GAA vote is boost for Ireland's 2023 Rugby World Cup bid

First topic message reminder :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/northern-ireland/19305676

Could The IRFU with the GAA's help host a successful world cup.

Casement Park will be a 40,000 all seater stadium then, and Ravenhill should be up to 18,000, so should get some good games in the North.

Why don't we just try and let Ryanair run the whole country to get our finances in order. No nation has ever attempted to be run by an airliner before. We could be the first. It might work.

Having to pay to go to the bathroom in shopping centres irritates me, wouldn't want to have to pay for it in my own house.

Thomond wrote:Having to pay to go to the bathroom in shopping centres irritates me, wouldn't want to have to pay for it in my own house.

I always wondered what happens if you don't have any money on you and are busting, can you go in an alleyway, or would you get done for that, as 'busting and no public toilets around isn't an excuse' and then would they push indecent exposure? Near been caught a few times myself, where youve prayed before hand that the toilets are pay and go, or jumping rails would have had to come into it.

I have to say one of my favourite features in Belfast is the pop up urinal in shaftesberry square, it right in the busiest area, near traffic and you get very little shelter, but if you get caught Wee weeing in an alley near by, the police can point it out, and if you didn't fancy using it, then you didn't have to go that bad in the first place, plus its a bit of fun to use when you've had a few"

Kingshu wrote:

Duigers wrote:*Brits not Bits...

From French Brittany?

Calling someone from Brittany French generally illicits the same response as calling someone from Ireland British. They consider themselves closer to the Cornish than the French!

If the World Cup was to go ahead in Ireland in 2023 there are probably 2 scenarios on how the Rugby World Cup might look. The first Rugby World Cup would be an All-Ireland World Cup where all games are played in Ireland. The second scenario would be to use 10 stadiums in Ireland with the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and Murrayfield in Edinburgh. I think the second scenario will probably be used by the IRFU as them have only named 6 GAA stadiums that they would like to use and I can only think of 4 possible rugby stadiums that could be used. The four rugby stadiums would probably be Aviva Stadium, Thomond Park, Ravenhill Stadium and RDS Arena. The 6 GAA Stadiums named are Croke Park Dublin, Pairc Ui Chaoimh Cork, Casement Park Belfast, Gaelic Grounds Limerick, Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney and Pearse Stadium Galway. The other 2 stadiums I picked to make up the numbers to 12 stadiums are McHale Park in Castlebar and Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. But these 2 stadiums could be replaced by any other 2 suitable stadiums as long as the capacity is greater than 15,000 (minimum capacity used in New Zealand).
The second scenario would have all the same stadiums except Millennium stadium and Murrayfield would be used instead of McHale Park and Nowlan Park. The same format would probably be used as the World Cup in France in 2007 where Murrayfield got 2 pool games and Millennium Stadium got 3 pool games and a quarterfinal.

The following 12 stadiums could be used for the tournament:

Croke Park (82,300) - 7 games
Aviva Stadium (51,700) - 7 games
Pairc Ui Chaoimh (45,000) - 5 games
Casement Park (40,000) – 5 games
Thomond Park (26,500) - 4 games
Fitzgerald Stadium (43,000) - 4 games
Pearse Stadium (36,000) - 4 games
Gaelic Ground (49,500) – 3 games
Ravenhill Stadium (18,000) - 3 games
RDS Arena (18,500) - 2 games
McHale Park (42,000) - 2 games
Nowlan Park (30,000) – 2 games

I have given Croke Park and Aviva Stadium only 7 games each. This was done to spread the pool matches around the country and gives the pitches a chance to recover for the semi finals and finals. I also gave Thomond Park 4 games and Gaelic Grounds 3 games. I think 7 games is enough games for Limerick to cope with and since Thomond Park is the home of Munster rugby I gave it the extra game. I may be lower capacity but Thomond Park is a globally famous rugby playing sports field and deserves it on that basis.

To allow for the GAA All-Ireland football final to be played on the 3rd Sunday in September the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup would be held as normal the Friday. It only takes Croke Park 24 hours to convert the rugby pitch back to a Gaelic football pitch, allowing for the All-Ireland football final to take place that Sunday. There would be no rugby games played in Dublin that Sunday to overcrowding in the capital.

If we use the same groups as the 2011 World Cup and start the tournament on Friday the 15th September 2023 this is how the tournament might look:

Pool A:
Australia
Ireland
Italy
USA
Russia

Sep 15 Ireland v USA......................Croke Park
Sep 16 Australia v Italy...................Pearse Stadium
Sep 20 Russia v USA.......................McHale Park
Sep 22 Australia v Ireland...............Croke Park
Sep 24 Italy v Russia......................RDS Arena
Sep 27 Australia v USA...................Fitzgerald Stadium
Sep 30 Ireland v Russia..................Pairc Ui Chaoimh
Oct 3 Italy v USA...........................Gaelic Grounds
Oct 7 Australia v Russia..................Ravenhill Stadium
Oct 8 Ireland v Italy.......................Aviva Stadium

Pool B:
England
Argentina
Scotland
Georgia
Romania

Sep 16 Scotland v Romania...............Thomond Park
Sep 16 England v Argentina...............Aviva Stadium
Sep 20 Scotland v Georgia.................Gaelic Grounds
Sep 23 Argentina v Romania...............Fitzgerald Stadium
Sep 24 England v Georgia..................Casement Park
Sep 30 England v Romania.................Thomond Park
Oct 1 Argentina v Scotland..................Aviva Stadium
Oct 4 Georgia v Romania....................McHale Park
Oct 7 England v Scotland....................Croke Park
Oct 8 Argentina v Georgia...................Pearse Stadium
Pool C:
New Zealand
France
Tonga
Canada
Japan

Sep 17 New Zealand v Tonga...............Pairc Ui Chaoimh
Sep 17 France v Japan.........................Casement Park
Sep 21 Tonga v Canada.......................Nowlan Park
Sep 23 New Zealand v Japan................Casement Park
Sep 26 France v Canada......................Pearse Stadium
Sep 29 Tonga v Japan.........................Ravenhill Stadium
Oct 1 New Zealand v France................Croke Park
Oct 3 Canada v Japan..........................Nowlan Park
Oct 7 France v Tonga..........................Thomond Park
Oct 8 New Zealand v Canada...............Pairc Ui Chaoimh

Pool D:
South Africa
Wales
Samoa
Fiji
Namibia

Sep 16 Fiji v Namibia..........................Fitzgerald Stadium
Sep 17 South Africa v Wales...............Aviva Stadium
Sep 20 Samoa v Namibia....................RDS Arena
Sep 23 South Africa v Fiji....................Pairc Ui Chaoimh
Sep 24 Wales v Samoa.......................Thomond Park
Sep 28 South Africa v Namibia............Gaelic Grounds
Oct 1 Fiji v Samoa..............................Ravenhill Stadium
Oct 2 Wales v Namibia.......................Pearse Stadium
Oct 6 South Africa v Samoa................Fitzgerald Stadium
Oct 8 Wales v Fiji..............................Casement Park

Quarter Finals:
Oct 14 New Zealand v Argentina…………Pairc Ui Chaiomh
Oct 14 England v France......................Aviva Stadium
Oct 15 Australia v South Africa.............Casement Park
Oct 15 Ireland v Wales........................Croke Park

Semi Finals:
Oct 21 Ireland v France…………………….Croke Park
Oct 22 New Zealand v Australia............Aviva Stadium

3rd/4th Place Play-off:
Oct 27 France v Australia.....................Aviva Stadium

Rugby World Cup Final:
Oct 29 Ireland v New Zealand……………Croke Park

There's only going to be ten stadia in the bid. RDS will not be used as they want to spread the games. Lansdowne, Thomond and Ravenhill will be used with the six nominated GAA stadia.

Tenth stadium's identity not decided afaik. Edinburgh and Cardiff not ruled out as yet.

Hopefully, they will be.

Are all the stadia predominantly seated PH?

Portnoy wrote:Are all the stadia predominantly seated PH?

I can't give an accurate assessment about the predominantly qualifier, Portnoy.

Croker, Lansdowne, Ravenhill, Thomond, Pairc Ui Chaiomh are certainly. And the redeveloped stadium in Belfast will be. Most of the others have seating and stands on one side of pitch, some on both. A number of them will need work, but that's to be expected. There's pictures of most of them available on wiki, I think.

Additional seating that increases seating capacity and possibly brings it closer to the pitch is probably something to be looked at for a few of the venues, given GAA pitches are a lot wider than Rugby.

All of it, I would estimate, is achievable, and would be of long-term value given all of the grounds are regularly in use. There's no covered stadia. Am a bit puzzled as to why Edinburgh and/or Cardiff are still being considered to be in the mix. Between the two govts - north and south - the funding should be available. From what I understand at political level, they're gung-ho for supporting the bid even though it's a NIMTO decision.