Landsdowne Road

04-11-07

The oldest of the world's international grounds, "Lansdowne Road" has been hosting sports events since 1872 and it has hosted Ireland rugby matches since 1876. The creation of Lansdowne Road Stadium was the vision of Henry William Dunlop, an outstanding young athlete who organized the first All Ireland Athletics Championships. His vision was to create a multi sports venue. The stadium originally included a cinder track for athletics, a cricket pitch, a croquet green, three football pitches and facilities for archery and lawn tennis. The first rugby match played at the ground was between Leinster and Munster in December 1876. While Dunlop had conceived Lansdowne as a multi-purpose venue the ground soon became synonymous with rugby and in 1980 home to Ireland's soccer team!In 1878 Lansdowne held its first international rugby fixture. In the early 1900s the IRFU secured the lease of Lansdowne Road from the Pembroke Estate. It was at this time that a plan was conceived to change the orientation of the stadium to North/South. Originally it had run from East to West. The first stand was built in 1908 and the most modern part of the stadium, the East Stand, was built in 1983. Floodlights were installed in the mid 1990s. The stadium is now on its last legs, so the Irish rugby union and football chiefs have called on the government to pay two-thirds of the cost of a £175million project to redevelop the ground into a modern stadium.On Thursday, 22 March, 2007, the go-ahead was given for the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road into a new 50,000 seat stadium. It's expected to be completed by 2009! Here's pics of what the new stadium will look like: