Blog of Random Thoughts and Pictures

New Irish stadium is fantastic, the match not so fantastic

August 11th, 2010

So the first roar, the first national anthems, the first boring match for the new Landsdowne Road. This really was all about the stadium and not the match.

I was looking forward to the match between Ireland and Argentina, but this was no competitive international, this was a bore, as Argentina were pure class, and Ireland just had one tactic, to hoff the ball up front. Messi showed some flashes of magic, he was clearly head and shoulders above everyone else, with the only player showing any stature on the Ireland side was John OShea.

But enough about the game, the Stadium was just fantastic, and I could tell that the minute there was any good, cheering, singing it would reverberate around the ground very quickly, on a big match day Id say this would be awesome.

One little gripe, on important instances during the game the big screens would NOT show a replay, just a static screen with the new Irish sponsors logo on it. I know they have to do this, but still no replay, was a pain.

So heres to the new Lansdowne Road Mr. Tayto
a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/miguelpdl/4887948573/ title=Come on Mister Tayto give us a bag of crisps by miguelpdl, on Flickrimg src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/4887948573_d9c35e7855.jpg width=374 height=500 alt=Come on Mister Tayto give us a bag of crisps //a

First visit to Croke Park

May 25th, 2010

Of all the days of all the stadiums I’ve finally made it to Croke Park, but not on match day, but for another techie conference event.

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I thought there won’t be anything happening on the day, but I was wrong, there were some school matches on, with the pitch sliced into 3 sections. I must say it is an awesome stadium.

A tour around the new Landsdowne Road Aviva Stadium

May 18th, 2010

With the new Landsdowne Road Aviva Stadium officially opening up last week I took the opportunity to attend a technology conference event and then take a tour of the new stadium.

The Aviva Stadium at Landsdowne Road

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I have to say it is quite compact (I think 50,000 all seater) and on the fourth tier there was definitely a feeling of vertigo. To my surprise the tour guide allowed us to enter the IRFU presidents room (Directors Box) and we got to walk out the players tunnel onto pitch side.

On the day the stadium was a luscious green alround, but the one thing that surprised me was that the stadium really only has 3 sides which kind of reminds me of a baseball stadium, something like Wrigley Field. I wonder will they ever host a baseball match in the summer?

Anyway given the compactness of the stadium I have no doubt that the first real Landsdowne Roar will be awesome!