CONNACHT WILL HAVE a reduced attendance of just under 4,000 supporters for their home matches for more than half the season before the opening of the redeveloped Dexcom Stadium will increase the capacity to 10,500.

The €40 million redevelopment of the renamed Sportsground will be finished in January with the official opening scheduled for their clash with Leinster at the end of that month.

By then Connacht, who lost five home league games last season including the clash with Munster in MacHale Park in Castlebar, will have played five URC games at Dexcom Stadium, while the work is going on, as well as two games in the Challenge Cup.

They will have four league games at the fully developed Dexcom Stadium for the remainder of the season plus any league or Challenge Cup games that they qualify for.

Most of the attendees for the opening half of the campaign for the league games against Benetton, Scarlets, Bulls, Sharks and Ulster, along with Challenge Cup games against Black Lions and Montauban, will be season ticket holders with around 3,600 sold so far.

That is the highest number of season tickets Connacht have sold since the 2016/17 campaign after they won the Pro12 crown.

The capacity of the completed Dexcom Stadium will be 10,500 but this can be extended on occasion to 12,500 if terracing is installed behind each goal.

However, this terracing will have to be temporary as the venue continues to stage greyhound racing a couple of times each week.

Next month Connacht will unveil hospitality and other corporate packages for their games, along with a host of options available for non-match activity.

In addition the indoor pitch in the High Performance Centre, which is half the size of a regular pitch, will be made available for a variety of events which could range from college exams to exhibition centre (there are two large door entrances for vehicles and machinery) while concerts may also be considered.

New head coach Stuart Lancaster appreciates that the best way of filling seats and all the bars and catering facilities is by winning matches and he’s pleased with how pre-season has gone as they prepare for Saturday’s URC opener against Benetton.

They defeated Pat Lam’s Bristol Bears 54-12 away and then backed it up with a 40-5 win at Sale Sharks in warm-up games. Each of the sides, including Connacht, were missing frontline players, but there were a lot of positives for Lancaster in those matches.

“The games have gone well, obviously Bristol weren’t at full strength but we still put 50 points on them and 40 points on Sale. That’s what I would have asked for, but it’s pre-season so the true test comes this Saturday but also for the next five weeks,” Lancaster said. 

“I always believed coming in that the foundations were strong and felt that Connacht had a high ceiling.

“Last year I think they were frustrated that they didn’t achieve more, it you look at the metrics of line breaks, defenders beaten, attack was a really strong part of Connacht’s game. 

“The bit I felt needed to balance out was the defence but also how game management. It’s all well having a great attacking mindset but if you come 13th that’s not the outcome we all want.

“So there’s been tweaks made to the foundations of the game but within that it’s strong and the squad benefited from the three British and Irish Lions and the six lads going on the Ireland tour.”