National Stadium announcement

Went to the Millennium Stadium at Cardiff last saturday – now there is a stadium in the right location – 5 minutes walk from the centre of town. No need to be concerned about parking. A world class arena with retractable roof and a capacity of 78,000.

Definitely put the new stadium at lansdowne road – it’ll be worth it in the long run and it is important for historical reasons (oldest rugby stadium site in the world!).

Cost of Millennium stadium in a downtown site including demolition of the old Cardiff Arms Park= £150 million stg (€234 million euro) and we are talking about spening 1/2 billion euro on the stadium alone in a greenfield site – why does this not add up?

Rebuilding Lansdowne is not really a good option because we’d have nowhere to play for the 2-3 years that its out of action. I do agree that a downtown location would probably be better, but its easy to say that – its much more difficult to find a suitable easily accessible site.

It’s been said before, but can anyone really have any objections to building the stadium at the Glass Bottle plant in Irishtown? A bit further to stroll from town than to Lansdowne, but apart from that…?

the Irishtown site would be great, a chance for a landmark design when seen from the bay….

re lansdowne, this was written last year and has some good points
http://www.irish-architecture.com/onsite/stadiumireland/index.html

Well thank god in one way or another we are going to get a much needed National Stadium…..whether it be Stadium Ireland or a revemped/rebuilt Landsdowne Road.
We will finally have something of an acceptable standard to host major sporting events….and the sport loving Bertieman (aka our Taoiseach) is there to see that it is done.
Too bad the majority of Irish people will only view it on TV when our National Rugby team is playing.

Considering the plethora of objections Lansdowne receives for even staging a concert, it is just not feasible to redevelop it.
Could you imagine the residents of Dublin 4 putting up with a project of that scale, which would take at least three years. Also, the site is bounded by the river and the DART line and one busy road, meaning the only option, to have the capacity required, is to turn it end to end and build on top of the training pitch. Even then, the disruption would be too much.
Irishtown would be good but there’s nothing wrong with Abbotstown, partic if local Maynooth train capacity is upgraded enough or if a Metro link went ahead.
We need to stop thinking of Dublin city as a twenty or thirty-minute stroll from O’Connell St/Grafton St. It’s that kind of attitude, which makes having a football celebration in the Phoenix Park sound as if you’re forcing people to travel to a different county.

The silence from government has been deafening. Rumors around that with significant change in scope to 65,000 seats it will be a start over. This gives good reason to abandon past management and give it to OPW and do things professionally. Now about those consortia bids…

Kefu – part of the enjoyment of going to a game is the build up and post game wind down. If you have to spend ages trying to drive to Stadium Ireland you will be (a) frustrated because of our appaling traffic and have to find a parking space (b) thirsty – but you cant drink and drive and (c) it will be a less sociable occasion without the traditional Lansdowne Stroll (which is a favorite of all international fans) where you can meet up and travel to the game at a good walking pace.

As regards the residents of Lansdowne Road – the stadium has been there a lot longer than they have (Lansdowne being the oldest international Rugby ground in the world) – therefore the stadium should take precidence. And what makes them more important than the Clonliffe road residents!

As I said in my previous posting the Millennium Stadium was built in a constrained site in the middle of a city (Lansdowne is as easy to get to for construction traffic if not easier). And they managed to do the work while the Welsh (who are far madder about rugby than we are) managed to play during the construction period.

I would have no problem with the glass bottle site either but the stadium should be downtown.

The Welsh played at Wembley Stadium for two or three years while their stadium was being re-built. Now I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not prepared to see one of our national teams play their home games in a foreign country under any circumstances. This is the main reason why rebuilding Lansdowne is a non-runner in my opinion.

The GAA made a big mistake by not building Croke Park all in one go, it ended up costing way more than they thought because of inflation, so building Lansdowne in a piecemeal fashion (as an above article suggested) and using it at the same time would not be a good idea. I’m sure FIFA/UEFA would have safety concerns too over any such plan. The stands at Croke Park took each took over 2 years to build so it wouldn’t be possible to keep the ground open for games anyway.

Can the IRFU request the use of Croke Park?

My main point is that the stadium should either be at Lansdowne Road or (at a push) Ringsend but not out in the suburbs.

Both Spurs and West Ham have recenly redeveloped their stadia whilst matches were played (without problems from the English FA, UEFA etc) – what is stopping us from doing the same.

And even though the stands at Croke park took 2 years to build the staduim was still open (I don’t understand your argument here)

Turning the pitch 90 Degrees is possible if correct project management is carried out – it is just a question of is the will there to do so.

Well, what I mean is since the pitch would need to be turned 90 degrees this would mean the demolition of everything on the site. The first thing to go would be the only proper stand in the ground (East stand I think) since this is between the current pitch and the training pitch. It would take at least two years to build even one stand on the site so the ground would be unusable for at least that period.

The difference between this and redevelopments at Croke Park, Upton Park etc. is that they could use three other sides of the ground to remain open while one stand at a time was under reconstruction because they didn’t need to turn the pitch through 90 degrees. I don’t see anyway that Lansdowne could remain open under these circumstances, the terraces would also be unusable even if they weren’t demolished since bucket seats are being banned by FIFA in a few years time.

I wouldn’t be against temporarily using Croke Park while a stadium was being built if that were a possibility (a very big if), but remember Croke Park has no floodlights and isn’t likely to have any anytime soon, plus their PP is very strict regarding number of events permitted a year etc. All in all i think a greenfield site is the best option whether its at Abbotstown or closer to the city centre.

You’re halfway there already!

As you say – demolish the East Stand, retain the north and south terrace and the west stand as open, pitch stays in current position – games are still played.

Then build a c shaped half of the new stadium on the site of the training pitch including new east stand/terrrace and up to 50% of each of the new North and South stands.

When this is being fitted out – begin construction of the new pitch area at right angle to current pitch.

When this half of the pitch is nearing completion, rotate the pitch 90 degrees, open new end and demolish north and south terraces and west stand (this process and most of the construction work can be done over the summer period when the ground is mostly idle).

Construct second c shape at other end of new pitch. Et viola – one stadium turned 90 degrees. Ground stays playable for majority of construction period.

Government have been working behind the scenes. see Sunday Business Post article:

http://www.sbpost.ie/story.jsp?story=WCContent;id-53810

Other locations being considered. Must move quickly as UEFA tours Dublin 15-16 September for 2008 bid.

Article includes spend on Abbotstown consultants.

Ready, steady….

The Phoenix Park is being looked at as a possible alternative site for the controversial “Bertie Bowl” by a Government committee established to examine the multi-million euro project. The committee, which The Irish Times understands looked at a number of alternative national stadium sites to Abbotstown, is due to finalise its report today or tomorrow. Among the other sites the committee has assessed are Abbotstown, the former Glass Factory in Ringsend, and Lansdowne Road.

Please will they ever just build the bloody thing……….an 80,000 seater stadium too………Christ, why all the wrangling…..Go ahead with the Abbotstown scheme…..ok government funds are low……get the private sector to weigh in ………Sure they’ll be coveting the corporate boxes in any way…….
I notice many of the FF politicians as well are now reluctant about the National Stadium being built….they were all gung-ho once ….was that to get votes? ahem…I think many of them are of a GAA background too and are reluctant to have the splendour of Croke Park taken away now that the All-Irelands are in full swing…..Sour grapes too morelike……I guess they’ll just have to open up Croker to all field sports then…..and why not, we tax payers paid in a good part for the bloody thing. Mind you the Landsdowne brigade are tight fisted inert bastards..I was at their club house recently….and what a kip….1970’s decor, 1930’s decking ..and well rotted too…….the bar stank of vomit….Jesus what’s wrong with these stuck up people…..bloody upstarts……and it’s the general public as always that loses out…….Jesus I just hope we don’t get a mediocre 40,000 seater stadium designed by Scottt Tallon Walker…..We are really a nation of boring inebriated spineless people. Go ahead Bertie and build the original concept….let Mary Harney f**k off.

GregF have you thought of running for office? You’d get my vote.

So there goes the Scots/Irish Euro 2008 bid……..sure were we ever in the running? Seems that we could’nt fulfill our side of the bargain by delivering at least a couple of stadia. The Jocks have Hampden, Parkhead, Ibrox…..etc etc but we could’nt deliver even one….such was our apathy and stubborness. Well done to Mary Harney and the Regressive Democrats for enabling us to lose this high profile international event. Well done to Minister McDowell for once describing the Bertie Bowl as something out of the Ceaucescu era. How was it then that they were backing the proposal of a National Stadium for Ireland a day before UEFA announced the venue. The wooly headed GAA’s attitude did’nt help either. The Europeans were only too aware of inept Irish poltical and sporting shennanigans. I feel sorry for the Jocks. Our Paddy Blarney charm charade did’nt work this time. Maybe take a leaf out of the steely Teutonic peoples book and we might start to get things done properly in this State of Inertia.

UEFA didnt like only three cities hosting most of the games “concentration of most of their stadiums in just three cities – Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin”

Scotland and Ireland bid they say, seems more like a Scotland/Dublin bid. Yet again we see the rest of ireland totally ignored, as in the plans for the olympic bid. When will people in Ireland wake up to this totally ignorant biased towards the rest of Ireland. Government is meant to represent a whole country not just one city. Croke Park, Landsdomne Road and now possibly a new 80,000 seater stadia along with maybe a new stadia for the FAI. Thats Dublin alone, in world terms a small/medium size city. Now lets list the the stadia and sports facilities for the rest of Ireland, mmmm, can’t think of any. 1 bn for a one project in one city when other cities have no facilities to talk of at all. Cardiffs new M. Stadium, 300m, you could build three of them in Ireland and still have change, oh but no sorry, they would probably end up building all three in Dublin. Wake up and kop on, Ireland is a country that spreads past Dublin.

Visit this for views of our national stadia and for some reason the one on the South Circular Road has been left of the list.

http://www.euro2008bid.com/stadia/stadium_ireland.html

Isnt it hilarious looking at the plans and pics of the Scottish stadia compared to the Irish…even Dundee is managing to build something.

Love the shot of lansdowne, by night…