Stadium Updates (All Clubs)

**Nesta99** · 13/09/2025, 8:03 PM

Originally Posted by Martinho II

Stuart Byrne in his column in Irish Mirror today said that Tolka Park held 10k regularly when all 4 stands were open. Would that ever happen again I wonder?

It did, or close enough to it when all 4 sides of the ground were fully open. I would say the Ballybough End being restricted had the biggest impact on reducing numbers, maybe the wings/back of the Riverside Stand too. Cup finals and European games, the odd international certainly were in an around the 10k. Bohs v Aberdeen was full but it was properly rammed during the 2002 FAI Cup final, hard to imagine additional 5k or whatever would have been at internationals though the Drumcondra end was mainly just the new stand in my days so maybe there was an old terrace there at some point. Here's some 'old' footage that feels like yesterday when it held about twice what is allowed now, particularly the Ballybough End, one of the best atmospheres Ive experienced at a football match and not enclosed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLmkFY-2Uu0

*Is that a poor copy that was uploaded or did we really see the world on TV as if we were all severely short sighted???

**2 Year Contract** · 14/09/2025, 9:41 AM

Originally Posted by Nesta99

It did, or close enough to it when all 4 sides of the ground were fully open. I would say the Ballybough End being restricted had the biggest impact on reducing numbers, maybe the wings/back of the Riverside Stand too. Cup finals and European games, the odd international certainly were in an around the 10k. Bohs v Aberdeen was full but it was properly rammed during the 2002 FAI Cup final, hard to imagine additional 5k or whatever would have been at internationals though the Drumcondra end was mainly just the new stand in my days so maybe there was an old terrace there at some point. Here's some 'old' footage that feels like yesterday when it held about twice what is allowed now, particularly the Ballybough End, one of the best atmospheres Ive experienced at a football match and not enclosed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLmkFY-2Uu0

*Is that a poor copy that was uploaded or did we really see the world on TV as if we were all severely short sighted???

There was indeed a terrace of sorts there in the past, you can see it in the below clip of Pats vs Hearts in 1988

https://youtu.be/V-JWytojpgE?si=0qomxPRvGCasTy5a

**EatYerGreens** · 14/09/2025, 4:10 PM

Originally Posted by Nesta99

Its called a Belfast Roof and it could even be a protected structure depending on when it was installed. I think Ealing Green posted pics of old stadia sith similar structures in football grounds a while back.

Is it not officially know as a barrel-roof - with the Belfast alternative being a column-less structure to span much wider/deeper structures, with the roof having a shallower pitch??

Isn't the main stand in Finn Park also a barrel roof?

**Nesta99** · 14/09/2025, 4:43 PM

You may be right EYG. Regardless Ive always seen it as looking cheap and barn like and not antiquated in a nice, quaint way, but it was suggested that it isnt just a case of money and reroofing or demolishing and a new stand built, that there may be some retention order.