Landsdown redeveloppment disappointment

Sandwich

Very disappointed that the Landsdown redeveloppment has been give the go ahead (subject to conditions and potential appeal).

Had hoped that it would be turned down and they would be forced out of town, but would then be able to increase the size. Now we will be stuck with the limited capacity, that has been proven for years to be far too small, and the same hassle getting hands on tickets.

No point having a better stadium if you cant get a ticket into it!

shoutman

I agree absolutely ridiculous redeveloping lansdown only for an increase of a couple of thousand capacity wise, Ireland have a problem with underdoing things, m50 etc for example.

daveirl

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gjim

Had hoped that it would be turned down and they would be forced out of town

Jeezus christ, what's your idea of a sporting occasion? A drive along a motorway to the middle of nowhere, negotiating a massive car park, watch the game, afterwards queue for forty five minutes in the car to get back on the motorway and drive home safely into bed?

Give me a city centre stadium any day - the town filling up with fans from morning, having a bite to eat and a couple of pints in the centre of town, the fans mixing during the build up, the mounting excitement during the walk to Landsdown/Croker, the sense of history in the ground, mingling afterwards in the pubs around the ground and the town awash with colour.

My only real problem with the design redevelopment is the lack of any terracing. Besides that, the location is absolutely perfect.

OPENROAD

gjim wrote:

Jeezus christ, what's your idea of a sporting occasion? A drive along a motorway to the middle of nowhere, negotiating a massive car park, watch the game, afterwards queue for forty five minutes in the car to get back on the motorway and drive home safely into bed?

Give me a city centre stadium any day - the town filling up with fans from morning, having a bite to eat and a couple of pints in the centre of town, the fans mixing during the build up, the mounting excitement during the walk to Landsdown/Croker, the sense of history in the ground, mingling afterwards in the pubs around the ground and the town awash with colour.

My only real problem with the design redevelopment is the lack of any terracing. Besides that, the location is absolutely perfect.

spot on, except for the terracing part.

Sandwich

gjim wrote:

Jeezus christ, what's your idea of a sporting occasion? A drive along a motorway to the middle of nowhere, negotiating a massive car park, watch the game, afterwards queue for forty five minutes in the car to get back on the motorway and drive home safely into bed?

Beats watching it on TV because there arent enough tickets to go around. Depends on whether you're a rugby fan or one of the prawn sandwich brigade I suppose.

Snickers Man

As a fairly local resident I say well done to Bord Pleanala. It's a fantastic place for a stadium, full of history, close to the city centre and will keep Dublin as one of the favourite venues for visitors from overseas to come to.

There are loads of national stadia around europe that have similar capacity to ~Lansdowne Road. Spain play most of their international matches in Seville, despite the fact that its capacity is only a little over 50,000 and they have much larger stadia in Barcelona (Nou camp) and Madrid (Bernabeu).

Likewise, Portugal has one very large stadium the Stadio da Luz but they also play internationals elsewhere in smaller stadia. And even in England, while Wembley was out of commission, the only stadia with greater capacity than Lansdowne Road are Old Trafford, The Emirates, and St James Park, and the Emirates was only built this year.

Internationals have been held in smaller grounds like Anfield and I believe Nottingham.

50,000 is fine for most matches. And in the fullness of time, as long as we stop fighting last year's wars, i;m sure the GAA will accede to the occasional big rugby/soccer match being played at Croker.

If we're all nice to each other.

daveirl

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daveirl

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Hippo

And no d in the middle

daveirl

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Hippo

And one p in redeveloped! I promise to start taking the tablets.

Snickers Man

Phuqqing pedants!

Diamondmaker

daveirl wrote:

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agreed also...
The IRFU will not be selling out LSDRd at some point in the future life cycle of the stadium. Its not commercially viable to build and operate an 80 thousand capacity place assuming that todays level of interest in rugby will contiune over the 30-50 yr commercial life cyle of such a project.

Irish people alos have a great ability to over extend when it comes to property at the mo too and it is sound sense not to do this by IRFU and FAI!

and who the hell want to designate drive to the match and endure tarffic chaos out to where ever for the privelallge.
Yeah it will be easier to get tickets! but thats cos less would go and away fans travel less too!!

buck65

Goes to show how sports mad this country is, the Irish team would sell out Croke Park for all their 6 nation games and probably their Autumn tests too (assuming its a decent side) for the next few years , the Irish soccer team will sell it out tomorrow and wed nite, and it will be filled or nearly filled 4 or 5 times guring the GAA season not to mention the 50000 people that will watch the Munter finals, 30000 the Connaght final and all the Gaa crowds in between.
Don't even get me started about the cricket.

daveirl

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jackbhoy

I'd say the people of Ringsend will be delighted with having their area described as "an industrial wasteland"

I love the current location but Glass Bottle site might've been a viable alternative given that you could increase capacity by 30k, having no restrictions on design/size etc and could be done for less cost than redeveloping (taking into account huge price could sell LR for). Its still easy walking distance from Lansdowne.......Personally, I don't care where it is as long as I can still get hold of a ticket!

tba

jackbhoy wrote:

I'd say the people of Ringsend will be delighted with having their area described as "an industrial wasteland"

I love the current location but Glass Bottle site might've been a viable alternative given that you could increase capacity by 30k, having no restrictions on design/size etc and could be done for less cost than redeveloping (taking into account huge price could sell LR for). Its still easy walking distance from Lansdowne.......Personally, I don't care where it is as long as I can still get hold of a ticket!

Exactly, but the LRSDC are not developers and can't see beyond the concept of "Lansdowne" or the potential of the glassworks site. The glassworks site was a far superior site in all respects and studies had been shown to the LRSDC in this regard.

Heres a Google earth location for those interested.

Diamondmaker

jackbhoy wrote:

I'd say the people of Ringsend will be delighted with having their area described as "an industrial wasteland"

I love the current location but Glass Bottle site might've been a viable alternative given that you could increase capacity by 30k, having no restrictions on design/size etc and could be done for less cost than redeveloping (taking into account huge price could sell LR for). Its still easy walking distance from Lansdowne.......Personally, I don't care where it is as long as I can still get hold of a ticket!

I think the ind waste land actually refers to abbots town. Atrea ut past blanch in the back woods with all the heavey ind estates. The bottleworks was ruled out of contention for many reasons not least the fact that it sold for a record price to McNamara for residential development. No way IRFU/FAI were paying the money ot required.

Diamondmaker

tba wrote:

Exactly, but the LRSDC are not developers and can't see beyond the concept of "Lansdowne" or the potential of the glassworks site. The glassworks site was a far superior site in all respects and studies had been shown to the LRSDC in this regard.

Heres a Google earth location for those interested.

You are not a developer and obviously dont understand the cost of acquiring the bottle works ( as I said one of the most expensive sites ever / ha in oreland ) over using an existing site or a site in Blanch.

Explain to me how this one works? Irish Glass Bottle site on 25 acres on the Poolbeg peninsula in Ringsend, Dublin 4, which has sold for a record €412 million ...
buy the most expensive site ever in irish history and make that commercially work even taking into account selling off of Lansdowne site to a developer.

jackbhoy

Diamondmaker wrote:

You are not a developer and obviously dont understand the cost of acquiring the bottle works ( as I said one of the most expensive sites ever / ha in oreland ) over using an existing site or a site in Blanch.

Explain to me how this one works? Irish Glass Bottle site on 25 acres on the Poolbeg peninsula in Ringsend, Dublin 4, which has sold for a record €412 million ...
buy the most expensive site ever in irish history and make that commercially work even taking into account selling off of Lansdowne site to a developer.

I'd imagine, given the prices paid for Berkeley Court&Jurys(€380m for < 7 acres)/AIB (€350m+ for very small site)/Veterinary College (€171m for 2 acres) , are all relatively small sites, LR would be worth more than Glass Bottle site???

tba

LDR has 15 acres It would not have fetched as much as the glassworks, which I think everybody can agree was a bit high. Although there was a chance to buy it at an earlier stage for less, they would have still turned out more in the red but that could have been offset with the increased capacity, which in the end is a unknown quantity.

And for the record I'm glad I'm not a developer (except for the money)

jackbhoy

tba wrote:

LDR has 15 acres It would not have fetched as much as the glassworks

Thats about equal to amount of land of Jurys/Berkeley Court/Vet College & AIB put together, their combined sales are close to €1bn, I think LR would very easily reach €500m, especially as its one landbank and developemnt potential is better than other sites......

daveirl

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tba

Prehaps you should move the thread, it was never about rugby.

Sangre

Tbh you can't think in terms of what the biggest games would fill, you have to think what the average one will fill. 6N games are 2/3 times are year. For the rest of the year its Leinster and other HC fixtures, along with the SCT semis and final. They'd look stupid in 80k, remove all atmosphere and also be a huge financial loss.

Diamondmaker

Sangre wrote:

Tbh you can't think in terms of what the biggest games would fill, you have to think what the average one will fill. 6N games are 2/3 times are year. For the rest of the year its Leinster and other HC fixtures, along with the SCT semis and final. They'd look stupid in 80k, remove all atmosphere and also be a huge financial loss.

Too right, what the hell would we do with 40k spare seats 95% of the time the ground is open.

There is no commercial sene in it and atmosphere wise too we woiuld all suffer most of the time.

The extra revenue from occasional 80k capacity (6/7 times?) a year will not compensate commercially for the huge operating cost extra over on EVERY event regardless of attendance nor will it compensate for a huge increase in the upfront capital cost.

I think all the back of a fag acket developers on here eed to assume that the consortium hsa crunched the numbers in a litle more detail and that the exisitng capacity is the most viable for many reasons.

tHE vAGGABOND

get involved with a rugby club and you will get tickets..

[maybe not for every single game, but a fair selection of them!]

K-9

I think the Tribune ran a story that there was rumours of a swap for the Irish glass site with LR with €50 Ml for the IRFU to take the site. Probably reflecting the higher value of LR than Irish glass despite the smaller size.

The €50 Ml. would have gone a long way in meeting the financial contribution of the IRFU towards the new stadium though planning would probably delay or end the stadium itself.