A year from now...

IT’S going to take a bit of time before we’re comfortable with the Aviva roar, but we might as well get used to it.

In exactly 12 months, on August 11, 2010, the Republic of Ireland will face Diego Maradona’s Argentina in the first soccer international at Aviva Stadium, on what was once Lansdowne Road.

The new home of Irish rugby and soccer is fast approaching completion after a long wait and an eventful stint lodging at Croke Park. In between, there’s been major management upheavals in both sporting codes; not to mention a change of Taoiseach and a national and global economic slump.

There’s also been a strike which affected electricians and tradesmen at the stadium, but the project has ploughed on relentlessly.

“The stadium is on track to be complete for April,” says Bill Enright, operations manager at the €410 million project. “It’s on budget and on schedule.”

And it should be quite a sight. The 50,000-capacity venue, with its distinctive stands which will slalom from a height of 40 metres right down to 15 metres, is a far cry from the beloved old lady on Lansdowne Road, which was starting to show her ripe age.

In her place, Aviva Stadium (the insurance group has a 10-year naming rights deal on the ground, believed to worth more than €40m) is one for the future.

Aviva Stadium is taking its lead from north London, says Enright.

“The nearest stadium to it is the Emirates Stadium at Arsenal. It has the same curvilinear roof, it’s the same architect was involved. We’ve developed a very good relationship with the Emirates and Arsenal, we’ve been over there a number of times and their stadium manager, John Beattie, has been over here, advising us on different issues, how they run things on an operational basis, for example stewarding.”

With the Emirates renowned for its fine pitch, hopefully there shouldn’t be any surface tension, either. “The pitch is grown from seed and will be seeded hopefully on St Patrick’s Day. That’s the traditional kick-off of the gardening season, and so it should be perfect, all going well, next August,” says Enright. “Also because it’s from seed, it shouldn’t need to be relaid.”

The influences from London may not end there either. In fact there are plans being considered for an invitational soccer mini-tournament at Aviva Stadium, run loosely along the lines of the successful Emirates Cup in London. This would see four top European sides playing in competition during the summer months.

Players will be better looked after too, naturally. As well as being larger, the dressing rooms will include hydrotherapy suites for tired bodies. For teams planning to ‘park the bus’, an underground road will lead right to the dressing rooms.

There will be two big screens, one at the North End, the other raised high in what was formally the South Terrace, incorporated into the roof structure itself.

Conferences and meetings are a big part of the project, and for real die-hard fans, “weddings are definitely a possibility,” says Enright.

Away from matches, Aviva Stadium has permission to hold three major concerts per year.

In testing economic times, the stadium is predicted to bring revenue of €250m to Dublin.

“On a match day you’ll have about 2,500 people working here, between catering and security staff,” says Enright. The stadium is also trying to push a healthy image. “We’re actively considering that we would have a smoking ban on match day. Once you come through the turnstile, there would be a total ban on smoking,” says Enright. As part of this, it could also mean that once you are in the stadium, you are there for the duration of your event - this means the half-time cigarette routine will be stubbed out completely. If you’re out, you’ll stay out.

“An increasing number of stadia are applying that policy - the Emirates, Old Trafford - and it works well.”

For the boys in green, a number of green initiatives have been included in the project. All of the cement is constructed from a by-product of blast furnacing, so its carbon footprint is much lower than regular cement. Rain water hitting the stands will be ‘harvested’, stored and used to water the pitch.

Aviva Stadium has already secured the 2011 Europa League final (previously the UEFA Cup), while it is already actively seeking to host a future Heineken Cup final. And so to satisfy UEFA Elite stadium demands, a number of standards have needed to be met.

There are four separate tv studios; a press tribune to cater for 200 journalists, purpose-built press conference room for those post-match grillings; enhanced facilities for the disabled and a specialised event control room nerve centre for stadium security and gardaí.

Little of the old Lansdowne Road will remain, although the old Lansdowne rugby clubhouse is being retained.

Some of the problems associated with the old Lansdowne should also be a thing of the past.

An underpass has been built beneath the DART line, so fans will still be able to pour out of the ground when the level crossing gates are closed.

Stadium director Martin Murphy has declared Aviva will be a “world-class stadium for the future”. Now that just needs to be matched on the pitch.