Soccer and rugby’s ground for optimism
The Minister announced the appointment of Willie Ryan as Project Director. He is an engineering graduate of UCD, holds an MBA from Trinity College and has more than 30 years Project Management experience in Ireland and overseas.
The new stadium will be a 50,000 all-seated facility with 64 corporate boxes and 8,000 premium seats. It is proposed to apply for planning permission late in 2005 and it is planned to commence construction in the second half of 2006.
“This is a landmark day for Irish sport” said the minister. “Ireland’s international rugby and soccer squads will now have a platform on which they can showcase themselves and Ireland to the world and from which they can develop and build on the progress they have already achieved.”
“An historic day for sport in Ireland,” agreed FAI president Milo Corcoran. “The FAI have worked hard over the years to secure a home for Irish football and the formal agreement that was signed today means that in a relatively short time we will at last have a home for Irish football.”
IRFU president Barry Keogh, said: “It was in February 1994 that Ronnie Dawson proposed we look at the future needs of our sport. After ten years, during which we went down many side roads, we have reached the point where the oldest international rugby stadium in the world, where we played England in 1878, has its future secured at long last.”
The legal agreement covers the establishment of a new company, the Lansdowne Road Stadium Development Company Ltd., which is responsible for the construction and management of the new stadium. The company is comprised of IRFU and FAI personnel and is chaired from its inception by IRFU chief executive Philip Browne.
“This is going to be a landmark project for Dublin City, for the country as a whole. Our business now is to translate a vision and a concept into reality,” said Mr Browne:”
Under the terms of the agreement the Government will contribute €191m towards the construction costs with the IRFU committing to providing €68m and the FAI obligated to invest €33m.
The IRFU will, of course, retain ownership of the site but the buildings that will form the new stadium will be owned in equal measure by the IRFU and the FAI. The chairmanship of the new company will rotate between the two associations every two years with Mr Browne stepping down when the project is complete.
Inevitably, there will be obstacles to be overcome and there will be a price to be paid above and beyond the financial outlay. There will undoubtedly be objections to the development from residents in the area and there will be the difficult problem of finding a venue for international matches over a two-year period.
The issue of securing a venue for international matches over a two-year period of course brought the subject of Croke Park into yesterday’s discussions. The restrictions placed on the GAA by their constitutional position was acknowledged by the IRFU and the FAI.
Said IRFU chief, Philip Browne: “We have been so involved in these negotiations that we have not yet had time to look at contingency plans. But we will have to institute discussions with our colleagues in the Six Nations’ Championship to discover what options are open to us.
“As regards the GAA, we fully recognise and understand the situation that pertains in Croke Park. That was made very clear at the last Congress and we have to work within the parameters that are laid down for us.”
FAI chief executive Fran Rooney said: “We have already made contact with the management people of the various stadia that we might have to use and we are confident we will have a solution in place in good time.
“We’ve probably four key options in mind and while we would be disappointed to have to take any fixtures abroad, we have to look at our position from a practical standpoint.
“We have very strong relationships with the GAA, I’ve played GAA myself, and we have had many informal discussions about opportunities of working together in the future. But the GAA, by its own constitution, prohibits the playing of our games so it is an irrelevant exercise to go and talk to them at this point.”
The minister said it would be very undesirable to have to take international matches outside the jurisdiction. On the question of playing at Croke Park he added: “That is a question for the GAA. We all know and understand the GAA’s situation and every avenue will have to be explored to see what alternatives are available for the 29 month period the stadium is under construction.”
The Minister said they already had talks with the GAA on the possibility of them using Lansdowne Road when it is completed. The pitch will be big enough to accommodate football and hurling matches and he believed they would use the stadium in time.
I believe the FAI have had favourable talks with the management of the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff; Old Trafford; Anfield and Parkhead in Glasgow. The IRFU have already had public expressions of support from the English and Scottish associations but everything suggests that it is to Cardiff that Ireland’s matches will go if Croke Park is not made available for rugby and soccer internationals.
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