American football coming to Ireland in 2012

goreyguy

Notre Dame versus Navy in Croker.

Can't wait to be honest.

TITAN #1

If only this were true.:eek:

Chardee MacDennis

They did this before, why wouldn't it be true?

Black Swan

The Fighting Irish will sink Navy.

mikemac

Gonna be a sell out for sure.

Also, I remember talk of Dan Rooney bringing over the Steelers but must have been that, just talk.
Would have been great to see though

iMax

Oh man, I wanna go to that !!

kensutz

That was announced a couple of years ago that it will take place in Croker. I'm looking forward to it.

cheesehead

Interesting history regarding Notre Dame/Navy football games.

Consider the following:

Despite the one-sided result the last few decades, most Notre Dame and Navy fans consider the series a sacred tradition for historical reasons. Notre Dame, like many colleges, faced severe financial difficulties during World War II. The US Navy made Notre Dame a training center and paid enough for usage of the facilities, with federal tax money, to keep the University afloat. Notre Dame has since extended an open invitation for Navy to play the Irish in football and considers the game annual repayment on a debt of honor. The series is marked by mutual respect, as evidenced by each team standing at attention during the playing of the other's alma mater after the game, a tradition that started in 2005. Navy's athletic director, on renewing the series through 2016, remarked "...it is of great interest to our collective national audience of Irish fans, Naval Academy alumni, and the Navy family at large." The series is scheduled to continue indefinitely; renewals are a mere formality".

While many college football fans criticize Notre Dame for playing Navy every year (despite Navy winning 2 of the last 3 years), Notre Dame will play Navy as long as Navy wants to play the game.

Consider the following a public service in helping you lads learn the Notre Dame fight song in preparation for the 2012 Croke Park encounter:

TITAN #1

Sorry to piss on your camp fire but this game has not been officially announced and just because this game took place in Croker in 96, doesn't mean it will return there......even if it is announced.
Croker was less than half full in 96.
Steelers in 97 wasnt much better.

This game has been on the ND unofficial site for nearly 3 years now.

Who knows?

Syferus

feelingstressed wrote: »

Gonna be a sell out for sure.

Also, I remember talk of Dan Rooney bringing over the Steelers but must have been that, just talk.
Would have been great to see though

Because while Dublin, Tyrone, Kerry and Down on the same card can't fill three quarters of Croker on the most action-packed weekend in the GAA calander two american football college teams that almost not Irish people will even remember - let alone know anyone on the team - will do the job?

If it does happen -which is still up in the air - it is more likely than the Steelers making an appearence in the near-term and I'm sure they'd be happy if they managed to match the 1996 match's 40,000 attendence.

tallaghtoutlaws

They announced it to be in Dublin because they want it to be held here. ND officials and NCAA officials have looked at both Croker and Lansdowne(Aviva) as viable stadiums and they have toured both.

But as Titans has said nothing has been set in stone. Dublin hasn't been announced as the official venue for the game yet even if it is on their schedule. Fingers crossed they make it official.

tallaghtoutlaws

Syferus wrote: »

Because while Dublin, Tyrone, Kerry and Down on the same card can't fill three quarters of Croker on the most action-packed weekend in the GAA calander twoamerican football college teams that almost all Irish people will hbarely even remember from over a decade and a hlaf again - let alone know anyone on the team - will do the job?

If it does happen, which is still up in the air, but more likely than the Steelers making an appearance in the near-term, I'm sure they'd be happy if they managed to make the 1996 match's 40,000 attendence.

The NCAA officials looked at Landowne as well as Croker for the reasons above also. Smaller Stadium gives the impression of being full when you get a decent capacity. Croker will look empty if they only get 40k in it.

mikemac

Ah I can't predict the attendance
And far too young to remember 1996 :cool:

Posting it would be a sellout was just me getting over excited, sorry so

TITAN #1

Posting it would be a sellout was just me getting over excited, sorry so

Excited is good but a little foundation on fact would help.




Check 11/12 pages of exited that came to nothing.

http://forum.nfluk.com/showthread.php?t=67439

cheesehead

As stated above, this game has been listed on official ND websites for quite some time as "tentative".

That said, Anthony Travel (ND's official travel partner - the owners are ND grads) - have been advertising and taking deposits for a 2012 ND-Navy travel package to Dublin. As tallaght says : let's make it official! I can't imagine this game will get any where near selling out Croke Park (it brought in about 40,000 in 1996/ about 10,000 of whom travelled over from the States). I think the Irish tourist board is more interested in the 10,000 travelling over.

We all know ND has been down these last 15 years, but if Brian Kelly can turn this thing around, 2012 could be shaping up as a very good year for ND football. (If Kelly's still there in 2012) it will be his third year, the players third year in his system and he has some good talent in the pipeline. Who knows, you might get to see a team making a BCS championship run if luck is with us.

If the game goes off, maybe we can hold a little Boards.ie American Football forum tailgater. We can meet at The Players Lounge (recent events notwithstanding) pregame and ask Mrs. Stokes to temporarily take down one of the beloved Dublin jerseys and replace it with an ND #3 Joe Montana jersey! Then, of course, you would all need to sing a rousing rendition of the ND Fight Song.

gerire

There is no way it'll sell out. In 96 and 97 there was only one complete stand, the cusack, and the rest was the old stadium, both terraces were closed and it was still rather empty. Put that into a stadium that is now twice the size, we would all be lost.

Look at Wembly every year 2 NFL teams come over for a regular season game and outside the stadium for all of them it has been simple to get tickets and thats for a regular season NFL game.

I'm GAA head but would rather it in Lansdown road then we may get nearer to a full house and a better atmosphere. Either way I'll be there

Syferus

gerire wrote: »

There is no way it'll sell out. In 96 and 97 there was only one complete stand, the cusack, and the rest was the old stadium, both terraces were closed and it was still rather empty. Put that into a stadium that is now twice the size, we would all be lost.

Look at Wembly every year 2 NFL teams come over for a regular season game and outside the stadium for all of them it has been simple to get tickets and thats for a regular season NFL game.

I'm GAA head but would rather it in Lansdown road then we may get nearer to a full house and a better atmosphere. Either way I'll be there

I'd agree with the ida that Lansdowne is a more suitable location, although I was at a match in Croke Park where the overall attendence was 42,000 over two matches (so there was less than that at any given time) and the atmosphere was electric. I think the issue here would be the fact it's american football - it just won't illict the same passion from the average spectator because they're not particularly attached to the teams playing.

raddo

I feel that they would prefer Croker for the fact that there will be plenty of room at both sides of the pitch for all the coaching staff, players etc.
Aviva being a soccer/rugby pitch is already close to an American Football size pitch and there isn't much room either side at all.

Syferus

raddo wrote: »

I feel that they would prefer Croker for the fact that there will be plenty of room at both sides of the pitch for all the coaching staff, players etc.
Aviva being a soccer/rugby pitch is already close to an American Football size pitch and there isn't much room either side at all.

There's actually a pretty huge sideline on the camera side of the pitch so I don't think it'd take much more than realligning the playing area to make it work.

tallaghtoutlaws

Syferus wrote: »

There's actually a pretty huge sideline on the camera side of the pitch so I don't think it'd take much more than realligning the playing area to make it work.

At worst ND and Navy can share the Sideline like the Emerald Bowl(Kraft Hunger Bowl) during the Bowl Series in the NCAA. Played at AT&T Park both teams share a sideline and have done for the last 7 years. And that bowl isn't alone it College teams have shared sidelines in various other stadiums.

TITAN #1

There is plenty of room at AVIVA for sidelines.
American Football field id 160 ft wide.
There was loads of room at Tallaght Stadium for sidelines, actually the field was too wide.

tallaghtoutlaws

TITAN #1 wrote: »

There is plenty of room at AVIVA for sidelines.
American Football field id 160 ft wide.
There was loads of room at Tallaght Stadium for sidelines, actually the field was too wide.

Very true the Pitch at Lansdowne Road (Aviva) is 223 foot wide. Plenty of room for the pitch and Sidelines.

raddo

Fair enough, I stand corrected!!