QuoteOkay ...just back it up a little for me.
Now -what's a stadium?
:-)
its actually a very good piece of design given the site constraints. 3,000 seats (all that was ever possible at that end before) and a fully enclosed stadium. i think its a great jobOriginally Posted by elroy
Okay ...just back it up a little for me.
Now -what's a stadium?
:-)
" I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again: "Why do they come to me to die?"
Does anyone have a download of "On Hallowed Ground" which was shown on RTE last week? This snippet from today's Irish Times makes it sound interesting:
JASON McATEER admitted he doesn’t like change, that he’s infinitely happier when things stay just as they always were. Like Lansdowne Road.
“It was a kip, but it was home,” he said wistfully, as he was driven towards Ballsbridge for his first glimpse of the new stadium. His eyes widened, his jaw plummeted. “It looks like, eh, a greenhouse.”
http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/on_hallowed_ground.html
For those in Ireland the programme seems to be available on the RTE Player but not for those of us outside the country. Any link to a download would be greatly appreciated.
"There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet" - Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
For anyone interested, this is where you can get it on the RTÉ Player for the meantime: http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1072801
I wonder would it work through a proxy server for those outside Ireland...
Did the Havelock Sq end only ever fit 3,000 bucket seats? I thought it looked like more? Still, I'm happy with the design of the stadium, and having the small away fan contingent at the Havelock end is at least one little reminder of the old place which I adored. Pity they couldn't find room for the Wanderers clubhouse somewhere though!
All that money and no feckin' goalposts! Typical Irish...
Did you ever notice that in every painting of Adam & Eve, they have belly buttons. Think about that...take as long as you want.
what is it with us and our reluctance to have a (fullycompleted)4 sided stadium in ireland......looks good in fairness. in that pic you would almost think the small stand is on the side of the pitch not behind the goal.
Do all of the sides spell out AVIVA or does any side spell out Ireland?
Criticism is prejudice made plausible
I don't think it's exactly fair to describe it as a "reluctance". It's simply indicative of the reality, or quagmire even, that is urban planning. I'm sure if it was possible to have three tiers all the way round, there would be three tiers all the way round. There's little that can be done about a row of private properties tightly located behind one end. You can't exactly expect the state to intervene and turf people out of their homes in the "national interest" or whatever. As fantastic it is to have it, it is only a football stadium, after all.
Still, as it is, I think it's quite charming in its uniqueness. Without sounding like I'm trying to engage in some romantic personification of a sports stadium, I think the design adds a certain amount of character of which, say, the Emirates Stadium in London could never boast. It also tells its own story about the locality, I suppose. It's the same for Croke Park, although I don't think Croke Park is quite as graceful.
There were 22,000 permanent seats and the capacity for qualifiers was about 35,000. That leaves 13,000 bucket seats between the East, South and North terraces. The North one was the smallest of the three so 3,000 sounds about right.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
You must be joking. Don't you know this is the FAI/Aviva's shining beacon first and foremost? Irish sport merely finds itself being dragged along as a passenger.
It's a fair point you make, however the story behind the three sides of Croke Park has a lot more history than the three sides of the Aviva owing to not having enough money to buy people's property.
Is it a uniquely Irish thing the way there are only three sides? That can be looked at as a positive or a negative depending on how you feel about the country I suppose.
It's a lovely design though, I'm glad they didn't try to be conservative.
Criticism is prejudice made plausible
Wasn't joking but wasn't hopeful that it did. It's a sad state of affairs really.You must be joking. Don't you know this is the FAI/Aviva's shining beacon first and foremost? Irish sport merely finds itself being dragged along as a passenger.
William Petty-FitzMaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne would be spinning in his grave.
Criticism is prejudice made plausible
It'll be an historic symbol for years to come of this generation's desperate transition from Celtic Tiger prosperity into post-boom recession and hardship. Or something. :P
It's certainly uncommon, but not strictly unique, I suppose. I recall during Euro 2004 in Portugal, there were one or two stadiums that had two or three tiers on three sides and just a solitary tier at one end behind the goals. In fact, wasn't there one utterly bizarre stadium that had no stand at all behind one of its goals, but rather some sort of alien rocky landscape?Is it a uniquely Irish thing the way there are only three sides? That can be looked at as a positive or a negative depending on how you feel about the country I suppose.
It's a lovely design though, I'm glad they didn't try to be conservative.
I would like to think (ungrateful so and sos that we are that we are not happy with what does look a fantastic stadium for the most part) that in a few years the possibility of extending/redeveloping that end may be considered. Perhaps a time when the debt balance isnt as high as it currently is.
Nonetheless if it were a perfectly round, all in proportion, 50k seater stadia im sure we would still have compliants.
I was being slightly ironic in my reply, but you're entirely right not to be joking. Having "Aviva" plastered all over the stadium isn't something of which I'm particularly fond either. It is sad that artefacts of our historical and cultural experience - which my idealist senses expect should be for everyone to share - can be sold off to the highest bidder nowadays in order to make a quick buck.
Just on other peculiarly-designed stadia, this is the Portuguese one I was talking about:
It's the Estádio Municipal de Braga. I thought it had three stands around the pitch and a rocky backdrop behind one end for some reason, but it appears that it only has two stands along pitch-side with rocky terrain enclosing the ground at both ends behind the goals.
The other one I'd been thinking of was Porto's Estádio do Dragão:
However, it appears that it is also symmetrical to the extent that both ends behind the goals are just one tier in height.
Exactly. I actually presumed that the stadium would have some link to Ireland in it apart from the green seats. Naming rights needn't extend to not having even Ireland printed on the seats.
It's really something you take for granted until the FAI continue to take liberties and finally make people sit up and take note. It just keeps getting better, Manchester United, Bohs having to move games, Limerick not allowed to play Barca.
By the way, that Braga stadium looks fantastic.
Criticism is prejudice made plausible
Some other odd designs I've encountered...
'La Bombonera', where Boca Juniors play their home games:
The Autostade in Montréal (now demolished):
Norrporten Arena in Sundsvall, Sweden:
It's quite small, though, with a capacity of only 8,000.
Also, check out the Mmabatho Stadium in Mafikeng, South Africa. It's a textbook example of how a stadium probably ought not to look.
So, I think it's safe to assume, we have quite a conventional stadium for ourselves by relative standards, ha.
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