Tallaght Stadium ‘cash’ in on naming rights

Article posted by Coliseum, September 19^th, 2022

Image: Shamrock Rovers

The Tallaght Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, is to join the growing list of Irish venues that are using naming rights as a source of extra income with the South Dublin County Council’s confirmation that they have opened up a tender process for the ground.

‘Irish Examiner’ stated that the sales pitch includes the stadium’s status as home ground for the SSE Airtricity League champions Shamrock Rovers, who are also involved in the group stages of the Europa Conference League, the Republic of Ireland women’s senior team and the national men’s U21s.

The 8,000-capacity Tallaght Stadium is an association football stadium in the Republic of Ireland based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club Shamrock Rovers originally announced details of the stadium in July 1996. The stadium is now owned and operated by the South Dublin County Council with Shamrock Rovers as the anchor tenants.

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The League of Ireland, together with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organizing association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally used to refer to a single division league. However, today the League of Ireland features five divisions – the Premier Division, the First Division, U19 Division, U17 Division, U15 Division, and starting U13 Division. The League of Ireland has always worked closely with the FAI and in 2006 the two bodies formally merged. All the divisions are currently sponsored by Airtricity and as a result the league is also known as the SSE Airtricity League. In 2007, it became one of the first leagues in Europe to introduce a salary cap.

The Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club’s senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most successful club in the Republic of Ireland. The Tallaght Stadium serves as their residence.

‘Irish Examiner’ further stated that Leinster Rugby have also played pre-season friendlies at the stadium.

Leinster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland and the most successful Irish team domestically. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup.

The venue is currently in the process of being extended and upgraded with €11.5 million going towards the construction of a new North Stand that will take the capacity above 10,000 and work on corporate and other facilities in the West Stand.

Due to be completed next July, it will ensure its Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Category 4 status which would allow it to host all UEFA competitive fixtures including internationals, Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League games.

With temporary onfield seating, the venue could hold up to 20,000 people and the South Dublin County Council intends to use the stadium as a major concert and event center, with the first large-scale concert planned in the next 18 months.

Said Daniel McLoughlin, Chief Executive of South Dublin County Council, “This significant commercial opportunity represents another exciting milestone in the development of Tallaght Stadium. The venue has proved to be an incredible success within the South Dublin County and in Tallaght, serving as a unique identifier, source of pride and focus point for the wider community.”

Added McLoughlin, “The naming rights to the stadium represents a unique opportunity for a new commercial partner to be right at the heart of a thriving community which will benefit directly with the reinvestment of funds arising in local sporting and community projects.”

Nyon (Switzerland)-based the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer in Europe as well as Israel in Asia and the Eurasian transcontinental countries of Russia, Turkey, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. The UEFA consists of 55 national association members. Because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA suspended all Russian national representative teams and club teams from any FIFA and UEFA competitions.

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