News

May 30, 2023

RDS looks to boost capacity with new application for €50m Anglesea upgrade

Leinster Rugby agreed a new 25-year lease for the RDS stadium last October. A

Leinster Rugby agreed a new 25-year lease for the RDS stadium last October.

A planning application will be lodged by the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) for a new €50m Anglesea Stand at its arena in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

According to the statutory planning notice, the application involves the demolition of the existing Anglesea Stand and Anglesea Terrace.

The new stand will accommodate 6,775 and consist of three levels along with a two-storey hospitality building.

The RDS was originally granted planning permission for a new Anglesea stand in August 2018, but that has lapsed, requiring the new application to be made.

According to a spokesman for the RDS, "subject to planning and funding, ideally, construction will commence in August 2024".

Confirming the €50m cost on the project, the spokesman said: "It has been fully costed and will comprise RDS funds as well as philanthropy and government support.

"The existing Anglesea Stand was built in the 1930s and no longer meets modern requirements for players, performers and overall customer experience."

Of the benefits of the new stand, the spokesman said: "The regeneration of the Anglesea Stand will deliver a modern, multi-purpose venue for sporting and live performance events with a capacity of 21,500.

"It will be the home of Leinster rugby and the RDS Dublin Horse Show, with an ambition to provide state-of-the-art facilities to showcase the best of all sports including women's football and rugby."

The application follows Leinster Rugby agreeing to a new 25-year lease for the stadium last October.

Commenting in February on the redevelopment of the arena at the RDS, Leinster CEO Shane Nolan said "the funds are there to make it happen".

He added: "There's a real pace happening in it now, which is great. I’ve seen early sights of the vision of the stadium and it looks really, really good."

In a written Dáil reply to local Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan earlier this year, Thomas Byrne, the minister of state at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, said €10m of government funding under the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) granted in 2020 for the RDS Main Arena Development Project remains in place.

The new planned 6,775- capacity Anglesea Stand is slightly larger than the permitted 6,481 that was granted planning permission in 2018.