LAST UPDATE | 11 Nov 2022
IRFU CHIEF EXECUTIVE Kevin Potts has ruled out the possibility of the Ireland senior men’s team playing a home Test game away from Aviva Stadium.
The idea of Ireland hitting the road for a home game had been floated following Munster’s memorable defeat of South Africa A at the home of Cork GAA, Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Thursday night.
Irish rugby teams have played home internationals at various stadiums around the country in recent years with great success; the mens’ U20s stormed to a Grand Slam in this year’s Six Nations while playing all their home games at Cork’s Musgrave Park, while the senior women’s team have played home internationals in Cork and Belfast recently.
Other Unions have brought their Test sides on tour, too. For example, this weekend sees France host the Springboks in Marseille, while New Zealand, South Africa and Australia all regularly move their home games across different venues.
The opportunity for the Ireland senior team to do similar would surely be welcomed by supporters around the country, with the cost of attending home internationals increasingly becoming an issue for some Irish rugby fans in the current economic climate, particularly those based outside Dublin.
However, speaking today as the IRFU revealed their financial results for the year ending 31 July 2022, chief executive Kevin Potts ruled out the possibility of the Ireland men’s team playing a home Test anywhere other than Aviva Stadium.
“All Irish internationals will be played here in the Aviva Stadium, which is the home of Irish rugby and of Irish soccer,” Potts said.
“The Ireland team must play in the Aviva and all of our various contracts would require that to be so.”
Potts did however leave the door open for the provinces to play future games in alternative venues, on the back of a sell-out crowd of over 41,000 turning out to watch Munster in Cork last night.
“I always enjoy working with the GAA, we have a great relationship with them,” Potts continued.
Last night’s game was absolutely phenomenal. It really is up to the provinces, if Munster wish to play more games at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, that’s a matter for them. There’s no obligation for any provinces to play at the Aviva Stadium, so if Munster wish to do that, or other provinces do something similar, that’s up to them.”
Potts was also asked about ticket pricing around men’s international fixtures, with some supporters finding it difficult to justify the price of a matchday ticket, on top of the other expenses that come with attending a game, given the ongoing cost of living crisis.
“All of our tickets go to our clubs, the tickets that don’t go to our clubs we put up on our supporters club or on the website.
“The balance that needs to be struck is, we need to generate the revenue to invest in the game and, effectively, the profit from the national team activities and the professional game is what is being fed back into the domestic game.
“There is a balance, we do have a ticketing group that benchmark our ticketing every year – not just internally, but against other unions. We do have a range of prices, I know the upper end can be significant but there are options there, even though there might not be many of them.
“We do need to get the balance right, we need that investment. Otherwise the circle didn’t work.”
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