The new Aviva Stadium at Lansdowne Road
The new Lansdowne Road, now called the Aviva Stadium, was officially launched recently with the first rugby game there since 2006. A Leinster/Ulster team beat the Connacht/Munster side 68-0. This clip tells you more about the historic ground’s reconstruction, as well as shows a few highlights from the one sided game. The stadium is built on the site of the old Lansdowne Road in Dublin at a cost of €400m and will seat 50 000 at capacity. It will be used for both rugby and football, with the first rugby international set to take place between Ireland and the Springboks on November 6th this year.
The first ever Test was played there in 1878, and while the pitch is the same, the stadium itself is a far cry from the old ground, despite the seating capacity being fairly average for an international stadium.
A little over 35 000 turned out to watch the first ever rugby game to be held in the spectacular new stadium, a match that featured under-20 players comprising the two mixed sides. Only 10 of the 44 players that were on show are contracted to provincial academies, so it was very much an occasion for the future of Irish rugby.
The Leinster/Ulster team were way too strong as they ran out convincing winners.
Time: 04:45
Note: Thanks to Total Rugby
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posted by GMC at
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31 Comments:
First!!! yipeeee
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 12:24 pm
They messed up big time with the design. At one of the ends it's difficult for the kicker to make out the posts with all the glass and poles in the background.
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 12:46 pm
I'm sure the kicker will be able to work out where the are
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 1:30 pm
I'm pretty sure that the try in the clip at 3:38 should have been disallowed. Good build up play but the blond guy definitely dropped the ball as he put it down!
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 1:36 pm
I would agree, it did look like he droped it, should of gone to tmo to be sure.
wh
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 1:57 pm
will never call it aviva stadium. landsdowne road is just too sweet...
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 2:14 pm
magic looking stadium - hope the bogs are better than the old place!
By
NiWiTa, at August 12, 2010 2:32 pm
Looks cheap and nasty, and strange how the one end is diff to the other.
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 3:17 pm
Sorry. Looks like shit to me. As an artist I don't see the appeal.
It's about as creative and innovative as an Ikea couch.
Another piece of shit that's clearly the product of a boardroom. You know what they say, 'A camel is a horse designed by committee' and all that
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 4:13 pm
A camel is a beautiful, rugged animal able to survive the most death defying conditions.
How dare you.
By
Canadian Content, at August 12, 2010 5:22 pm
Jesus wept, whats with all the haters? Its one of the greenest stadiums in the world - the recycled as much of the old ground as they could
Butthertits
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 5:39 pm
"As an artist..." - all time classic intro to a post on a rugby stadium. As a Christian, I laughed my socks off.
It looks interesting - I'll reserve judgement on in until I see a game there.
By
Gavin, at August 12, 2010 8:31 pm
Looks pretty good but why such a small capacity?!! They said they were re doing it to cope with the modern games demands, and clearly the most relevant demand is a need for a bigger capacity. Club matches around the world attract bigger crowds than that can hold.
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 8:40 pm
I agree that they could have gone with an extra 15 thousand easily!! if they can fill croke park easily, why nor build the new stadium at least as big as that!! and whats the deal with irish stadia having one end smaller than the other one??!!
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 9:26 pm
They had to build on the old site. The site has barriers on all sides. A train line on one a canal on the other and listed houses on the end that is all glass(North End). They stadium is very close to the city centre (About 2km) and they wanted to keep that rather then build a giant stadium outside the city. It has been rated an elite stadium from UEFA and the sound of the crowd is amazing. It feels very cosy inside.
View from above,
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=dublin&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=56.375007,135.263672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Dublin,+County+Fingal,+Ireland&ll=53.334909,-6.229194&spn=0.00526,0.016512&t=h&z=17
By
Anonymous, at August 12, 2010 11:56 pm
AVIVA stadium? No thank you. Landsdowne will always be its name.
By
freddy, at August 13, 2010 12:18 am
Quite impressive from my experience at it. Looks like it'll have great atmosphere which was desperately laking in most matches in Croke Park. Pitch is class, great surface. The limited capacity is a shame but its still good to have another world class stadium in Ireland. Built within its budget and on-time too so cant complain
By
MCB, at August 13, 2010 1:07 am
Awesome stadium.. but the 50k capacity is a shame!
P.S: some good looking irish girls out there!
By
Juggernauter, at August 13, 2010 4:44 am
Nice looking stadium, although it might looky tacky in 20 years time - hope it doesn't age badly. Interesting that they have "embraced" the swirl.
I hate companies who name stadiums after themselves. They can atleast call it Aviva Landsdowne Road.
By
Wolfman21, at August 13, 2010 4:57 am
"and did I mention it is the oldest International ground in world rugby".
Yes you did Syd. LOL
By
Old7, at August 13, 2010 1:01 pm
Was at the game I sat in the north end and it was brilliant! Unusual for a new stadium, the lower end makes it stand out from other boring new stadiums, it's certainly kept the atmosphere of the old stadium :) I think the first test at it will be incredible noise! 35000 at what was basically a school boy match is a decent turn out, couple of fella's look like good prospects, marshall the ulster 12 i think could be ireland's long term option there, that's if his development continues but certainly he has wonderful footballing ability and is a bit of a unit as well. Going by this match there is a lack of talent coming through in the west of ireland. The leinster/ulster backlines running ability was fantastic. Yeah it'll always be lansdowne to me but the money from aviva is pretty handy lol
By
NewLansdowneAwesome!, at August 13, 2010 4:21 pm
Yeah the atmosphere even at this game topped a full croker, All the noise drains out at hill 16 from croke. Old Lansdowne was a dump empty but special when it was full.
By
Anonymous, at August 13, 2010 4:24 pm
We're great at building 3 sided stadia in Ire.
I bet the HCup final will never be played here. Why, when it has 27,000 less than Cardiff, 31,000 less than Paris and 32,000 less than Twickers. Jesus, even Murrayfield has 16,000 more.
By
Anonymous, at August 13, 2010 5:13 pm
The fans still call it Lansdowne and the press have been calling it the stadium at Lansdowne Road. Some things should not be for sale. This name is one of them.
The U shape of the seats in the stadium means that the grass will thrive with enough light. The pitch at Croke park is super for this reason. (Elsom described the Millenium stadium as mud sprayed green)
The camauflaged posts are going to be a big problem for kickers but will it give home advantage?
It's a really gorgeous stadium but it's a bit like being given back the shoes that you wore as a child. They're great but just too small.Most internationals could fill that and 30,000 more. That insurance company that contributed all of 3% to the build won't allow any international matches to be moved to Croker. It's horrible that the rugby fans have to suffer for this advertising crap.
By
Anonymous, at August 14, 2010 1:41 am
Can't understand the negative comments, I am a rational person and try to find complete logic in my working and social life. The negative comments, to me, absolutely stink of jealousy and ignorance. The jealousy from people who think that Twickenham or Murrayfield are nice stadia (yeah a nice long journey from the city the match is supposed to be played in) and the ignorance is from people who have not been in the new ground yet. It's a fantastic stadium, not even full for an u20s Rep game yet it had a good atmosphere, it's convenient in all facets, I felt so close to the pitch I was practically sitting on it, it took me 5 minutes to get to from Dublin city centre, I did not queue for food or a drink, I did not queue ever! By the way, Mark Tainton says there is no problem at all with kickers being able to see the uprights. The dumb media and the stupid apes who just repeat what they read should take that on board, or wait - have the media and you thick trolls been allowed access to the ground to practice your conversions? No, didn't think so, retards.
Ulster have some good ones at that level.
By
Doyle, at August 14, 2010 2:08 am
^^
at least they don't go around calling people apes and retards
By
Anonymous, at August 14, 2010 1:39 pm
Murrayfield is a 10min walk from Prince St. Probably less, but I've only walked it on match days when its crowded.
The simple fact is, small minded D4 idiots could've sold the land in '06 for 500m, bought land out on the M50 for beans, built a worldclass stadium rather than this overpriced kip and the fans could've benefitted hugely. Stade de France might lack the intimidation of Parc des Prince, but it is truely world class, not some designer's wet dream.
The stadium isn't just for Dubliners (who have public transport to get them there), its for the Rugby and Soccer fans of Ire.
By
Anonymous, at August 14, 2010 4:09 pm
i went to the argentina ireland soccer match last week and i was kinda impressed. the end with 10 rows reminds me of the old landsdowne road (which it should still be called by. aviva are an insurance company. doesnt suit. and there are WAY too many aviva signs in it) because the old end was shallow too. the clear plastic leaves in the sunlight too. but kickers will only have problems at daytime only tho.
but some1 told me that it looks like a bedpan tho! ha ha! it does too! but pity its only 55,000. should be atleast 70 :(
By
Anonymous, at August 15, 2010 5:25 pm
im the guy from above: no queues at all 4 burgers etc. and 5 mins from the city centre. and the closeness to the pitch makes a great atmosphere. looks different to others in a good way. twickers is class but kinda boring
By
Anonymous, at August 15, 2010 5:27 pm
Lets be honest, it looks like a toilet seat from above.
As for three sides, an irishman could probably correct me, but wasn't it due to local resident complaining so they couldn't build on that side?
By
Gareth, at August 18, 2010 4:10 pm
looks nice but too small. Looking forward to visiting in November.
also looking forward to watching rugby at the 90k seater in soweto!
By
Anonymous, at August 19, 2010 12:01 am
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