Leinster venue next year

NCIRL

With the RDS and Lansdowne being redeveloped next year i can only assume the European games will be back in Donnybrook, this could be a good thing in terms of atmosphere but the capacity is way to small and tickets are bound to be very very hard to get as Leinster seem to be attracting new fans all the time. Donnybrook has a capacity of 7,000 (i may be wrong) but thats way to small. So i was thinking how about playing next years games in Tolka Park or Dalymount Park both have capacitys of over 10,000 and that means extra fans. I know people will say Donnybrook is the spirtual home but this will be a fantastic opportunity to attract new fans from Drumcondra , Whitehall , Santry , Beaumont , Artane , Phibsboro , Glasnevin , Swords etc and would banish the D4 image Leinster seem to portray to some people. Anyway else agree with this.

Downtime

Tolka Park or Dalymount Park

Are they on the Northside? Hmmm only if Kielys moves I think

Snickers Man

You will never get rid of the D4 perception, unfortunately, because it is a myth and as such it is immutable. You can't change facts to alter the perceptions because it is the perceptions that are wrong in the first place. People like to hold a chip on their shoulder about Dublin 4, even if the resentment is utterly misplaced.

Only last week somebody from Tipperary wrote in the Irish Times of the perception that rugby in Leinster was "a class-based élitist Dublin 4 phenomenon, monopolised by the fee-paying schools from that part of the city."

In yesterday's Sunday Independent the Leinster Chief Exec Michael Dawson was quoted as decrying the 'Dublin 4 effect' that apparently prevents rugby from gaining popular traction in the working class areas of the city.

So Dublin 4 and its fee-paying schools dominate Dublin rugby, eh?

HORSE****!!!

How many 'fee paying schools from Dublin 4' have EVER won the Leinster School's Senior Cup?

Answer: NONE. BUGGER ALL. ZIP. Blackrock isn't in Dublin 4. Nor is Terenure, St Mary's or Belvedere. Or any of the other schools that have ever won it. OK St Andrews was in Dublin 4 for about 40 years but it never won in all that time. The last of its four victories occured before it moved to Clyde Road and it hasn't won since it moved out to County Dublin either.


How many clubs situated in Dublin 4 play in the first division of the All Ireland League?
Answer: One.

Aha! you might think. Obviously a privileged elite bound together with an old school tie who do their best to keep the riff raff at bay and won't allow entry to anybody with the wrong accent!

Well you'd be quite wrong. The club in question is Lansdowne, which has always been an 'open' club, in that you never had to belong to an old school to become a member and in fact many of its it internationals down the years have been 'boggers.' EG Mick Galwey and Dick Spring (Kerry) Eric Elwood (Galway) Philip Danaher (Limerick) to name but four. It was the big Dublin club that lads from down the country were able to join, so they did.

As for being exclusive: head down any Sunday morning in season and you will see anything up to a hundred young kids (depending on how many teams are playing at home) aged between 6 and 12 being coached by an army of volunteers. Usually you will see at least one former international lending his weight and expertise to the situation as well.

What has Dublin 4 done to get such a snobby reputation? It is, for the most part, a beautiful part of town fair enough. But there are many old communities of fairly ordinary people, not least in the approaches to Lansdowne Road , who live and work there and are far from being the toffee-nosed snobs of legend.

In fact they welcome rugby (and soccer) crowds with a tolerance which puts some of our farming cousins to shame and ask only that visitors refrain from puking, pissing and poking in their gardens. How unreasonable is that?

Certainly, they could become millionaires by selling their houses--even small former artisans' cottages in that area would go for over a million euro--but only if they were to move to some God forsaken part of the country where nobody wants to live and where property prices are correspondingly low.

But why would any resident of the nicest of Dublin's inner city districts want to do that?

Funkstard

ow many 'fee paying schools from Dublin 4' have EVER won the Leinster School's Senior Cup?

Answer: NONE. BUGGER ALL. ZIP. Blackrock isn't in Dublin 4. Nor is Terenure, St Mary's or Belvedere

Yeh that's great and all, but the D4 tag refers to the greater south County Dublin area, eg. Blackrock, Dalkey, Monkstown etc. And all of the feeder schools are fee-paying, and all of the teams that are in any way strong in the Leinster Junior & Senior cups are private.

You can't deny that rugby is a completely middle class sport, in 'D4' anyway

RuggieBear

Funkstard wrote:

ow many 'fee paying schools from Dublin 4' have EVER won the Leinster School's Senior Cup?

Answer: NONE. BUGGER ALL. ZIP. Blackrock isn't in Dublin 4. Nor is Terenure, St Mary's or Belvedere

Yeh that's great and all, but the D4 tag refers to the greater south County Dublin area, eg. Blackrock, Dalkey, Monkstown etc. And all of the feeder schools are fee-paying, and all of the teams that are in any way strong in the Leinster Junior & Senior cups are private.

You can't deny that rugby is a completely middle class sport, in 'D4' anyway

lol...horsey poo!!!!
Christ if you are going to include half of south county dublin as "D4" you might as well include belvo on the northside, King's Hospital on the Westside and ****ing Clongowes in Kildare.

Actually, i'm posh too but i live in dublin 2...can i not be D4 as well...?

Crash

I'm from D4+10, and this thread is loike, SOOO true.



now where's that "i'm being a sarcastic bollocks" smiley?

NCIRL

Can please get back onto the topic 'Should Leinster play their games in the 10,000 + capacity Tolka Park/Dalymount instead of the 7,000 Donnybrook next year

RuggieBear

donnybrook is good enough for me.

much better atmosphere

Diamondmaker

Tolka was discussed this time last year before RDS panned out. It may well be discussed again. I think commerce will win out over Donnybrook and the games will be held somewhere with a bigger capacity.
It may well be Northside, which suits me since I moved to Santry, maybe the Trinity Pitches,: then I can watch from my Balcony.:D

Diamondmaker

And Lansdowne is also unlikely to have planning and hence may actually be available next year, an unprecedented amount of Additional INformation was sought by the planners...things not looking good in Leafy D4!

Snickers Man

Funkstard wrote:

but the D4 tag refers to the greater south County Dublin area, eg. Blackrock, Dalkey, Monkstown etc.

By that logic, anybody outside Dublin 4 is a bogger who talks dresses and smells like Jackie Healy-Rae.

Now, back on (main) topic.

I have no problem sharing a ground with a soccer team. In fact, if the Leinster Branch redeveops Donnybrook like they said they would, I think they should offer to share it with one of the traditional southside soccer clubs like Shelbourne or Shamrock Rovers. Why not? A decent 20,000 seater venue for big occasions would do wonders for both sports.

I also think Lansdowne Road will be open for longer than people may think. And I strongly suspect that not all of the objections are coming from 'leafy Dublin 4'. I reckon a few GAA diehards from Cork and South Armagh will be doing everything in their power to hold up 'foreign games' from being played at Croker.

Bluetonic

Snickers Man wrote:

In fact, if the Leinster Branch redeveops Donnybrook like they said they would, I think they should offer to share it with one of the traditional southside soccer clubs like Shelbourne or Shamrock Rovers. Why not? A decent 20,000 seater venue for big occasions would do wonders for both sports.

Are you aware of the Genesis Report?

Nice idea but the above will never happen.

Snickers Man

Bluetonic wrote:

Are you aware of the Genesis Report?

Not in minute detail.

Nice idea but the above will never happen.

Why not

Bluetonic

Snickers Man wrote:

Why not

Read up on the report. It'll explain all.

Snickers Man

Bluetonic wrote:

Read up on the report. It'll explain all.

Hey good answer.

I will bet you that within 10 years, Irish provincial rugby teams will be sharing grounds with other sports.

Whatever Genesis says or doesn't say.

[Jackass]

Croke Park tbh

daveirl

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RuggieBear

...how many times was Musgrave park sold out this season...?;)

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Amazotheamazing

What about the new stadium in Tallaght? The summer soccer would leave it empty for much of the rugby season.

LostinBlanch

Amazotheamazing wrote:

What about the new stadium in Tallaght? The summer soccer would leave it empty for much of the rugby season.

Was just thinking that

But given the crap that's going on with 6 "local" GAA clubs who have their own land and facilities but also want Shamrock Rovers as well I don't think it's going to happen.