The UCD Bowl, also known as the Belfield Bowl, is a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

stadium in

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown () is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished in 1994. It is named after the former ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It is the home ground of University College Dublin R.F.C. in the AIB All Ireland League and

League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...

Premier Division side University College Dublin A.F.C. It has also hosted training sessions for the

Ireland national rugby union team The Ireland national rugby union team is the men's representative national team for the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland competes in the annual Six Nations Champio ...

and various touring international teams including the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

. It was one of the venues for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup. With its redevelopment complete, it now has capacity for 3,000 people, including 1,500 seats. It is located to the north of the Belfield campus beside the National hockey stadium, near the Sports Centre. There is a single stand on the southern side of the stadium with uncovered standing room at each end. 860 seats in the stand are covered.

Redevelopment

A substantial programme of improvements to the Bowl was started in 2007 after a decision was made to move the UCD football team from their home in Belfield Park as the Bowl would not meet the requirements of UEFA licensing for the

. The redevelopment was confirmed in 2006 after a €1.25 million Sports Capital grant was allocated to the work and objections to planning were overruled. The seated capacity increased from 860 to 1,500 and a hard surface laid to allow standing capacity around the pitch. Floodlights, improved fencing around the stadium and facilities for shops, toilets and turnstiles were also added. The work was finished in late 2007 in time for the 2008 League of Ireland season. Planning permission has been applied for to replace the current roof with a cantilever structure which will cover all 1,500 seats. Eventually, the stadium is planned to have a capacity of 4,500 seats although there is no time scale laid out for this yet. UCD's record attendance at the venue was 2,236 for the visit of Bohemian FC in September 2024. It was one of the venues for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup, as well as hosting games in the 2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship. SprinklerUCD

References

External links

UCD A.F.C.

UCD Rugby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ucd Bowl Belfield, Dublin Buildings and structures in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Association football venues in the Republic of Ireland Rugby union stadiums in Ireland Sports venues in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Sport at University College Dublin University College Dublin R.F.C. University College Dublin A.F.C. Association football venues in County Dublin