preferred lansdowne alernatives

[Gandhi]

If we had to play abroad Anfield would be my preferred option. The 1995 game against the Dutch was one of my favourite games of all time despite the result. Singing "You'll Never walk Alone" on The Kop was magic, and I'm not a Liverpool fan.

I wish all footy grounds were like Anfield, not these modern 80k seater jobs, although my mate was at Cardiff for a play-off final and came back saying it's the "Bang & Olufsen of footy grounds".

Not that I've been to too many soccer grounds outside Ireland but I do agree that there is something special about Anfield, it is not just the history of the place, though obviously that has something to do with it. It has more to do with the compactness of the ground and fitting 44,000 supporters into a compact ground which for the most part seems to hold the noise pretty well, amazing acoustics in the place. I've been on the Kop a few times and when they start to really roar it is unbelievable, you feel as if this huge tidal wave is coming up behind you. I don't know about the new stadium, if they manage to get the same atmosphere in there it will be a miracle, a lot of these new stadia seem fairly soulless places.
I know a lot of people slag off Lansdowne Road and rightly so, it is a bit of a kip, but if the north 'bucket' had a roof over it to hold in the noise it would really add to the atmosphere. The same problem exists at the other end and in the corners - no roof, a lot of the noise just escapes. When you're in the middle of the East stand for an evening match the atmosphere can be pretty good, depending on the opposition of course. Hopefully the new stadium will get the design right from an acoustics point of view. Having said that, I'm disappointed with the capacity, at 50,000 it is not going to solve the problem of tickets for matches against the likes of France

[Littlest Hobo]

I don't particularly like Ibrox or Cardiff. Definitly not a good idea to move our games to Britain. Too many ex-pats/"Oiwish" would attend the games. This would lead to a poor atmosphere, even worse than Lansdowne currently is. The ex-pats didn't even turn up for the Unity Cup games in London and haven't the passion for Ireland games.

6 of us ex-pat Patriots will be off to Basle and Paris ...... in the green, in the green.........
Just as proud and fanatical for the cause, as any other Home based fan.
The atmosphere at Landsdowne these days is crap, cause theres too many suits and snotty nosed cu*ts from the likes of D4 atending

[dublinred]

With a capacity of 67,500 I think we're fooling ourselves if we think we need somewhere like Murrayfield!

We don't but they are offering it for a great price , anyway I don't see what the fuss is the government are aware of how much money international games generate for the economy and will cut a deal with the GAA to ensure that the rugby and soccer internationals are not held outside Ireland , I heard a figure of e50m a match to the local economy.

[davey]

Villa Park would be ideal in terms of capacity and location. Great transport links with Birmingham and massive 1G and 2G population

[Closed Account 2]

short article on the topic

I like rooneys comment about sometimes it isn't possible to play home games at home.
I don't know of it happening to any other country except israel (for far more important reasons)
also - cardiff has less seats than I thought - only 73K

Think the Welsh played a few games in Anfield while the Millenium Stadium was being constructed, didnt they ? There was certainly talk they would.

Its not an ideal situation at all, but it might have to happen if LR is re developed and/or the selfish prats at the GAA dont let us use their "stadium". Incidently is it a blanket ban on all stadiums or would they consider letting us use somewhere like Nowlan Park or their places in Limerick or Cork ? Do these meet FIFA regulations for seating etc ?

My choice would be to rotate the big ones around the UK, we could probably get a good deal at the Millenium Stadium seeing as they are keen to get matches played their for (financial reasons - eg the Barca v Parma match). Highbury is a possible venue in the South East. Im sure some sort of deal between the FAI and a cheap airline like Easyjet or someone could be struck.

[Pat O' Banton]

Think the Welsh played a few games in Anfield while the Millenium Stadium was being constructed, didnt they ? There was certainly talk they would.

Its not an ideal situation at all, but it might have to happen if LR is re developed and/or the selfish prats at the GAA dont let us use their "stadium". Incidently is it a blanket ban on all stadiums or would they consider letting us use somewhere like Nowlan Park or their places in Limerick or Cork ? Do these meet FIFA regulations for seating etc ?

My choice would be to rotate the big ones around the UK, we could probably get a good deal at the Millenium Stadium seeing as they are keen to get matches played their for (financial reasons - eg the Barca v Parma match). Highbury is a possible venue in the South East. Im sure some sort of deal between the FAI and a cheap airline like Easyjet or someone could be struck.

Again though the problem will be that the met police won't be too enthusiastic about having a load of 'fenians' in town on the day England play at home. We could play while they are away but this again would take away our right to negotiate our own fixture list, something that has helped us greatly in the past (playing Holland and Portugal away post Euro 2000 springs to mind.) This shouldn't be a problem if we were to play in the north or even at Muarryfield.

[Closed Account 2]

Play them at Lords, i hear the pitch is excellent

If England were playing at home couldnt we just switch to Villa or Man Utd's grounds for that match? Cold always hold it at Spurs, over 36,000 decent stadium. Fairly far from Wembly, trainlink to Stanstead Airport too.

I think if we do it on a game by game basis it will be cheaper than doing an all in one job. Take our current group for example. We'd want the home match v the French somewhere like Old Trafford, The Swiss maybe at Spurs and the Isrealis Anfield. The Faroes and Cypriots we could play in a smaller stadium in Ireland eg Cork's GAA - which they might be more likely to let us use.