FAI and IRFU chiefs quizzed on Aviva deal in Leinster House

By Brendan O’Brien - Thursday, November 05, 2009

THE FAI and IRFU were yesterday forced to defend their agreement with Aviva that ties them to an exclusive playing deal at the redeveloped Lansdowne Road for 10 years and rules out the prospect of any games at Croke Park.

The Ballsbridge venue will be open for business in the middle of next year and, though it’s unveiling is eagerly awaited, the Aviva Stadium will cater for approximately 30,000 spectators less than the GAA’s headquarters.

Philip Browne, chief executive of the IRFU, and his FAI counterpart, John Delaney, were pressed on that issue by a cross-party selection of politicians at an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs yesterday.

"The Aviva Stadium will be a different type of stadium to Croke Park but I just feel that an opportunity has been missed in terms of sharing facilities, for instance when there is a big Ireland-England game in Dublin," said Deputy John O’Mahony, the current Mayo football manager. "The maximum amount of fans should be accommodated and tickets for those big games in the Aviva Stadium will be as hard to come by as for a World Cup final."

O’Mahony’s sentiments were shared by Deputy Mary Upton, Deputy Michael Kennedy, Senator Jerry Buttimer and committee chairman Deputy Tom Kitt, the last of whom raised the matter on three separate occasions.

Deputy Michael Kennedy suggested that a compensation package could even be worked out for the commercial partners on board at the new Aviva Stadium, one which would allow selected games to be switched to Croke Park.

Describing the issue as an "economic matter", Deputy Kitt pointed out that a one-off match like last May’s Heineken Cup semi-final between Leinster and Munster was "bound to happen" again in the future.

"The more people we can bring into the city for these major games the better," he pointed out.

"I have seen it in places like Boston Berlin, the amount of visitors who come for these big sporting events."

Browne had earlier pointed out that the Ireland-England Six Nations game held at Croke Park in 2007 had raised €83m for the local economy.

Deputy Kitt subsequently pointed out that such a figure would hardly be replicated by a game at the new, lower-capacity venue.

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