As rugby competes with concert season - not to mind the Europa League final - the sport is battling to hold onto its own venues
They may not be able to cope with summer rugby in the south of France but it sure works in this neck of the woods. Come May the pitches are firmer, there’s generally less wind and rain, with more sun shining on players and spectators alike. And thus the rugby is invariably better too.
This is hardly breaking new ground and considering how the 2018 final was brought to Bilbao in Spain, it remains a complete mystery why the tournament organisers have not anointed anywhere in, say, Italy as a host city for even one of the first 30 finals in the competition’s history. However, tugging the forelock to Uefa in permitting the Aviva Stadium to be out of commission to rugby, effectively for over five weeks, so as to host next Wednesday’s
The net effect was that the All-Ireland League finals had to be held a week after the semi-finals - when part-time and amateur teams should always be afforded two weeks in between - back on April 28th to accommodate a gap of 24 days between the Cork Constitution-Terenure final and the meeting of Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta next Wednesday.
Granted, Leinster moving their Champions Cup semi-final to Croke Park gave that sporting event an additional novelty value and led to an increased 82,500 capacity. Thereafter, pending the arena’s forthcoming redevelopment, the RDS will not be available to Leinster for the URC knock-out stages due to Rammnstein playing there on June 23rd.
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