Proposed new Lansdowne Road - opinions?

Trojan

I just read about it in the times today - fantastic idea! The idea proposed was similar to Hong Kong and it's a beautiful design. They even keep the north-south alignment of the pitch. I'm not so mad about the all-seater bit, keeps the FAI happy, but we rugby fans are not such hooligans that we deserve to lose our atmospheric terraces.

I thoroughly support the idea of keeping our stadia within the city - who wants to be getting a bus or a bloody tram out to Abbotstown or gawd knows where?

The government needs to get off it's ass and make a decision. I sincerely hope that this is given the go-ahead.

Comments?
Al.

Borzoi

From www.irishrugby.ie

IRFU Present New Stadium Plans


IRFU Chief Executive Philip Browne and Union representatives that included Noel Murphy met sports minister John O'Donoghue yesterday to present their plans for a new stadium. That plan is to demolish Lansdowne Road and rebuild it as a 50,000 capacity stadium to accommodate rugby and soccer.
The present structure would have to be demolished and the the new stadium would run from north to south as it does at the moment. The east and west stands would go but both Lansdowne and Wanderers rugby clubs, who are co-tenants, would still be accommodated on the oldest international ground in the world.

It is expected that the total cost would be in the region of €250 million. According to the plans the new stadium would be a bowl-shaped stadium, based on the McAlpine Stadium in Huddersfield, England. The stands would be rebuilt and those on the north and south sides of the ground would be single tier structures, thereby not causing any nuisance to local residents. It would be a environmentally-friendly stadium which would take about two years to complete.

Filed by Pat Geraghty



Short on details, but seems like a good idea.

Borzoi

Details of the McAlpine Stadium can be found here

Looks well, but is only a 24000 seater. I'm starting to wonder that if the keep the orientation of the pitch, and use this style of stand, those top level fans could be quite a distance from the action

uberwolf

can't help but wonder how advanced these plans are if they haven't even got pics to go with it...

Trojan

McAlpine is similar but HK is much closer in size and scale.

Have a look here for more info.

Al.

xern

Yeah its a great idea alright. I think any irish rugby fan wants to keep lansdowne road as its international home. i would hate to see it moved to abbottstown or anywhere.
as for the design, i'd like to see the terraces left standing, but i suppose the girlie game of soccer has to be looked after!!!!!!

daveirl

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tHE vAGGABOND

you simply cant have terraces anymore - for good or bad...

Third_Echelon

that stadium in Hong Kong looks cool....

now if the irfu, fai and government could get together to build that, that would be fantastic.. but it would be a miracle... we can live in hope though...

daveirl

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GreenHell

FIFA wants all seater and the IRB will probably go the same way.

Trojan

Originally posted by GreenHell
the IRB will probably go the same way.

Not necessarily. There is no tradition of violence or crowd trouble in rugby as in soccer, so I wouldn't count on the IRB mandating that.

As for FIFA - this is OUR stadium, you soccer girls can put down your little plastic play seats when you want to play

Joking aside, sadly I think you're correct, the FAI will demand it's all-seater and we will be forced to comply in order to ensure investment.

Al.

daveirl

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the fnj

If we don't let them play in out rugby stadium they will moan at us like they do at the GAA, the FAI are the pikies of Irish sport, they have no home so they demand to squat in other peoples stadiums.

Trojan

What my ever-so-diplomatic friend is saying is that yes, they are powerful enough: they have Bertie in their pocket, and so have one hand on the purse strings of government investment which we need to build it.

the fnj

Originally posted by Trojan
What my ever-so-diplomatic friend is saying is that yes,

lol

SAXA

Will have to be all seater

I agree there is noting like the fun and craic in the terraces but you limit the use of the stadium to do so which is not a good idea when you are trying to pay for it afterwards

sound_wave

sounds like an excellent idea.

where would games be played during the reconstruction?

Imposter

Interesting article here about the proposal to the government and who will own the stadium afterwards. Makes me wonder if rugby would be better off going it alone.

Indo : Requires (free) registration

Trojan

Originally posted by SAXA
you limit the use of the stadium to do so which is not a good idea when you are trying to pay for it afterwards

I'd like to keep a terrace just like Croker are doing. And for the FAI games? Just shut it off. The amount of seats they can fit there is only about 1/3 or 1/4 of the amount they'd fit standing anyway, so average yearly attendence would still be way higher.

As for owning it, we currently own the ground and the stadium - I'd like to see a government grant to and a HP style buy-back by the IRFU. I don't know if such thing is possible, but would be better than part-ownership or losing control altogether. This is *our* ground.

Al.

Imposter

I could see the IRFU getting a government grant similar to the GAA with no conditions attached. I don't know if it would be as much as they are asking for though.

I also can't see soccer getting any sort of ownership in a new Landsdowne. They should be turfed out of Landsdowne if they continue that crap about wanting a share too. They really need to cop themselves on and not continue to piss off other sports organisations in the country.

Praetorian

They simply aren't thinking big enough scale. They should be building a 70,000-90,000 seater stadium. What is the point in changing Landsdowne road from a 35,000 seater (soccer) or 45,000 (rugby) into a 50,000 seater stadium? It would be a waste of tax payers money. A quarter of a billion (don't forget we're living in Ireland so costs will escalate to probably 350 Million) for a few more seats? Build bigger, MUCH bigger or not at all.

or Send a few more brown envelopes towards croker.

SAXA

Would be a nice idea to have a say 60,000 stadium but after about 45,000 the cost of extra seats goes through the roof. Rugby in Ireland is a minority sport about 15,000 adult player. The Welsh bankrupted themselves with their stadium. Fantastic stadium in centre of Cardiff with a retractable roof but look what happened to Welsh rugby with no money for player, Clubs going into debt and closing. Their new Structures seem to be an improvement. They might climb out of the mountain of debt cause of it being their national sport but Irish rugby would not !! 45,000 - 50,00 is big enough for all the matches except Ireland v England. One match a year which could be moved to Croker if that option even became available. But that is a GAA decision.

daveirl

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spanner

Originally posted by Imposter
I could see the IRFU getting a government grant similar to the GAA with no conditions attached. I don't know if it would be as much as they are asking for though.

i dont think the government will be that stupid to give money and no strings attached because id say bertie is kicking himself that he didnt do that with croke park at the begining.
i think soccer and rugby share quite well and it should continue. we really only need(and can only afford ) one stadium. however landsdowne road is a rugby statium and should stay like that. surely between the rugby, soccer and the government we can get a decent stadium.