Eircom Park was a proposed
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
stadium in
Saggart
Saggart () is a village in County Dublin, Ireland, south west of Dublin, Dublin city, in the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local government area of South Dublin. It lies between the N7 road (Ireland), N7 (Naas Road), Rathcoole, ...
,
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
, intended to be the home of the
Republic of Ireland national football team
The Republic of Ireland Men's national football team () represents the Republic of Ireland in men's international Association football, football. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
The team made their debut at the Ir ...
. The planned 45,000-seater stadium was to be named after national team sponsors
Eircom
Eircom Limited, trading as Eir ( ; stylised eir), is a large fixed, mobile and broadband telecommunications company in Ireland. The company, which is currently incorporated in Jersey, traces its origins to Ireland's former state-owned monopol ...
. Plans for Eircom Park were first announced in January 1999, when the Republic of Ireland were playing home games at
Lansdowne Road
Lansdowne Road Stadium (, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for the Aviva Stadium on ...
, owned by the
IRFU IRFU or Irfu may refer to:
* Irish Rugby Football Union, The Irish rugby football union (IRFU), is the national rugby association of Ireland
*Interprovincial Rugby Football Union, a four-team league that merged with the Westerm Interprovincial Rugb ...
at the time. The plans were criticised for being unrealistic, not least the FAI's intention to host 57 non-sporting events at the stadium each year.
By January 2001, the projected costs of the project had doubled, and all plans for Eircom Park were subsequently abandoned. The
FAI instead gave its support to the government-backed
Stadium Ireland project. However, as plans for Stadium Ireland fell through by September 2002, it was instead decided to redevelop
Lansdowne Road
Lansdowne Road Stadium (, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for the Aviva Stadium on ...
into the
Aviva Stadium
Aviva Stadium, also known as Lansdowne Road (, ) or Dublin Arena (during UEFA competitions), is a List of stadiums in Ireland by capacity, sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators ...
, which opened in 2010.
References
Unbuilt stadiums in the Republic of Ireland
Sports venues in Dublin (city)
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