Sports stadium

Anyone remember Sports stadium years ago? Used to show a live Div 1 (later EPL)/FA Cup games as well as the highlights of the weeks sport.

Todd Gack

I could never forget a show that uses the Final Countdown as their theme tune.

Also had a pretty good round up with goals and highlights of all the major european football leagues every week.

Used to love nothing more then watching this on a Saturday evening. Hope rte will invest in something similar in the future.
they used to show irish hockey and rugby results and highlights late on in the day. used to show SPL highlights, international highlights as well as show GAA national league highlights, rally, cycling you name it.

who was the presenter early 90's? was it Mick Dunne by any chance?

Oh and that theme music :cool:

icdg

Deleted User wrote: »

Anyone remember Sports stadium years ago? Used to show a live Div 1 (later EPL)/FA Cup games as well as the highlights of the weeks sport.

Never the Premier League, I'm afraid. The FAPL's deal with Sky gave them exclusive rights for both the UK and Ireland and it was many years before the rights for Ireland were sold seperately again and a 3pm ROI-only package created (the one that Setanta currently holds).

Indeed Sports Stadium's downfall was that it was centred around two things - that 3pm Division One game and its live relays of English horse racing. RTÉ had a deal with the BBC to simulcast races that were being shown on Grandstand. They carried the Grandstand coverage - complete with BBC Sport globe logo, the BBC commentary (this was back in the days of Peter O'Sullivan). They used to freeze the picture when the starting prices appeared and have their own announcer read these, but they'd forget to do this rather often and you'd get shots of Des Lynam in the Grandstand studio before it would cut back to Sports Stadium. The declining interest of the BBC in racing sealed Sports Stadium's fate - pretty much the entire pre-3pm segment of the programme was built around racing and everything else was essentially filler. They did cover the (rugby union) All Ireland League at 5:30pm (typically straight after the classified results, and the very last item on the programme), which RTÉ doesn't really acknowledge the existance of now, except for the few weeks Against the Head runs.

And of course, Europe's The Final Countdown as the theme. The original version was used originally, but a re-arrangement was used for most of the 1990s (after the "SS" logo was adopted).

icdg

icdg wrote: »

Never the Premier League, I'm afraid. The FAPL's deal with Sky gave them exclusive rights for both the UK and Ireland and it was many years before the rights for Ireland were sold seperately again and a 3pm ROI-only package created (the one that Setanta currently holds).

Indeed Sports Stadium's downfall was that it was centred around two things - that 3pm Division One game and its live relays of English horse racing. RTÉ had a deal with the BBC to simulcast races that were being shown on Grandstand. They carried the Grandstand coverage - complete with BBC Sport globe logo, the BBC commentary (this was back in the days of Peter O'Sullivan). They used to freeze the picture when the starting prices appeared and have their own announcer read these, but they'd forget to do this rather often and you'd get shots of Des Lynam in the Grandstand studio before it would cut back to Sports Stadium. The declining interest of the BBC in racing sealed Sports Stadium's fate - pretty much the entire pre-3pm segment of the programme was built around racing and everything else was essentially filler. They did cover the (rugby union) All Ireland League at 5:30pm (typically straight after the classified results, and the very last item on the programme), which RTÉ doesn't really acknowledge the existance of now, except for the few weeks Against the Head runs.

And of course, Europe's The Final Countdown as the theme. The original version was used originally, but a re-arrangement was used for most of the 1990s (after the "SS" logo was adopted).

they had the odd match of the EPL. i can remember arsenal drew with man united 0-0 at Highbury in Nov 94. i can remember them drawing 0-0 with Liverpool at anfield previous season. I don't think it went beyond 1995 though

Skid

At one stage they showed 3pm kick off matches, but they could broadcast these slightly deferred, from 3.30pm I think.

As the game went on, RTE would cut out stoppages such as injuries and half time, so that by the time the match had finished the RTE coverage was much closer to real time.

Can't remember if this was in the First Division or Premier League Era. It was very annoying when you were trying to follow the other scores on Aertel at the same time.

Great memories, hard to believe now but it's heyday was in a time when only a few GAA games (All Ireland Semis and Finals) or Soccer matches (Other than the World Cup/Euro Championships) could ever be seen live.

Hesh's Umpire

I'm pretty sure I remember Niall Quinn's debut for Arsenal being televised live on RTE's Sports Stadium. It was v Liverpool, I think.

thejuggler

I remember the late Brendan O'Reilly used to present it in its 70s/80s heyday. Also remember the results segment around 5pm - the announcer had a distinctive voice.

Bearhunter

thejuggler wrote: »

I remember the late Brendan O'Reilly used to present it in its 70s/80s heyday. Also remember the results segment around 5pm - the announcer had a distinctive voice.

I remember that voice too. And Brendan O'Reilly and Liam Nolan too, if I'm not mistaken, usually wearing a migraine-inducing check jacket.

Royal Seahawk

Yeah, it showed Premier League games too but it used to start showing them at 3:30 every Saturday. Quite ingenius really.
It was a great show except on a slow news day it would concentrate big time on horse racing, I wasn't really into that growing up.
What does be on RTE Two on a Saturday nowadays?

smilerf

Didnt Tracey Piggott and George Hamilton present it to?

Son Of A Vidic

Sports Stadium used to be an all Saturday afternoon event if I remember correctly. I remember the horse racing used to bore the sh1t outta me.

icdg

smilerf wrote: »

Didnt Tracey Piggott and George Hamilton present it to?

Not sure about George Hamilton, he may have done so on occassion. IIRC Fred Cogley presented it for a while and Michael Lyster would have done some stints. The final presenter was Peter Collins though.

keano_afc

I used to love it. It was great for showing lesser sports, I used to get my handball fix as a result of Sports Stadium.

smilerf

icdg wrote: »

Not sure about George Hamilton, he may have done so on occassion. IIRC Fred Cogley presented it for a while and Michael Lyster would have done some stints. The final presenter was Peter Collins though.

yes michael lyster thats it. for some reason i get him mixed up with georgie boy

smilerf

smilerf wrote: »

yes michael lyster thats it. for some reason i get him mixed up with georgie boy

A big Galwegian mixed up with a Belfast midget?? :eek:

marwelie

smilerf wrote: »

Didnt Tracey Piggott and George Hamilton present it to?

I was a Grandstand and World of Sport fan as a kid so I'm not sure about whether George ever presented it but definitely I remember watching SS one Saturday just before it ended for ever when Tracy was presenting and showing an enormous amount of cleavage Still waiting for her to repeat the performance. It would make horse racing much more interesting to me tbh.

I also remember Steve Bruces two goals against Sheffield Wednesday in 1993 being shown as live, ten minutes after the game had finally finished. Definitely saw Quinns debut on it and there was another match on it which finished 6-5. Couldn't tell you who the teams in question were but I seem to recall them not being 1st Division at the time.

Liam Byrne

SkidMark wrote: »

As the game went on, RTE would cut out stoppages such as injuries and half time, so that by the time the match had finished the RTE coverage was much closer to real time.

That explains a Matrix-style deja-vu moment that I had aged about 14!!!!!! Jimmy Magee commented on a throw-in, the ball went back out, and they showed the same throw-in with the same comment!!!

Thank you!!!!

This has sat in the back of my mind for years and made me question whether it really happened!!

You have restored my sanity!

Skid

Liam Byrne wrote: »

That explains a Matrix-style deja-vu moment that I had aged about 14!!!!!! Jimmy Magee commented on a throw-in, the ball went back out, and they showed the same throw-in with the same comment!!!

Thank you!!!!

This has sat in the back of my mind for years and made me question whether it really happened!!

You have restored my sanity!

No bother, glad to be of help!

denishurley

marwelie wrote: »

I was a Grandstand and World of Sport fan as a kid so I'm not sure about whether George ever presented it but definitely I remember watching SS one Saturday just before it ended for ever when Tracy was presenting and showing an enormous amount of cleavage Still waiting for her to repeat the performance. It would make horse racing much more interesting to me tbh.

I also remember Steve Bruces two goals against Sheffield Wednesday in 1993 being shown as live, ten minutes after the game had finally finished. Definitely saw Quinns debut on it and there was another match on it which finished 6-5. Couldn't tell you who the teams in question were but I seem to recall them not being 1st Division at the time.

That wasn't 'as live', it was live, Bruce scored those when the game was over

bonerm

Saw my first ever full live English League game on Sports Stadium. Millwall 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday from the Old Den 23-9-1989. Can't say it turned me into a lifelong fan of The Lions or anything but do clearly I remember watching this game from my grannys house down the country and being somewhat impressed by the crowd intensity of the occasion (all I'd ever seen up to this point was Ireland "fans").

phateen

icdg wrote: »

Not sure about George Hamilton, he may have done so on occassion. IIRC Fred Cogley presented it for a while and Michael Lyster would have done some stints. The final presenter was Peter Collins though.

I remember SS in the early to mid eighties before the theme was final countdown, it was a teumpet based tune called thrilling spectacle...classic stuff and Brendan Reilly was the man. I also remember that 6 5 match and i think crystal palace were involved. Perhaps the first ever live first division match on rte

padd b1975

Bearhunter wrote: »

I remember that voice too. And Brendan O'Reilly and Liam Nolan too, if I'm not mistaken, usually wearing a migraine-inducing check jacket.

Apparently Brendan was infamous for arriving in the studio at the last possible second, literally as the theme tune was playing.

One Saturday the crew decided to hide his chair, Brendan had to do the opening link on his haunches.

darkdubh

The old pre-Final Countdown Sports Stadium opening sequence appears here very briefly twice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q86xbC4Mgco