Lansdowne Road Stadium

I am 100% sure there is no restricted views of the pitch from any of the seats. If you look carefully at the photos or videos this can be established.

@foremanjoe wrote:

Sure that’s perfect then.
We’ll just kindly ask all teams playing there not to kick the ball too high above the pitch, so that the punters can get their money’s worth.

Ah now the Architects only signed off on the condition that Jack Charlton would never come back as manager 🙂 (Rugby I hear y’say? Bah say I)

Looking at the pics and video, it seems that the corners of the pitch are visible from all seats but only time will tell

@kinsella wrote:

Yeah………..coz’ that’s the natural extension of what I was saying. :rolleyes:

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Thanks ‘Global Citizen’

Aye, you’ve fell victim to reductio ad absurdum there, kinsella.

@Tuborg wrote:

It’s interesting that there are considerably less shots of the bus shelter end in comparison to the rest of the stadium. It’s hardly deliberate though! 😮

The stadium bowl reminds me of a scaled down version of the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, (which holds 65,000 btw!) Externally, Lansdowne will be much more pleasing on the eye but thats not really the point is it? It’s the quality of what’s inside that counts and you can’t really dress up that single tiered end as anything other than a failure!

It’s difficult to be exact but from what I can see anyway, there only appears to be in the region of 10 rows of seating at that end! That is going to look piss poor and will surely have an impact on the atmosphere inside the ground aswell!

Estadio da Luz

Hundreds of millions spent on both Croke Park and Landsdown Road and both are really only 75% finished with the Havelock Square end almost useless for accommodation.
50,000 seats i stoo few and compared to the superb Millennium Stadium in Cardiff not a great result really.

@publicrealm wrote:

Tuborg,

An original study for 65,000 seats at Lansdowne Road concluded that there would be unacceptable impacts on adjacent residential amenity – primarily arising from the required height and scale of the Stadium.

To address this, while staying on the same site (judged the most appropriate site in most other aspects), a decision was taken to reduce capacity from 65,000 to 51,000.

Even at 51,000 the north end has to be so close to O’Connell Gardens/Havelock Square that anything higher than the current dropped tiers would have been very undesirable in terms of residential amenity (due to very negative sunlight/daylight impacts) and absolutely impossible to deliver (in planning terms). Alternative designs on site could not address this.

The 65,000 seater might have been built elsewhere – but this really would have been a pity IMHO.

I’m not sure if a more enclosed stadium would look/feel better. Maybe it would – but I find the current shape is very interesting and distinctive – (a good thing in terms of international recognition) – and the view of the city during nightime events should be rather special.

I was on a tour a couple of weeks ago and the internal layout and finish is exceptional with a great sense of closeness to the pitch. I think its going to be a great stadium – better with 65,000 of course – but the very best obtainable in the circumstances.

I’m well aware that 50,000 is the optimum capacity given the constraints of the current site. It’s just that it’s simply too small and if the site can’t take a stadium that adequately caters for demand, then you should look at alternative options!

Now the only options available were to try and buy up the properties that were impeding the full completion or the stadium or sell up and move to a new site! Clearly the IRFU were never likely to leave Lansdowne Road behind and I also can’t really see a situation in the near future where the ground will be fully completed either! So effectively we’ve had to settle for a compromised solution!

I know theres no point crying over spilled milk. But the unfortunate reality now is that it’s going to be even more difficult for fans to go see their international teams playing and I don’t think that’s fair!

@publicrealm wrote:

I’m not sure if a more enclosed stadium would look/feel better. Maybe it would – but I find the current shape is very interesting and distinctive – (a good thing in terms of international recognition) – and the view of the city during nightime events should be rather special.

Yes views over the city are obviously an integral part of any stadium design.
Although I prefer to concentrate on whats happening on the field of play myself.
But maybe thats just me.

As for international recognition….
I have no doubt the new Lansdowne Road stadium will attract plenty when it opens.
But will it all be for the right reasons?

@Tuborg wrote:

Well the ABP inspector recommended that planning be refused as if I recall correctly the site was deemed to be unsuitable for a modern International stadium. It only got off the ground after the board over-ruled the planning report!

Below is an extract from the report.

That is the case. It changes nothing of the above.

I happen to believe that the Ardagh (Irish Glass bottle ) site, considered more suitable by the inspector, was quite inappropriate. Subsequent events appear to have confirmed this -(but the inspector was entitled to his view which I believe was honestly expressed). As it happens, if the IRFU had purchased the glass bottle site they would now be hundreds of millions down and, in my view, could never have obtained planning there. .

But this is not relevant – the IRFU relied on the expert report – so we are going around in circles here.

Of course it’s all irrelevant now. But it dosen’t change the fact that we have had to settle for a stadium with a totally inadequate capacity, which is quite annoying!

@Tuborg wrote:

Of course it’s all irrelevant now. But it dosen’t change the fact that we have had to settle for a stadium with a totally inadequate capacity, which is quite annoying!

I personally don’t buy this argument. A fair and proper Ticket allocation system (yeah I know, I know..) you would hope would insure a partisan, passionate and vocal home support in a relatively intimate stadium built for competitive international field sports.

The GAA can have their bumper crowds of amiable day trippers- occasionally vocally engaging with a game in an enoromode rarely filled more than four times a year that appears to have a pretty non descript atmosphere to this outsider…

The stadium is more than fit for purpose in one of the finest locations any stadium in Europe occupies (e.g. Wembley and the Camp Nou are in anonymous uburbs, Old Trafford is in an industrial estate for all intents and purposes).

Either way I’ll be watching on the telly so I won’t be getting too worked up whether the ground can cater for presumed demand.