I see it has been confirmed that us, Scots and Wales intend to launch a 3 way bid for the Euro 2020. I Dont know why we are in that bid, without serious investment(which we dont have) we only have Aviva stadium fit to hold any of the games. Other possibles are Thomand Croker RDS but that would be 3 in Dublin. So what do ye think? Would it work and if so how many stadiums can we realistically put forward?
Aviva, Croker and maybe Semple would be our 2/3. Biggest problem is only 4 cities basically, Edingburgh, Glasgow, Dublin and Cardiff would be 8 stadiums. That and Platini already said wants it in Turkey if they don't get the Olympics.
Build the Bertie bowl, and demolish the Aviva and start it again. Croke Park should be a definite. With the final in the Millenium stadium.
Would also mean three nations going straight into the finals, although with the numbers increasing to 24 that might not be a huge problem.
24 teams, surely you'd be looking at 8 stadiums? Can't see it working myself. Scotlands best 3 all in glasgow. Wales millennium in cardiff along with cardiff city stadium and the swanseas liberty. But both of those would surely need expanding. Dublin with aviva and limerick thomond maybe. Croker possibly but GAA will have issues both with timing at the start of june and holding such an advertisement for a rival sport in their own ground/grounds, if semple was included. Doesn't add up.
I looked into this in depth last year, you need to have something like more than 40000 seats before the stadium would be considered. Scotland and Ireland did this before, then pulled out because they couldnt agree on where the final would be.
Wrong on both counts - 30k is the minimum seating capacity and Scotland/Ireland went all the ways in the bidding process but didn't get the required votes and went out in the first round of voting - it was agreed that the opening game and final would be played in Scotland. Taking a quick look at this it I suspect that Scotland will look at having 4 venues in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, Wales will have 3 venues in Cardiff and Swansea, and Ireland will need to provide 3 venues to meet the required 10 stadiums. Assuming Croke Park and Lansdowne are two of them, your looking at some serious development of a GAA ground somewhere else in the country, and I suspect this will be the carrot waved at the GAA in an attempt to get them on board to use their grounds. Considering Leo Varadkar was muttering about Ireland bidding for a rugby world cup in the future and would have government support, I reckon there could be some legs on this bid.
They could play at Grangevale park home of the aul side i play for Grangevale AFC.We'd easily fit 30000 people they'd just have to bring their own chairs
I couldn't really see Thomond Park as a suitable venue to host any of the games tbh.It only has a capacity of 26,000 and I'm not sure if it would be possible to expand.Semple Stadium or the Gaelic Grounds would be more viable options but would obviously need serious upgrading.
All Uefa grounds have to be seated only. No chance of even getting close with temporary seating at either ends of the ground to fulfilling the minimum UEFA standard. I think there is only the new Landsdowne here for a bid I cannot imagine the GAA coming on board with Croker.
I was just using those stadiums as examples with the assumption that major upgrades take place to help them meet UEFA requirements.But you are correct.I can't see it happen either.I wouldn't entirely rule out Croke Park but I can't honestly see the tournament hit these shores anytime soon.