world cup/european champs in ireland

[padjoe]

hey

just a mad thought in my head last night. if say for one year the GAA allowed soccer access to all their grounds. i know it prob wouldn't never happen but just for arguments sake if they did, do you think ireland would be capable of hosting a major championships on its own. if ireland could use croke park against france this year they would raise 3.5 million to the economy now if we hosted the european championships the country would gain approx 108.5 million from all the revenue. venues would include, lansdowne road, croke park, pairc ui chaoimh, thurles, pearse stadium galway, and if we needed the north, windsor park and clones.
surely with the country's tourism sector in dire straits surely this would be a way to show off the country.
the north would be good inclusion and it could be seen as a good cross border initiative. security wise i dunno. please dont dismiss thread straight off just think about it and put forward what you think would help this country host a major tournament and could we develop any eircom league venues capable of hosting in time for 2016 or 2018.

[tiktok]

venues would include, lansdowne road, croke park, pairc ui chaoimh, thurles, pearse stadium galway, and if we needed the north, windsor park and clones.

Not to rain on the parade, but I'd imagine that only Landsdowne, Windsor and maybe Croker (I'm not 100% sure) would get a UEFA licence to stage matches.

A restructured Landsdowne might well be able to host a european UEFA Cup or CL final though.

[padjoe]

Not to rain on the parade, but I'd imagine that only Landsdowne, Windsor and maybe Croker (I'm not 100% sure) would get a UEFA licence to stage matches.

A restructured Landsdowne might well be able to host a european UEFA Cup or CL final though.

thats true but it would give the GAA and the government a reason to redevelop the rest of the grounds cause pairc ui chaoimh is falling to pieces as is semple stadium so maybe it would give the gaa a chance to show off the stadiums they own and have that the fai dont have.

[roboyle]

Not to rain on the parade, but I'd imagine that only Landsdowne, Windsor and maybe Croker (I'm not 100% sure) would get a UEFA licence to stage matches.

A restructured Landsdowne might well be able to host a european UEFA Cup or CL final though.

Agree with the first bit, most GAA gounds have only one seated section.
As for holding a CL final at Lansdowne Road, I think there's a minimum capacity limit on venues of 60k or so (there's a lower limit for UEFA Cup finals, AFAIK)... don't think the new Lansdowne Road will be eligble unfortunately... :(

[Aldini98]

Also hate to rain on your parade but as long as Ahern is in charge of the country you can forget about it. He, and only he, fúcked it up for us the last time. - *******

[crc]

I've thought about this before, and I reckon that we'd have no chance at the World Cup, but might get the European Championships. Of course, places like Semple Stadium wouldn't really be suitable, because UEFA/FIFA also require a certain amount of ancilliary facilities in the cities that host games (such as hotel rooms, office space for journos, and somewhere for the crowds to assemble before and after games) - I don't think Thurles or Clones would qualify in this regard.

That said, you'd have Croker, Lansdowne, stadium in Belfast (Windsor, or Ravenhill, or a new one), the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick are actually quite impressive now (lots of seats), and Cork. I don't know of any other big-ish stadia in a reasonably large town or city.

On the Cork issue, I'm really in favour of a 30,000 seater municipal stadium on the site of Parc Ui Caoimh. The current stadium is a bit run-down, but the location is excellent - walking distance from city-centre. It could be used by the GAA boys obviously, the Munster rugby team, Cork City FC for European games, the Ireland football and rugby teams for smaller games (internationals don't HAVE to take place in Dublin), and nowadays stadiums of that size are used as concert venues.

I also think that Ireland should look at the idea of co-hosting the rugby World Cup (with Scotland and Wales, but NOT England). If each country provided 4/5 stadiums we could have 12. On our side we'd have Lansdowne (already planned), plus an expanded Thomond Pk. We'd have to build new stadiums in Cork and Belfast, and as far as I'm aware, there are some plans for a new stadium in the north already - therefore the Dublin Govt would only have to consider building a brand new stadium in Cork, the case for which I've already made.

France are hosting the RWC in 2007, and using the same stadia they built for 1998. (The Beaujoire in Nantes was actually built for the 1984 Euro Championships AFAIK)

[Metrostars]

How about Pearse Stadium in Galway, capacity 34000 I think

[Superhoops]

Er . . . last time I looked at a map Clones was in County Monaghan.
the point being?

[Kingdom]

The point being it was referred to as a ground in the North. It's in the republic, much to the consternation of all 6 county GAA fans who used to have to travel there when there was border checks/

[Kingdom]

How about Pearse Stadium in Galway, capacity 34000 I think
Its like the majority of the GAA venues of similar size (Fitzgerald stadium Killarney , McHale Park Mayo , Jarlaths stadium Tuam) they are 3/4 terraced .

The stadiums I'd propose would be:
Croker
Lansdowne
Gaelic Grounds Limerick
And Pairc Ui Caoimh (or a potential new stadium in Cark)

Its interesting to note that in the last 3 championships held in Europe ( Portugal, Belgy/Holl, France) that most of the stadiums were small in comparison to the main stadium.
In France there was 10 stadiums used ( open to correction there!) and the likes of the Lyonnais , Nantes, Bordeaux,Lille, Strasbourg were all 30k seater stadiums compared to Velodrome (65k) and the Stade de France (80k)

For flucks sake Charleroi (28k) held a match in Euro 2000 And not just a slovenia - azerbaijan match either(not literally) it held Engurland v deutschland ffs!!

Portugal had seven stadia with 30k in the regional areas

So it is possible kids!!

[Metrostars]

But not possible unless the GAA bends over backwards during their busy time of year.

Forget it. It aint happening any time soon. The best hope is for a Champions League final.

[monutdfc]

Even the seated areas of most GAA grounds would not qualify:- most GAA seats are long wooden planks with numbers written on them whereas FIFA regulations require individual seats AFAIK.

[barglee]

Dont think the GAA county boards would want to convert their stadiums to all seaters as it would reduce their capacity.....

[Eirambler]

Its like the majority of the GAA venues of similar size (Fitzgerald stadium Killarney , McHale Park Mayo , Jarlaths stadium Tuam) they are 3/4 terraced .



Actually McHale Park is all seater (great for mexican waves!). Thing is the definition of seats though. At GAA grounds they're just concrete slabs usually, and the stadium facilities tend to be awful.

Also Clones has a population of what, maybe 5000 people at most, I don't think you could host a EURO match in a town that small.

And don't get me started on the road works that would have to be done.


Would Enda Kenny have got us the Euro Championships and the Olympics too?


To be fair, he did get the Tour De France a few years ago, so he's done slightly more than Bertie.

[Duncan Gardner]

A European final at Croke or Lansdowne must be feasible at some point?

NI is staging the next Euro U-19 this summer. The grounds to be used are Windsor and Oval (Belfast), plus Showgrounds (Ballmenahey), Mournview (Lurgan) and Newry Village :)

[GalwayFrancis]

How about Pearse Stadium in Galway, capacity 34000 I think

only 8000 of that is seated, the rest is terrace

[GalwayFrancis]

NI is staging the next Euro U-19 this summer. The grounds to be used are Windsor and Oval (Belfast), plus Showgrounds (Ballmenahey), Mournview (Lurgan) and Newry Village :)


thats what the rep has to do, host an underage comp

[Closed Account 2]

As for holding a CL final at Lansdowne Road, I think there's a minimum capacity limit on venues of 60k or so (there's a lower limit for UEFA Cup finals, AFAIK)... don't think the new Lansdowne Road will be eligble unfortunately... :(

Here are the final venues and their capacities over the last 5 years (from http://www.worldstadiums.com)

Champions League Final

2005 TUR Istanbul Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadi 81,653 all-seater
2004 DEU Gelsenkirchen Arena AufSchalke 61,027 (44 813 seats)
2003 ENG Manchester Old Trafford 68,174 all-seater
2002 SCO Glasgow Hampden Park 50,670 all-seater
2001 ITA Milano Stadio 'San Sero' G. Meazza 85,700 all-seater
2000 FRA Paris, Saint-Denis Stade de France 79 959 all-seater

Uefa Cup Final Stadiums

2005 PRT Lisboa Estádio José Alvalade 50,300 all-seater
2004 SWE Göteborg Nya Ullevi Stadion 43,200 all-seater
2003 ESP Sevilla Estadio La Cartuja 72,000 all-seater
2002 NLD Rotterdam Stadion Feijenoord 'De Kuip' 51,180 all-seater
2001 DEU Dortmund Westfalenstadion 82,678 (55 078 seats)
2000 DNK København Parken Stadion 41,781 all-seater

I'd say a UEFA final would be very possible, perhaps even with current LR. Champions League is unlikely, as UEFA rarely go outside the big countries and theyve done that twice now (Scotland and Turkey). Having said that the fact we've not hosted one (either UEFA, CL or National Tournament) before might well count in our favour.

We would want to get our bids in quick, its about 3 years from bidding to hosting (eg Wembley and City of Manchester bidded in October (2004) for the CL and UEFA finals in 2007)

I dont think a European Championship is likely (unless we share it, but there doesnt seem to be the cooperation for that) as we would need serious investment, not just in stadiums but also in public transport etc before a bid could be viable.

[anto eile]

Agree with the first bit, most GAA gounds have only one seated section.
As for holding a CL final at Lansdowne Road, I think there's a minimum capacity limit on venues of 60k or so (there's a lower limit for UEFA Cup finals, AFAIK)... don't think the new Lansdowne Road will be eligble unfortunately... :(

50000 for CL final. hampden ,52000 seats, held it in 2002
30000 for uefa cup final afaik, ie gothenburg a few years ago

[Éanna]

aside from the fact that I can't see the GAA giving in any time soon (and if they do, it'll probably be just for croke park) there are other issues:
1. Infrastructure: Parking, accomodation, journalists facilities
2. Transport: roads, rail, bus services are all absolutely woeful and no organising body in its right mind would give a country like this any tournament.
3. Organisational abilities: the FAI, the government, and any other body which would need to be involved in running this have no experience of dealing with something this big, and have managed to **** up many things that are a lot smaller- I wouldn't trust them with it.
4. We don't deserve it. I'd rather championships like this were given to a country where the fans are real football fans and not bandwagoners and barstoolers.