to the present impasse which would accommodate the disappointed fans in an alternative venue.

 

The Taoiseach has already indicated his anxiety to see an urgent resolution to the problem.

 

As a local TD and Minister for Trade and Development I am willing to assist in any way in facilitating the search for a solution.