Sneak Peak - RDS Redevelopment Plans

[Sionnach]

"In actual fact, crowds in the RDS are up this season."

"Crowds are down a bit this year"

Which is it?

[Dave Cahill]

"In actual fact, crowds in the RDS are up this season."

"Crowds are down a bit this year"

Which is it?

Both are possible as we don't play all our games in the RDS

[TerenureJim]

I'm guessing increased capacity and improved facilities will be a boon to season ticket sales. Could we move to a situation of circa 16 or 18k season tickets? That's a hugely stable base to fund off annually in an improving economy.

[simonokeeffe]

“We would hope that there may be 1,500 on a terrace to accommodate our current terrace holders in front of the main Anglesea Stand,” he said. “That’s the plan, but it hasn’t actually been finalised. So there will be a small terrace element because we think it helps with atmosphere and there’s a lot of people who like that, but we think that the vast majority prefer to know they have a seat and to be able to go into the ground whenever they want to.”

we do our stereotype no favours at times

[COYBIB]

Glad to hear the budget is more than likely being increased as 20m is now "conservative" and he mentions a wrap around roof / temp stands being covered. Those are the best parts.

A little disappointed that we've no interest in (or maybe RDS have no interest in) doing a joint funding agreement and loosen up our tenancy agreement a good bit. He touches on the fact that any sponsorship money for naming rights (i.e. paying for the stadium) will come from the interest in Leinster, not the RDS, but they get ownership of a paid for stadium for extremely cheap and a massive anchor tenant, all off of our coattails - I hope we're pushing EXTREMELY favourable renegotiated lease agreement, with RDS able to make up the cash from the additional use of the venue they will have from the redevelopment, mainly becoming an even more favourable concert arena.

It's also a little disappointing how small scale the terrace is still planned to be. If they don't want it in the main stand, there's scope to put a pitch length terrace in front of the grandstand which would be a fair bit of capacity increase vs the seats there at the moment, but I suppose from a ticket pricing perspective, the main argument against the terrace is they want as little budget tickets available as possible. Commercial concern will always trump spectator needs unfortunately, but it's what drives the business, so I suppose there has to be understanding.

I still think Dawson is scarred by the Donnybrook white elephant and values no debt exposure far ahead of ownership by maintaining the RDS project, which I think is a little short sighted, but it is a great home - only long-term will tell if it has been a commercially correct one.

[Slipper1]

Seems like LR doing a lot of the driving behind this. There must be change in the rental/lease agreement on the cards if this comes to pass.

[artaneboy]

"In actual fact, crowds in the RDS are up this season."

"Crowds are down a bit this year"

Which is it?

Both are possible as we don't play all our games in the RDS

Both are possible if you think calendar year- 2014 vis-a-vis 2014 - 2015 season.

[johng]

"In actual fact, crowds in the RDS are up this season."

"Crowds are down a bit this year"

Which is it?

“In actual fact, crowds in the RDS are up this season,” said Dawson, “but the two matches in the Aviva against Muster and Harlequins were down and the reasons for that were the quarter to eight kick-off at Christmas [against Harlequins] probably cost us 5,000 to 6,000 people and the Munster match was a week earlier than normally planned, so we had a week’s less selling. But in relation to the RDS, season ticket holders are up and the crowds are also up.

You just had to read the next sentence for the answer.

[AdamK]

Rumour on boards is LR have decided which naming sponsor to go for and will be announcing sooner than later. Speculation is that it could be samsung, who already have ties in rugby and equestrian sport.

[paddyor]

Rumour on boards is LR have decided which naming sponsor to go for and will be announcing sooner than later. Speculation is that it could be samsung, who already have ties in rugby and equestrian sport.

So a rumour has lead to speculation.......not all that interesting

[COYBIB]

Seems like LR doing a lot of the driving behind this. There must be change in the rental/lease agreement on the cards if this comes to pass.

I've been having a think about it and thought of the strategy line I would take if I was in Mick Dawsons shoes.

I would say Leinster would be in a strong position to renegotiate the lease. It doesn't sound at all like joint ownership is on the cards, but if Leinster can be the main driving force behind naming rights, or can help the funding in the other ways he suggested - such as 10 year tickets to Leinster (debenture seats), IRFU and / or Government funding due to world cup bid - all the funding is on the back of Leinster really, they could nearly go off and do it on their own (in fact, Leinster could very easily go off and develop their own stadium, I half wish they would, but the major stumbling block would be land acquisition and a suitable location in and around the existing traditional location), but I would imagine a deal they could really stride towards would be to take an FAI-esq approach, they could look for a 20 year usage agreement rather than lease, that Leinster would have free usage of up to 15 weekends per year restricted between the months of September to May and could work in a concession agreement of either retaining 100% of concessions (depending on how strong the bargaining position is / how receptive the RDS are to this sort of agreement) or a 50% split of concessions.

Now that would be a very favourable agreement for Leinster, but it would be a good deal for the RDS too - they would get a state of the art facility, 100% in their ownership without having to spend a dime, and it would be available for events 75% of the year for the first 20 years and then whatever they wish beyond that. They would take a big hit on their revenue streams, but that would be offset by the capital advantage they would gain from the project.

It would also massively increase the revenue streams of Leinster, being unshackled by the current hefty lease and would make us extremely financially stable, dare I say the most profitable non-international rugby team in the world before commercial income (we obviously would still struggle against the English and French, but their main income comes from TV Revenue and Private funding, but we would be generating far more by way of gate receipts considering we are already the second highest attended rugby team in Europe but with free use of a stadium and no debts to service, we would be a revenue generating machine.)

Also, this would remove the stipulation of having to use the RDS for x amount of games a season, so we would have the option of using the venue for up to 15 weekends a year, but we could gradually move a small amount of game to Lansdowne Road, for example having an extra game a season there for the home inter-pro against Ulster, and possibly a second European group game if we have two high calibre teams in our group - that could be an extra 60,000+ tickets sold in a single season straight off the bat, which would be huge money considering we would get, what, 250,000 tickets sold a season as it is? That's an immediate increase in ticket sales of over 20%, before we even benefit from the increased capacity of the RDS.

The long term hope would be by the end of the 20 year period, we would have grown enough to move into Lansdowne Road as our primary home. It's not so long ago that people standing in the terraces in Donnybrook would have thought a 25,000 capacity stadium for Leinster would be unthinkable, a lot shorter time ago than 20 years, so I think it's a realistic time frame to think that we could regularly attract a 30,000/35,000+ to justify the move to Lansdowne - again, with no debt on the stadium and you'd imagine very favourable rates from the IRFU.

That would be my vision anyway. If we can't get ownership to secure our future, then use the opportunity to absolute null all expenditure whilst maximizing all potential income.

[Peg Leg]

"In actual fact, crowds in the RDS are up this season."

"Crowds are down a bit this year"

Which is it?

“In actual fact, crowds in the RDS are up this season,” said Dawson, “but the two matches in the Aviva against Muster and Harlequins were down and the reasons for that were the quarter to eight kick-off at Christmas [against Harlequins] probably cost us 5,000 to 6,000 people and the Munster match was a week earlier than normally planned, so we had a week’s less selling. But in relation to the RDS, season ticket holders are up and the crowds are also up.

You just had to read the next sentence for the answer.

I think Sionnach was referring to:

“In actual fact, crowds in the RDS are up this season,” said Dawson, “but the two matches in the Aviva against Muster and Harlequins were down and the reasons for that were the quarter to eight kick-off at Christmas [against Harlequins] probably cost us 5,000 to 6,000 people and the Munster match was a week earlier than normally planned, so we had a week’s less selling. But in relation to the RDS, season ticket holders are up and the crowds are also up.

Followed by:

“I’d be optimistic that we have a lot of loyal supporters who will be there when the road gets a bit rocky. Crowds are down a bit this year, but still, I think that the vast majority of people turn up in the belief that we’re going in the right direction.”

Would lead you to assume d'viva attendances has been the difference.

[johng]

Would lead you to assume d'viva attendances has been the difference.

Exactery!

RDS up, LR down by more. Mystery solved. How hard was that?

[AdamK]

Rumour on boards is LR have decided which naming sponsor to go for and will be announcing sooner than later. Speculation is that it could be samsung, who already have ties in rugby and equestrian sport.

So a rumour has lead to speculation.......not all that interesting

Well the rumour was it was a foriegn tech company, and when someone said it was either HTC, Samsung or Yahoo the poster in question confirmed it was one of those three.

Samsung is the logical choice. We'll see. I'd certainly be happy with them.

[meinster]

I quite like the idea of a piped "Yahoo!" anytime we score to drown out any natural cheering!

[simonokeeffe]

Rumour on boards is LR have decided which naming sponsor to go for and will be announcing sooner than later. Speculation is that it could be samsung, who already have ties in rugby and equestrian sport.

Samsung as sponsor would get a great reception

[TerenureJim]

Rumour on boards is LR have decided which naming sponsor to go for and will be announcing sooner than later. Speculation is that it could be samsung, who already have ties in rugby and equestrian sport.

Samsung as sponsor would get a great reception

I think they'd give the province and the RDS a sharper/clearer vision

[Peg Leg]

Rumour on boards is LR have decided which naming sponsor to go for and will be announcing sooner than later. Speculation is that it could be samsung, who already have ties in rugby and equestrian sport.

Samsung as sponsor would get a great reception

I think they'd give the province and the RDS a sharper/clearer vision

They could destroy all of our competitors by continually suing them for plagiarism of tactics & style while we continue to provide the competition with our academy hardware!
Have I gone a bit too far with that one?

[simonokeeffe]

you need to reboot Peg

[Peg Leg]

[FROZEN]