Ireland to stage three group games and a round of 16 game at Euro 2020

[Kingdom]

Are you seriously suggesting building 30,000+ stadia in Athlone, Tallaght, Galway and Cork??? No wonder this country is fukd. When all sports funding is under serious threat, you want to build theses huge white elephants which will be used once over a three week period. At times i despair for this country, i really do.

You should read my post properly MayoBhoy. The final point was in relation to GR's (Gather Round's) post about hosting the U21's as the North did a few years ago. I then suggested stadiums that would be practical as they are. Don't despair just yet .

[osarusan]

Does anybody remember a time about 15 years ago, when the Irish Olympic Council (or whatever their name is) sent a representative off to a huge meeting somewhere in Europe. The purpose of the meeting was to outline to all members just what holding an Olympics entailed in terms of stadia, transport, accomodation, infrastructure etc. This guy was interviewed on radio just after the meeting had ended, and asked whether Ireland could have any realistic hope holding the Olympics. His reply was that he thought Ireland probably didn't even have what it needed to hold the meeting he'd just been to!

Anyway, holding Euro 2020 here is craziness. Spending huge amounts of cash on stadia with a capacity way beyond what's necessary for domestic football in this country is wrong.

As somebody said, try and hold an underage tournament for which you need say...8 stadia of say....8,000 capacity. That's the kind of thing that would help domestic football progress.

[elroy]

Just as a mental exercise:

We'd need 12 stadia of 30 000 capacity or above (because there are 24 teams, which I don't agree with, but that's another story).

We're never going to get that on our own, so we'd have to share, with Scotland, probably. Maybe Northern Ireland as well, although UEFA don't like trinational bids.

So we'd have:

Ireland/Northern Ireland
-Lansdowne Road: 50,000
-Thomond Park: Could be brought up to over 30,000, if the FAI paid the IRFU to do it!
-Possible new Connacht rugby stadium, but it would have to be built from scratch
-Possible new Norn Iron stadium, with over 30,000 capacity

Scotland
-Murrayfield: 67,000
-Celtic Park: 60,832
-Hampden Park: 52,103
-Ibrox: 51,082
-Possible new Aberdeen stadium: 30,000+

So we'd need to beg, borrow or steal three stadia off the GAA, or else build stadia that wouldn't necessarily get used.

Off the top of my head:

-Páirc Uí Caoímh in Cork, or else build a new 30,000 seater stadium to be shared between Cork City, Munster Rugby, and possibly Cobh, in the hope that it would generate enough excitement to actually attract some people to watch domestic games there

-Croker

-Semple Stadium


I think it's a nice idea, but in the end, I don't reckon it's doable

In reference to the Scottish stadia, another issue to get around is UEFA's rule about having two stadiums in one city.

If England are currently struggling to justify a bid (e.g. viability of stadia in the likes of Plymouth, Nottingham etc) to host the WC of 32 teams, its hard to see how we would ever get to the stage of being capable of hosting a 24 team tournament.

[fionnsci]

I'd love to see the World u20 cup hosted here but even that seems very ambitious.

We would definately be up for hosting the UEFA u21 Championship though.
-Aviva
-Tallaght
-Thomond
-Turners Cross

By the by, fao people floating the idea of a four way share, UEFA would never give three let alone four teams automatic qualification.

And yes, only one city involved can have two stadiums, the rest can have only one.

[fionnsci]

RDS - Its due to be redeveloped.

Where did you hear that?

[centre mid]

Where did you hear that?

The Angelsea stand is to be rebuilt iirc, its all to with Leinster using it for heineken cup. I'll try to find something on it.

[centre mid]

This

The deal with Leinster came about around 2004 when the team was looking at developing its facilities. The first match at the RDS took place under temporary lights, with fans sitting in temporary seating. ‘‘We tried it and it obviously worked,” said Duffy.

Leinster signed up for the long term, with a deal that is believed to run for 20 years.

With €1.75 million in government funding, the venue has been transformed, with the development of the grandstand and capacity for 18,500 people.

It is regularly sold out and is a ‘‘very significant earner’’ for the RDS, according to Duffy, who would not be drawn on the terms of the deal. ‘‘It pays for cutting the grass,” he said. Future plans include redeveloping the venue’s main stand, the Anglesea stand.

From this article

There is more somewhere just cant be bothered to look for it now.

[MariborKev]

No,

Dunno if you have noticed but there is some talk that we might be in recession. I think it is all scaremongering myself.

[Riddickcule]

Generally, why don't we get a fair share of public funding? yes i know the loi is a farce but for the clubs that are playing their cards right? ie. Bray

[Greenforever]

We would need 12 stadia, and need to get Eufa to accept 2 stadi in each city.

The GAA are already touting for extra matches and have suggested CP would be available for 2 friendlies in May which suggests they may well be amenable to participation if there was a big profit for them.

Potential Irish Stadiums:

Croke Park
Lansdowne Road

Thomond - THe IRFU should be delighted to have it upgraded and 30,000 - 40,000 would be ideal for Munster Rugby going forward so not a white elephant.

Parc Ui Caoimh (spelling probaby wrong) but due a major redevelopment, 50,000 would be of great interest to the GAA and may be enough to get them to throw in CP for a bid.

A new stadium in the west developed with 30K capacity for both Soccer and Rugby to be owned by the local authority.

Finally a new stadium either in the midlands or Louth again with 30,000 capacity and for both soccer and Rugby to be owned by the local authority.

Scotland to provide

2 of Hampden, Celtic Park, Ibrox

Edinburgh

3 new 30,000 seater stadiums required possible Hibs / Hearts sharing, Dundee / Dundee Utd and finally Aberdeen?

THe biggest thing stoping us biding is a we cant do it mentality.....and if we did actually go for it it should be a twin joint bid i.e. a Scotland Ireland bid for both the Euro 2020 and the Rugby World Cup when it next comes round. By biding for both and having 100% govt support, there could be a huge saving in the cost of preparing bids.

Our biggest plus should be the fact it would be a real fans tournament due to the closeness of all the stadiums and the ease of travel between the countries.

Luxury cruise liners could be used to provide additional hotel rooms if required.

[Ciaran W]

A joint bid with scotland could work but i cant see them picking us ahead of any ''big'' countries

[elroy]

The GAA are already touting for extra matches and have suggested CP would be available for 2 friendlies in May which suggests they may well be amenable to participation if there was a big profit for them.

Potential Irish Stadiums:

Croke Park
Lansdowne Road

Thomond - THe IRFU should be delighted to have it upgraded and 30,000 - 40,000 would be ideal for Munster Rugby going forward so not a white elephant.

Parc Ui Caoimh (spelling probaby wrong) but due a major redevelopment, 50,000 would be of great interest to the GAA and may be enough to get them to throw in CP for a bid.

A new stadium in the west developed with 30K capacity for both Soccer and Rugby to be owned by the local authority.

Finally a new stadium either in the midlands or Louth again with 30,000 capacity and for both soccer and Rugby to be owned by the local authority.

Funny how things have changed with the GAA but a welcome development, theres no doubt our revenue will be missed when we're gone.

However I just cant see them agreeing to giving us the use of their main stadium and secondary stadium elsewhere for a full month in the height of the gaa season. Imagine trying to get that past the Nordies in congress, not to mention my own county. (look at the example of the GPA recent change, likely to be rejected, the GAA dont do change too quickly.

Thomond park is a very viable option imo. On the other options in the west/midlands, the problem would such stadia is that they would require a decent amount of gov funding (which I cant see the general public agreeing to), plus the stadium would def be empty shells after. Connacht rugby might fill 50% of the west stadium every now and again but what use for the other one?

A joint bid with scotland could work but i cant see them picking us ahead of any ''big'' countries

What big countries? Ourselves, NI, Wales are the only realistic partnership for Scotland.

[twoenz]

We'd never have a chance of holding a major tournament. Imagine building a 35,000 stadium in Galway, and then having, lets say England and Germany, playing there. Where are they going to stay? That's a lot of hotel rooms. Galway's probably one of the better cities when it comes to having the right amenities for a host City. Then comes the transport links, which are poor, amazingly overpriced and aren't going to improve massively in the interim.

Italy still has some massive white elephant stadiums from 1990, and they were looking to boost the flagging football economy with Euro 2012.

And for the Under 21 tournament, even if they rebuilt 8 stadia to the proper standard, would the fans come out? I think it was poorly attended in Sweden this year, and Sweden aren't going to be hosting a major tournament now they're expanding the teams to 24.

And why would UEFA pick Ireland? I know that we really need a focus on our football at Eircom league level, but it's a tiny TV market and pretty small for a consumer market too.

Personally, I don't think we're even in a position to host a GAA World Cup if it existed!

[twoenz]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Eu...ijan.2FGeorgia


There is some thought of a 3 tier bid though.

[Leeside Swagger]

No chance, the country is practically bankrupt, there would we war if we made a bid. And we dont have enough hotel rooms, sh1t public transport and no suitable stadia except croker and landsdown. The automatic qualification would be nice though

[peadar1987]

Scotland to provide

2 of Hampden, Celtic Park, Ibrox

Edinburgh

3 new 30,000 seater stadiums required possible Hibs / Hearts sharing, Dundee / Dundee Utd and finally Aberdeen?

Hibs and Hearts wouldn't share, I can tell you that with confidence! Hibs would never, ever move away from Leith. The best bet would be to try and expand either Easter Road or Tynecastle (although Tynecastle is within a few hundred metres of Murrayfield, and so would doubtless be rejected by UEFA). On the plus side, the city is ideally suited to a massive influx of visitors associated with having 2 stadia used. It happens every year with the fringe festival.

Connacht rugby might be keen for the opportunity to develop the sport in the province, and therefore might, and it's a big might, be amenable to the idea of a stadium of suitable capacity.

And as for the economic arguments, a well-run tournament can be a huge earner for an economy (and I sincerely hope we're out of this recession by 2020!).

The main stumbling block is UEFA. If we need 12 stadia in 11 different cities, that's not going to happen. We have, at the moment, Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, which might very possibly just be big enough to justify decent-sized stadia. Unless they agree to bend their own rules, and they won't, I don't see us ever getting a full senior level tournament.

I think the people would come out for the U21s though, if it was built up to be a big event. We all now how the Irish love a big event!

[osarusan]

Luxury cruise liners could be used to provide additional hotel rooms if required.

I keep chuckling about this line.

The main stumbling block is UEFA.

The main stumbling block is not Uefa. The main stumbling block is the fact that we have no stadiums, no money to build any, not enough transport for 20-30,000 people on match days and not enough places for them to sleep.

The idea that the football stadia are the only thing we're short of is madness.

[peadar1987]

The main stumbling block is not Uefa. The main stumbling block is the fact that we have no stadiums, no money to build any, not enough transport for 20-30,000 people on match days and not enough places for them to sleep.

The idea that the football stadia are the only thing we're short of is madness.

I never said that UEFA were wrong to act as a stumbling block!

[Greenforever]

I keep chuckling about this line.


The main stumbling block is not Uefa. The main stumbling block is the fact that we have no stadiums, no money to build any, not enough transport for 20-30,000 people on match days and not enough places for them to sleep.

The idea that the football stadia are the only thing we're short of is madness.

Enjoy the chuckle, but its not a new idea, and a no different idea than the love hotels used in Korea.

There is also huge numbers of student apartments in the universities that can be utilised.

How many GAA stadiums hold over 30,000 around the country and there are no problems for fans geting to the grounds.

For the Barcelona Olympics they hireed in coaches from all over Europe to transport people.

The first thing needed is a "WE CAN" attitude,

we suceesfully held the Ryder Cup and if we want to we can do anything, the question is do we want to??

[Dodge]

we suceesfully held the Ryder Cup and if we want to we can do anything, the question is do we want to??

Thats a ridiculous comparison. It lasted 3 days and was held on an already existing course. The crowds who turned up were 80% Irish, with the total visitors in the 30-40,000 range (max).

How about fixing the delapidated stadiums we have, srting out the car crash that is Irish football (in terms of organistation and infrastucture), and when we have a solid footing think about doing a feasibility study on whether we can host some of the larger underage competitions