Lansdowne Road Redevelopment Thread

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Originally posted by Peadar
That means that we'll need an alternative venue for the Euro 2008 qualifiers only.

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The announcement seem to give the imp[ression that the ground not be closed for 2 years but just some of that time. The FAI have some flexibility with qualifier dates which i think means they can arrange around.

2008 WC qualifier would typically start sept 2006 & finish Oct/Nov 2007.
- means FAI don't have to use Lansdowne from From Nov 2007-Sept 2008
- IRFU don't need ground from March to October most years which is a 6 month window.

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Originally posted by pete
Stunned that the people we elected to manage the country actually made a decision.

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I'd never vote for the pack of money grabbing moron's that is Fine Fail. They've made a muck of Stadium Ireland and the country. This decision should have been made a long time ago.

On another note......
It looks like the Lansdowne pitch will only be out of action for 12 months as they are going to do a phased development. So we may not have to find an alternative home for too long.

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Originally posted by pete

Credit to Fran Rooney for nicely playing the PR battle. He did well to put the pressure on the government in the last couple of months & liked the way he agreed in principle to all this training centre lark at Abbotstown in the full knowledge that it probably never happoen & government just needed the agreement to justify the wasted expense at Abbotstown.

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The training centre will go ahead if at all possible. The FAI are shortly to make a presentation to the government on the need for a new national academy, comprising training facilities, all weather pitches, medical facilities, a small stadium and administrative offices. Initial estimates of the cost are in the region of EUR20m. The FAI have let it be known that they would sell the Merrion Square offices (one of their primary capital assets) and the offices of the Leinster FA in Parnell Square as their contribution to the overall cost. The government would foot the rest of the bill.

This would achieve one of the main goals of Fran and the boys in their Technical Development plan and would also help save face for Bertie. Everyone wins.

Incidentally, I note that the GAA are whining again today looking for the money that they are "owed" by the government. Unbelievable that anytime there is some good news for any other sports organisation, the GAAH automatically think that they should be looked after too.

I'd hate to see us go abroad and play home games in the UK.

However coming back to a brand new stadium would soften the blow.

Maybe the decent folk in the GAA will outwit the bigots and open Croke Park in the meantime but not looking good.

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Originally posted by davros
would have been nice to see Ireland play in a 60K capacity stadium .......the capacity seems a bit small..

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Rooney was on Today FM last night being intrerviewed by Matt Cooper and he said the 50k limit was due to financial constraints. Basically, they just can't afford anyting bigger.

Apart from a few matches against teams like Brazil, France and rugby internationals against England, I'm not sure the extra capacity is really warranted. Certainly don't need a 60,000 seater for internationals against Canada, etc.

Anyway, this still leaves Bertie able to come back in a few years wiht a plan to build an 80,000 seater stadium in Abbotstown. :rolleyes:

The new Stadium will be able to hold GAA matches, which in itself has its pros and cons.

The GAA lose a fair bit of money when they have to open Croke Park up for things like National League Finals, Club finals, ladies finals, some hurling semi-finals etc. They'd be licking their lips at a chance to use a 50k seater where they wouldnt have to open Croke Park. They'll come running. Then they'll hit a brick wall.

IRFU/FAI will want to be able to use Croke Park for their bigger games, Rugby matches against England. Football against France etc.

Only problem I see is if the pitch is going to be big enough for GAA a soccer pithch could be lost in it.

I listened to the PRO of the GAA Danny Lynch at lunchtime. Apart from looking for the extra funding of Croker, he also seemed disinterested in Lansdowne Road but stated that the GAA would be very interested in using the facilities in Abbotstown. Now if the FAI are going to sell their premises in Merrion Square and Parnell Square to help fund Abbotstown what will the GAA offer?

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Originally posted by liamon
The GAA already have a large stadium somewhere in Dublin, which they are struggling to fill. As I understand it, they ned to increase use of this facility, and are nowhere maximum usage. Can't see them switching big games anywhere else.

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to be fair, whatever about the history of the piece, it's be daft to have a national stadium from which our national sports were excluded

a spokesman for the GAA said this morning that they would consider it for matches where Croke Park was too big (but no approach would be made yet). they also came out asking for the cash the government promised them after the development of a national stadium was announced.

i've no problem with the GAA using it, charge them for the use of it to ease running costs, and have the use of Croker during the redevelopment written in as a condition, problems solved all around.

When should building start?

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Originally posted by eamo
When should building start?

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penciled in for 2006, two years doesn't seem long for construction.

saw a report that building could take place without the loss of landsdowne for home fixtures, that the bulk of the demolition work could be done 'off season' and it could operate at reduced capacity as the different sides were completed (much as the GAA did when redeveloping croker).

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Originally posted by tiktok

i've no problem with the GAA using it, charge them for the use of it to ease running costs, and have the use of Croker during the redevelopment written in as a condition, problems solved all around.

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If you're going to charge them any sort of decent fee, then it's probably more economical for them to play in Croker.

Anyway, I think they need a stadium of around 15-20k for their smaller matches. A 50k stadium is probably too big for them still.

Normal fee is about 15% of the gate receipts.

The ground should be available to the GAA. No other sporting organisation in the world excludes other sports from their facilities. The way to attack the bigots in the GAA is not to respond with similiar attitudes but to expose them fior what they are.

Listening to the voxpop from residents last night there was general agreement that they wanted a sports stadium rather than high rise apartments. Will still be a long road re planning permission but maybe not as bad as feared.

According to the papers, the staduim will be owned by a management company with the Government, the IRFU and the FAI having shareholdings according to their relative financial contributions.
If this is the case, the Government will have a large shareholding in the stadium. They are unlikely to either prevent the GAA from playing there or charge the GAA a high fee for using the stadium.

Could GAA be played in Lansdowne? Isn't a GAA pitch 40 yards or so longer than a soccer pitch? They certainly don't have the room to expand the ground by 20 yards each side, surely? How's that going to work?

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Originally posted by Bald Student
If this is the case, the Government will have a large shareholding in the stadium. They are unlikely to either prevent the GAA from playing there or charge the GAA a high fee for using the stadium.

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I think it the management company is completely seperate though - so the FAI and IRFU will effectively be paying to use the stadium as well. It will probably be a set fee. Just that as non-shareholders the bogballers wouldn't get any share of the profits of the management company....

From what I read in the paper, though I'm open to correction on this, the management company would not make a profit. It would only charge enough to cover the cost of maintaining the ground.

I would be interested to know what is to be done with the money made from concerts held in the ground.

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Originally posted by Bald Student
I would be interested to know what is to be done with the money made from concerts held in the ground.

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The greedy promoters, who make Ireland one of the most expensive places in Europe to attend a concert, would get it of course.

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Originally posted by pineapple stu
Could GAA be played in Lansdowne? Isn't a GAA pitch 40 yards or so longer than a soccer pitch? They certainly don't have the room to expand the ground by 20 yards each side, surely?How's that going to work?

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GAA pitch dimensions are approximately 150m x 90m,those of soccer and rugby are 100m x 70m.
If the new Lansdowne is to hold GAA,it will be the equivilant of having an athletics track surrounding the pitch during soccer and rugby games like in some stadia e.g the Olympic in Munich.
Wouldn't this have a seriously negetive affect on the atmosphere?

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Originally posted by Beavis
it will be the equivilant of having an athletics track surrounding the pitch during soccer

Wouldn't this have a seriously negetive affect on the atmosphere?

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They could always have a no-go rectangle in the middle of the pitch during the football so as to push the action out to the edges :D

Seriously though, I was thinking the same thing when I heard that the GAA might use the new ground. It was one point I raised when the question of using Croker for International football was raised.

Maybe no one even taught of the pitch dimensions at this stage. Be no probably with with of pitch but could be hard to add the extra 20m length & still fit stadium into allocated space.

Interestingly when Abbotstown first suggested they were going to have an athletics pitch + have a ground suitable for GAA matches which was clearly impossible.

:rolleyes: