AFTER ONE OF their pre-season training sessions in Galway last summer, Stuart Lancaster and the Connacht coaches asked the players to gather around and take a seat out on the pitch.
An ice cooler full of beers was hauled out as they looked up at the semi-built Clan Stand.
Lancaster asked three of Connacht’s senior players – Dave Heffernan, Caolin Blade, and Jack Carty – to speak about their memories of the facilities at what is now known as Dexcom Stadium when they first joined the province.
They recalled times when Portacabins served as changing rooms at the Sportsground. When the gym was so small, you could barely move in there. When training was done on a muddy, boggy back pitch. Even when there was no Clan Terrace at all before 2011, just a few exposed stone steps and a couple of rusty railings.
On that summer day, the Connacht players were sitting on the pristine 4G pitch. The Clan Stand was taking shape. They had already moved into the new high performance centre [HPC] behind the stand. The world-class HPC includes a half-size indoor pitch that has the same surface as the main pitch, a top-end gym, three spacious changing rooms, physio rooms, meeting areas, a canteen, and a players’ room for relaxing.
Connacht's indoor training pitch. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
So already, the fresher faces in Connacht’s squad had a sense of how drastically things have changed in the province.
Fast forward to last week before the Montauban game and Lancaster brought the Connacht squad up to the third floor of the now fully built Clan Stand, a structure that looms impressively as you drive or walk towards Dexcom Stadium.
The third floor of the new stand is a huge space for hospitality and corporate entertainment, with capacity for 800 people. The Connacht players looked around before Lancaster pointed out the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Do you remember when we sat there in pre-season and we were having a beer on the pitch?” he began.
It was another moment of realisation, and the next will come on Saturday night as Connacht officially unveil the redeveloped Clan Stand, which cost around €40 million.
Members of the media were given a tour of the facility yesterday. The last bits of work are still being finished ahead of Saturday’s game against Leinster, but it is truly impressive.
An aerial view of the completed Dexcom Stadium, with the HPC to the right behind the Clan Stand. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
“It’s incredible, really,” said Lancaster after that tour.
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“You’ve got teams in England who, during COVID, haven’t survived. And Connacht have managed to survive, thrive, build a high performance centre, and a new stand.
“Not just the support on match day, which obviously is going to be huge, and not just this game, but for all our home games for the remainder of the season.
“You’ve also got a corporate facility and a space where people can come and genuinely have an amazing fan experience. And during the week, you can create commercial revenue because there’s not much in the West of Ireland that can match it really, which then can be reinvested into the club, into the province, into the grassroots, into the professional team.
“So, it’s a game changer.”
At the heart of the ground floor in the new stand is the home dressing room, with a large changing area in which Connacht’s backs have numbered changing spots in one corner and the forwards in the other. This allows players to chat within their units before games and at half time.
The Connacht backs in their corner of the changing room last weekend. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
There’s a large medical room, changing space for the coaches, and a warm-up space. The squad used their new dressing room for the first time for last weekend’s Challenge Cup game against Montauban.
The away dressing room is, unsurprisingly, much smaller but it’s still better than most around the URC and other competitions. There’s a match officials’ changing room just along the corridor, as well as a separate female match officials’ changing room.
Running alongside the players’ tunnel is the new ‘Tunnel Club,’ a private suite that can cater to 40 supporters. Fans in the suite can watch players coming and going in the tunnel. It’s a concept that has proved popular in other stadiums, including Saracens’.
Just around the corner, there’s a big media room with a permanent top table for interviews, as well as plenty of desk space for journalists to work.
The new stand has two Clan Terraces, each with capacity for 800 people and those punters will have swift access to the food and drink outlets just inside. The terraces are where the diehards will make themselves heard, even if being this close to the pitch might expose them to the rain. They’re used to that, to be fair.
James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
The second floor of the stand – known as the 1885 Level after the year Connacht were founded – has a huge concourse that runs the length of the stand and caters to the bulk of the 4,000 seated fans in the stand. There are three bars for food and drink, as well as a new sensory room. It also houses another popular addition among the Connacht squad, the players’ family room known as the Cairde Suite. The western province have never had an area specifically for the families before.
The coaches’ seating areas and the press box are also on the second level, meaning there will be plenty going on there on matchdays.
And up on the third floor, the Atlantic Premium Level, the great and good will be entertained at matches, but also when there are no games on. Again, it runs the full length of the stand, but the hospitality area can be split into four different rooms, each with bars and catering.
Previously, Connacht’s hospitality offering was at hotels near the stadium, with those customers then transported by bus in time for kick-off, only to often find themselves left with the worst views from the terraces.
Now, they will have amazing views of the pitch and beyond. Just outside the panoramic windows is seating for 840 people. It’s quite spectacular and a little surreal for those who have got drenched at the Sportsground on dark, wet, miserable days.
Inside the premium level.
It will be possible to rent the entire hospitality floor for big conference events during the week – adding more crucial revenue – while the Lough Atalia Suite at one end offers views out the other side of the stadium onto Galway Bay.
The Connacht players’ post-match meals will be held on the third floor. And the likes of Blade, Carty, and Heffernan will probably have to pinch themselves the first few times they dine there.
All in all, the new Clan Stand has capacity for close to 6,500 people, bringing the capacity of Dexcom Stadium to 12,500 when the pre-existing areas are taken into account.
And the place should be rocking for Saturday evening’s sell-out as Connacht kick off life in their completed new home.
When Lancaster was up on the third floor of the new stand with his players last week, he urged them to begin making this an even more special place than it has been in the past.
The new media room.
“The iconic stadiums are not necessarily the biggest stadiums,” said Lancaster yesterday. “They’re the ones that are in the heart of the community, which this one is.
“You can walk down to Eyre Square, get a beer and walk up here and be in the ground in five minutes. You can have an amazing night out before or after.
“We’re here in the West of Ireland, and those people come and support and they get behind the team, but it’s the players ultimately that bring a stadium to life.
“That’s the bit that I wanted to impress on the players. When we sit in that stand, we can see your actions, we can see your work-rate, we can see the intangibles, we can see when you’re showing team spirit, when you’re showing great rugby intelligence, when you’re showing connection.
“And I said, ‘Let’s make sure we see those things, because the Connacht supporters will respond in kind.’”
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Inside Connacht's impressive new 'game changer' of a stadium
AFTER ONE OF their pre-season training sessions in Galway last summer, Stuart Lancaster and the Connacht coaches asked the players to gather around and take a seat out on the pitch.
An ice cooler full of beers was hauled out as they looked up at the semi-built Clan Stand.
Lancaster asked three of Connacht’s senior players – Dave Heffernan, Caolin Blade, and Jack Carty – to speak about their memories of the facilities at what is now known as Dexcom Stadium when they first joined the province.
They recalled times when Portacabins served as changing rooms at the Sportsground. When the gym was so small, you could barely move in there. When training was done on a muddy, boggy back pitch. Even when there was no Clan Terrace at all before 2011, just a few exposed stone steps and a couple of rusty railings.
On that summer day, the Connacht players were sitting on the pristine 4G pitch. The Clan Stand was taking shape. They had already moved into the new high performance centre [HPC] behind the stand. The world-class HPC includes a half-size indoor pitch that has the same surface as the main pitch, a top-end gym, three spacious changing rooms, physio rooms, meeting areas, a canteen, and a players’ room for relaxing.
So already, the fresher faces in Connacht’s squad had a sense of how drastically things have changed in the province.
Fast forward to last week before the Montauban game and Lancaster brought the Connacht squad up to the third floor of the now fully built Clan Stand, a structure that looms impressively as you drive or walk towards Dexcom Stadium.
The third floor of the new stand is a huge space for hospitality and corporate entertainment, with capacity for 800 people. The Connacht players looked around before Lancaster pointed out the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Do you remember when we sat there in pre-season and we were having a beer on the pitch?” he began.
It was another moment of realisation, and the next will come on Saturday night as Connacht officially unveil the redeveloped Clan Stand, which cost around €40 million.
Members of the media were given a tour of the facility yesterday. The last bits of work are still being finished ahead of Saturday’s game against Leinster, but it is truly impressive.
“It’s incredible, really,” said Lancaster after that tour.
“You’ve got teams in England who, during COVID, haven’t survived. And Connacht have managed to survive, thrive, build a high performance centre, and a new stand.
“Not just the support on match day, which obviously is going to be huge, and not just this game, but for all our home games for the remainder of the season.
“You’ve also got a corporate facility and a space where people can come and genuinely have an amazing fan experience. And during the week, you can create commercial revenue because there’s not much in the West of Ireland that can match it really, which then can be reinvested into the club, into the province, into the grassroots, into the professional team.
“So, it’s a game changer.”
At the heart of the ground floor in the new stand is the home dressing room, with a large changing area in which Connacht’s backs have numbered changing spots in one corner and the forwards in the other. This allows players to chat within their units before games and at half time.
There’s a large medical room, changing space for the coaches, and a warm-up space. The squad used their new dressing room for the first time for last weekend’s Challenge Cup game against Montauban.
The away dressing room is, unsurprisingly, much smaller but it’s still better than most around the URC and other competitions. There’s a match officials’ changing room just along the corridor, as well as a separate female match officials’ changing room.
Running alongside the players’ tunnel is the new ‘Tunnel Club,’ a private suite that can cater to 40 supporters. Fans in the suite can watch players coming and going in the tunnel. It’s a concept that has proved popular in other stadiums, including Saracens’.
Just around the corner, there’s a big media room with a permanent top table for interviews, as well as plenty of desk space for journalists to work.
The new stand has two Clan Terraces, each with capacity for 800 people and those punters will have swift access to the food and drink outlets just inside. The terraces are where the diehards will make themselves heard, even if being this close to the pitch might expose them to the rain. They’re used to that, to be fair.
The second floor of the stand – known as the 1885 Level after the year Connacht were founded – has a huge concourse that runs the length of the stand and caters to the bulk of the 4,000 seated fans in the stand. There are three bars for food and drink, as well as a new sensory room. It also houses another popular addition among the Connacht squad, the players’ family room known as the Cairde Suite. The western province have never had an area specifically for the families before.
The coaches’ seating areas and the press box are also on the second level, meaning there will be plenty going on there on matchdays.
And up on the third floor, the Atlantic Premium Level, the great and good will be entertained at matches, but also when there are no games on. Again, it runs the full length of the stand, but the hospitality area can be split into four different rooms, each with bars and catering.
Previously, Connacht’s hospitality offering was at hotels near the stadium, with those customers then transported by bus in time for kick-off, only to often find themselves left with the worst views from the terraces.
Now, they will have amazing views of the pitch and beyond. Just outside the panoramic windows is seating for 840 people. It’s quite spectacular and a little surreal for those who have got drenched at the Sportsground on dark, wet, miserable days.
It will be possible to rent the entire hospitality floor for big conference events during the week – adding more crucial revenue – while the Lough Atalia Suite at one end offers views out the other side of the stadium onto Galway Bay.
The Connacht players’ post-match meals will be held on the third floor. And the likes of Blade, Carty, and Heffernan will probably have to pinch themselves the first few times they dine there.
All in all, the new Clan Stand has capacity for close to 6,500 people, bringing the capacity of Dexcom Stadium to 12,500 when the pre-existing areas are taken into account.
And the place should be rocking for Saturday evening’s sell-out as Connacht kick off life in their completed new home.
When Lancaster was up on the third floor of the new stand with his players last week, he urged them to begin making this an even more special place than it has been in the past.
“The iconic stadiums are not necessarily the biggest stadiums,” said Lancaster yesterday. “They’re the ones that are in the heart of the community, which this one is.
“You can walk down to Eyre Square, get a beer and walk up here and be in the ground in five minutes. You can have an amazing night out before or after.
“We’re here in the West of Ireland, and those people come and support and they get behind the team, but it’s the players ultimately that bring a stadium to life.
“That’s the bit that I wanted to impress on the players. When we sit in that stand, we can see your actions, we can see your work-rate, we can see the intangibles, we can see when you’re showing team spirit, when you’re showing great rugby intelligence, when you’re showing connection.
“And I said, ‘Let’s make sure we see those things, because the Connacht supporters will respond in kind.’”
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Connacht Dexcom Stadium high performance centre Next Level