Lansdowne Road

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Lansdowne Road Bóthar Lansdún

Facility Statistics
Location	Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland
Opened	1872
Renovation (estimated start, completion)	2007–2009
Surface	Grass
Owner	Irish Rugby Football Union
Estimated Reconstruction Cost	€ 365 million
Architects (reconstruction)	HOK Sport
Engineers (reconstruction)	Buro Happold
Main users
Ireland (rugby) Republic of Ireland (soccer)	IRFU FAI
Capacity
Total Seated	49,000 36,000

A DART train passes under the Lansdowne Road Rugby Football Stadium and over the level crossing as it enters the station of the same name.

Lansdowne Road (Bóthar Lansdún in Irish) a sports stadium located in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and is used mostly for rugby, but also for association football internationals and cup finals and for concerts. It is the oldest international rugby venue still in use.

1 Location
2 History
3 Uses
4 Renovation
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Location

Lansdowne Road Stadium is situated in the neighbourhood of Ballsbridge in the city's Dublin 4 area. It crosses the River Dodder and is in proximity to many Victorian redbrick houses. The bridge is Herbert Bridge and connects with the junction of Herbert Road and Newbridge Avenue.

The stadium has convenient public transport links as the Lansdowne Road station of the Dublin Area Rapid Transit rail system is adjacent to the stadium and passes directly underneath the West Stand.

The stadium is named after the nearby road, which in turn is named after the Marquess of Lansdowne. Lansdowne is an area in the English county of Somerset. The Marquis was also the Earl of Shelburne, and nearby Shelbourne Road is also named after him.

[edit] History

The Lansdowne Road Stadium was the brainchild of Henry Wallace Dunlop, the organiser of the first All Ireland Athletics Championships. The facility opened for athletics in 1872, and also accommodated cricket, croquet, soccer, archery and lawn tennis.

Dunlop founded Lansdowne Football Club in 1872 and that club has played rugby ever since at the grounds, being one of the most prominent and successful rugby clubs in Leinster and Ireland. Wanderers Football Club,founded in 1869, joined Lansdowne at the grounds later. The two clubs have been tenants since that time.

Rugby gradually became the main use of the grounds: the first rugby match was an inter provincial fixture between Leinster and Munster in December 1876, and in 1878 Lansdowne Road hosted its first international rugby fixture, making it the world's oldest rugby union Test venue. The IRFU acquired the ground in 1904, and built the first stand in 1908.

The first international football match took place between Ireland and England in 1900, when the Belfast based Irish Football Association controlled that game throughout the island. In 1926, the Irish Free State played an international game against Italy at Lansdowne Road and this was to be the last soccer game at the stadium until Waterford played Manchester United in a European Cup tie in September, 1968.

The day after the United Kingdom declared war in August, 1914, hundreds of rugby players, many working in banks and insurance companies, assembled on the ground and decided to join the Royal Dublin Fusiliers as a "pals" batallion. A memorial to the IRFU members who died in the Great War was erected on the inside of the external wall of the stadium later. It is to be preserved in any rebuilding by condition of the planning permission.

After the First World War, the members of Lansdowne and Wanderers reclaimed land from the nearby Dodder river and created enough ground for two back pitches to be formed, enabling the main pitch to be turned out around to the configuration used ever since.

In 1927, the old East Stand was built and a terrace created under it. Unfortunately, the roof of the stand was not erected in time for the first match against Scotland. The day of the match saw torrential rain and the match was remembered for the appalling conditions.

Lansdowne Lawn Tennis Club was a tenant at the grounds and had grass tennis courts where the South Terrace was later located. During international rugby matches, the tennis courts were covered over to allow spectators stand and watch the rugby matches. In 1930, Lansdowne LTC left the ground to move across the Dodder river to Londonbridge Road, taking the turf from the tennis courts with them.

The IRFU, which has its offices within the stadium complex, allowed occasional other uses of the ground, including athletics (a crowd of 40,000 witnessed Olympic gold medalist Ronnie Delany run there in an international athletics meeting in the 1950s).

In 1954, the arrangement whereby Ireland matches were shared between Ravenhill and Lansdowne Road ended with the building of the Upper West Stand at Lansdowne creating 8,000 additional seats. In future, all Ireland internationals were to be played at Lansdowne Road.

In 1977, the old West Lower Stand was demolished and the new West Lower Stand opened in 1978. The uncovered stand at the corner of the North Terrace was demolished and terracing extended. Lansdowne FC moved their clubhouse from under that stand to a new clubhouse within the grounds, near Herbert Bridge, beside the Dodder. The mock-Tudor tearooms of Lansdowne FC reverted to the IRFU.

The East Stand replaced the Old East Stand in 1983, being financed by the sale of ten year tickets. In October 2005, a small fire in the north terrace put the terrace out of commission for all of Ireland's Autumn internationals. This meant that people who had travelled from as far away as Australia and New Zealand could not attend the match. The terrace reopened for the first game of the 2006 Six Nations Championship.

From 1971, and exclusively from 1990 to 2006, the ground was used by the Football Association of Ireland for international matches. It was primarily to allow midweek international soccer matches to take place in the evening that floodlights were installed in the mid 1990s.

The grounds have also occasionally been used for music concerts by artists including U2, The Eagles, Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Corrs.

[edit] Uses

The stadium has a total capacity of 49,250. However, competitive international soccer matches could not use the entire capacity because the stands at both ends of the ground (North and South) are standing-only terraces. FIFA and UEFA both mandate that international matches be played in all-seated venues. The International Rugby Board does not impose this restriction on international rugby venues. For non-competitive international soccer matches (friendly matches), the FIFA/UEFA all-seated mandate does not apply.

At the IRFU ground, Irish rugby and soccer international matches are played. Leinster have also used the ground on a number of occasions when crowd size has meant their traditional home of Donnybrook is not large enough. In 1999 and 2003 Lansdowne Road played host to the Heineken Cup final. Since 1990, Lansdowne has also hosted the FAI Cup Final.

[edit] Renovation

The stadium is set to be redeveloped by 2009 creating a 50,000 all-seater soccer and rugby stadium. The redevelopment of the stadium was finally announced in January 2004 at a cost of approximately €365 million; of this, €190 million will come from the Irish government, with the remainder paid by the IRFU and Football Association of Ireland. The new stadium is designed by HOK SVE architects and Buro Happold engineers, with ME Engineers providing the building services design.

The last international rugby match before renovation was a 61-17 Ireland win over the Pacific Islanders on 26 November 2006, and the last match for some years at the ground will be between Leinster and Ulster on 31 December 2006. The final soccer international was a 5-0 win for the Republic of Ireland over San Marino on 15 November 2006. The last soccer game ever before redevelopment was Derry City's FAI Cup final win against St. Patrick's Athletic on 3 December 2006.^[1]

It has been decided that soccer and rugby games will be played in the 82,500-capacity Croke Park while Lansdowne Road is redeveloped. Croke Park is owned by the Gaelic Athletic Association, whose constitution until recently did not allow foreign games to be played on their grounds. In 2006, it was announced that Croke Park would stage two rugby internationals and three soccer internationals in 2007.

In September 2006, Lars-Christer Olsson, CEO of UEFA, hinted^[2] that Lansdowne Road would stage the UEFA Cup Final in 2010.