Leinster chief hopes to buck attendance trend and fill Aviva

LEINSTER chief executive Mick Dawson is confident the province can buck the trend of falling attendances at sporting events when Joe Schmidt’s side take to the Aviva Stadium.

It was announced yesterday that the 2009 Heineken Cup champions will face Munster at the new venue in a Magners League game on October 2 and they will return to the Lansdowne Road site on December 18 for a European tie against Clermont Auvergne. The venue has failed to attract capacity attendances for ties involving Man United and Argentina while empty seats have been even more conspicuous across the city at Croke Park.

It remains to be seen if those trends transfer to rugby this season but it would be a surprise if the ground was not sold out for the Munster game as capacities at the RDS and Thomond Park stretched to the limit in recent years. Over 27,000 saw the rivals meet in the Magners League in the old Lansdowne Road in the 2006/07 season and 47,000 took in their Heineken Cup clash there the season before.