Nowlan Park (; ), known for sponsorship reasons as UPMC Nowlan Park, is the principal

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

stadium in

Kilkenny Kilkenny ( , meaning 'church of Cainnech of Aghaboe, Cainnech'). is a city in County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region and in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinst ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Named after

James Nowlan James Nowlan (1862 – June 1924) was president of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) from 1901 to 1921 and is the longest serving president of that organisation. He was also a Sinn Féin representative and member of the Gaelic League. In ...

, the longest serving President of the GAA, the stadium hosts major

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

matches and is home to the

hurling team. It opened in 1927, replacing St. James Park.

Facilities

The stadium consists of the following stands: *Old Stand (O'Loughlin Road) mainly bench-seats (uncovered, planning for a new roof submitted after storm damaged the old roof in 2014) (The new roof completed in late 2014 and opened in early 2015) *Paddy Grace Stand (New Stand, Hebron Road) mainly bench-seats (covered) *Ted Carrol Stand (country end) 4,000 plastic seats (covered) *City Terrace (covered) The target capacity under the Kilkenny GAA 2010-15 plan was 30,000. A large portion of the Old Stand's roof was blown off during a violent storm on 12 February 2014. The rest was removed for health and safety reasons.

Hurling

History was made at Nowlan Park on 7 June 2014 when Kilkenny versus Offaly was broadcast on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

, the first time a Championship fixture of any kind was broadcast live to a UK-wide audience. British viewers were reported to have been "amazed and confused ..bemused but impressed ..amused and confounded" after catching a glimpse of the broadcast.

Other uses

Nowlan Park also serves as a concert venue, with festivals featuring performers such as

Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor. He rose to fame in 1994 after winning the newcomers' section of the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing " Il mare calmo della sera". Since 1994, Bocelli has recorded 15 solo st ...

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British singer and songwriter. Known for his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time, having sold ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...

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, and in July 2013 it played host to the European tour finale of

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

. Springsteen performed at the venue again on 12 May 2024 as part of the Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour. Nowlan Park was also included in Ireland's bid to host the

2023 Rugby World Cup The 2023 Rugby World Cup () was the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams. It took place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country. The opening game ...

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Nowlan Park was used as a drive-through test centre.

Naming rights

It was announced, in October 2019, that the

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center UPMC is an American integrated delivery system, integrated global nonprofit health enterprise that has 100,000 employees, 40 hospitals with more than 8,000 licensed beds, 800 clinical locations including outpatient sites and doctors' offices, a ...

(UPMC) had agreed a naming-rights deal with the Kilkenny County Board. Running for 10 years, from 2019, the sponsorship deal involved the rebranding of the ground to "UPMC Nowlan Park".

References

{{Authority control Gaelic games grounds in the Republic of Ireland Kilkenny GAA Sports venues in County Kilkenny

Facilities

Hurling

Other uses

Naming rights

See also

References