Aviva Stadium in Dublin to host 2013 Heineken Cup final

[Bostonteax_50]

Secured a couple but had to try about 5 times. The ones I selected kept being sold before I could finish! One or two hotels have already double their room rates.

[Tenyarder]

Clearly its a bit of a Mexican gold rush. By the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo in February 1848 Mexico gave California to the US. The joke was that nine days earlier gold was found in them foothills in the Sierra Nevada. The Mexicans obviously don't want to get caught out again!

They obviously think that they have an automatic right to be in every final. A bit like a few years ago. Pride comes before the Fall.

The main point is that the IRFU, Irish Government and planners etc completely dropped the ball with this stadium. It is far too small and is a very poor comparison to London, Cardiff and Edinburgh. With a capacity of 51,700 or whatever, it will soon not be able to compete for the very big events.

[big mervyn]

Came back from my lunch and tried to get some, only single ones available.

Is 50k too small for a final?

Yes.

The Aviva was perfect for Ulster v Embra but inadequate for the final.

If any sense prevailed in Dublin, the Aviva and Croke Park would both be available for rugby/soccer and GAA.

[ColinM]

I bought tickets, not because I think Ulster will be there next year, but because I quite like going to the HEC finals and its not often just down the road.

I'd say a fair few Mexicans and Turnips did the same. If your team makes it, its a bonus.

[Snipe Watson]

Lansdowne road is not big enough at all............

[damianmcr]

Lovely looking stadium but yeh too small for big matches.

Twickenham is mighty impressive!

[Snipe Watson]

The conservative chappies of the IRFU are getting bitten on the ass already for their gross stupidity. Ireland could and should have had a facility like Twickenham. Plenty of room for 80k seater, car parks for a champions village and shockingly parking cars and coaches. But the blazers have their parking sorted so they are OK.

[Rooster]

Every knacker in the northside will be buying tickets as with the size of the Aviva it provides a huge touting opportunity should any Irish side get to the final.

[Rooster]

How on earth did that happen?

It's my impression that there were Twickenham tickets still on general sale until between the Ulster semi finishing and the Leinster one kicking off.

Is this purely a capacity issue? Seems strange all the same. I wonder if there are some general sale tickets still up the sleeve of monsieur TicketMaster, a la Ulster semi final (different situation I know, as that didn't sell out, but the final definitely will)?

There were only a few hundred tickets at that stage, they will sell some after the pools and more during the competition but it will be hundreds rather than thousands each time, the Aviva pisspot was never big enough and I will be surprised if it ever is used by ERC for a final again.

[bootlaced]

Lovely looking stadium but yeh too small for big matches.

Twickenham is mighty impressive!

Eh it looks like a bed pan,in certain seats you have a view which is blocked by a steel girder,and if you are high enough up the wind will cut you in two.it is a very ugly stadium,the entrance and exit to and from the stadium is not something you would boast about,I can still see an accident happening.

[Tenyarder]

The conservative chappies of the IRFU are getting bitten on the ass already for their gross stupidity. Ireland could and should have had a facility like Twickenham. Plenty of room for 80k seater, car parks for a champions village and shockingly parking cars and coaches. But the blazers have their parking sorted so they are OK.

Sniper, the blazers based their business model on the international side. 51,700 capacity is about right to watch Ireland (particularly the way it is being managed and coached at present). What they did not reckon upon was the development of the provincial teams. These teams, despite the blazers efforts to micro-manage squads, now clearly out-perform the national side. Supporters are slowly but surely moving allegiance away from the national side to their provincial side. You just have to look at the underwhelming reaction to the Irish squad announcement for the All Blacks Butcher's Bill tour. The main concern is not how the Ulster contingent perform but who will be left standing on the return flight.

As Sir Prom rightly predicts, the problem is that the Aviva is just not big enough to hold a major final. In fact it could not hold an ERC quarter or semi between two Irish sides. To keep the final on our shores we may have to go cap in hand to the GAA again!

[Snipe Watson]

I'll tell ye something else about the bedpan sorry Lansdowne road, if ye don't watch yourself when you're having a tinkle ye could flood Havelock Square..........

[bootlaced]

sorry didn't know that you would prefer the commode

[Snipe Watson]

Some of us are more blessed that others Boot......fact of life...

[bootlaced]

Some of us are more blessed that others Boot......fact of life...

Try a bucket then