How can the Aviva Stadium improve its atmosphere?

Caelan Doris, Ireland’s captain for the Italy test suggested designated sections for students or younger people where they could have “a few more pints”.

Fri, 16 Feb, 2024 - 07:15

Maurice Brosnan

We’ve been here before. It has been this way since the beginning. The Aviva Stadium didn’t start with a bang. It was welcomed with a disgruntled murmur, the new glass and steel home almost designed as an act of dilution.

“Rows of empty seats greeted the teams at kick-off, a result of the ticketing fiasco that forced to Irish Rugby Football Union to issue an apology on Monday,” reported RTÉ of Ireland’s 2010 Lansdowne Road homecoming defeat against South Africa. The first international event at the ground was far from a sell-out. It began to curdle in the buildup and was positively sour by half-time in what was a fourth successive Test defeat.

“Even fewer were present for the second half with many spectators failing to return to their seats after the interval.”

Initially, tickets were offered as packages for all four matches. It was a feckless ask in a difficult economy. A stadium of uncompromising modernism was always liable to feel soulless without a well-thought-out strategy. The first time a link was forged with the crowd was in 2013, when an intoxicating New Zealand lured natives in and left them heartbroken. Visceral noise exploded after the Haka, a pre-match gift in getting supporters to their seats well before kick-off. It remained thunderous throughout.

What is the most important factor for a good atmosphere? The main contributor to a rollicking ground is the quality of fare in front of it. Simple. That should be blindingly obvious, but in a week where the debate has remerged because of a dull atmosphere at a fixture that featured a team who haven’t beaten Ireland in Dublin since 1997, it is worth stressing. Fire does not light in a vacuum. It requires the right conditions and fuel. 18-time Wooden Spoon collectors Italy are not it.

Every other issue raised over the past decade, ticket prices, the sale of alcohol, the soundtrack, kick-off times, is conquerable if the match is good against competitive opposition. Playing The Cranberries to celebrate every try is squirm-inducing but it is still not as big a dampener as the fact Ireland ran in six of them unanswered.

You can’t beat cause for genuine exactment. The mood in Bordeaux last September was exhilarating even though Andy Farrell’s outfit were kicking off their World Cup campaign against Tier 2 Romania. 40,000 Irish supporters faced sweltering bus and trains to get to the ground. Stewarding issues resulted in significant tailbacks outside. They still turned up and made themselves heard. That was because it wasn’t so much about the following two hours as it was the subsequent two months. A likeable team were starting out on an ambitious journey. Even at basecamp, supporters had justifiable cause to set their sights on the summit.

Convoluted theories or calls to arms won’t disguise from that inescapable reality of sport. The fan experience is a testament to Mayo Angelou’s summation of people. The thing they will remember most is how you made them feel. All that endures is the fanatical moments, that is how the game is remembered.

None of this is to say that all the other stuff doesn’t matter. Sparks will ignite quicker in a conducive environment. More accessible tickets at an affordable price aren’t a necessity for a good atmosphere but it would help. The answer lies within.

This week Caelan Doris, Ireland’s captain for the Italy test, was asked for his two cents on the crowd engagement. He suggested designated sections for students or younger people where they could have “a few more pints” while acknowledging the frustration that comes with fans getting up and down during a game.

It was a reasonable answer to a tricky question. Players are as equipped to evaluate the fans’ matchday experience as fans are to evaluate the players own process on the day. Next week, what exactly does Joe Soap think about the efficiency of Ireland’s warm-up?

Engage that camp, even more than they have done recently. We already know how attendees feel about the sale of alcohol at the Aviva Stadium because the IRFU, through Opinions Market Research Limited, conducted a survey and published results last year. 774 supporters over the age of 18 were surveyed. 68% said they would not support a ban on alcohol in the seating areas of the stadium. 25% said people getting up and coming back with drinks during games greatly diminishes their experience.

Some important caveats: This was not a survey of supporters as a whole. It was conducted by entry and exit interviews during two of the 2022 Autumn Nations Series games. 43% were seated in corporate or premium areas. The demographics of Irish crowds at home rugby internationals aren’t always representative of Irish rugby fans.

At the same time, the bottom line is the bottom line. For any commercial organisation, it is significantly more important that patrons are there even if it doesn’t always sound like it. The tension is not only between being able to access drinks enhancing one person’s experience and people getting up and down diminishing another’s. There is also the matter of maximising gate receipts mixed with the inevitable downside of pricing out a certain cohort. Rugby’s roots are deep in parts of the country and spreading elsewhere. Regular match goers, daytrippers, club members, attendees based in the capital and those travelling from outside of it, newcomers, diehards, those who put provisional teams before the national one, this is a broad church.

Fans have made their feelings known in the past. They are best placed to assess any obstacles getting to games, the atmosphere and how to improve it. The solution should start from that simple place. Listen.