RDS redevelopment expected to be completed in time for 2026 Horse Show
RDS
that will host
Leinster
rugby, concerts and the Dublin Horse Show is running ahead of schedule and is expected to be completed in May or June of next year and available to stage the 2026 Horse Show.
Leinster Rugby are due to be in the grounds a few weeks later, in September, to begin their new season in a totally revamped facility.
In 2022, the rugby club signed a 25-year agreement with the RDS that will see the Ballsbridge venue remain the team's home ground out to 2047.
About 40 per cent of the new Anglesea Stand has been built, while the new player changing facilities, which have been moved from the Anglesea Stand to under the stand on the opposite side of the pitch, are almost complete.
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'The new stand is going to be very similar to the old stand,' says RDS chief executive Liam Kavanagh. 'You have a low rake of seating and in the middle there will be what we are calling the suites, which are open bar food areas, not unlike what you'd see in the Aviva or Croke Park.
'They are open areas looking out to the pitch on one side and looking out on to the rings on the other side.
'We have three of those. The first main suite area is built, and they have now started back since staging the [2025] Horse Show and are working on the remaining 60 per cent. That structure will be physically up by the end of the year.
An impression of the redeveloped RDS arena. Photograph: Newenham Mulligan/Grimshaw via Leinster Rugby
'The roof is planned to go on around December time. During the early part of 2026 you are into fit-out and completion.'
The RDS has also acquired St Mary's church at the corner of Anglesea Road and Simmonscourt Road to use as a key access point to the 43-acre campus.
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The church, which sits on one acre and is a listed structure, has potential as an event space, or as part of a food court on match days. It was deconsecrated in July 2020.
The pitch surface was also protected from the beginning of the project and taken up before construction began. No heavy machinery has been required to work on the pitch.
'The surface was taken up after the Horse Show last year, just before the stand began to be taken down,' says Kavanagh.
'There were some new irrigations put in and it was reseeded. The surface for the Horse Show was probably one of the best ever. It was carpet-like. They will do some work on it now after the Horse Show to maintain and look after it.
The new stand being constructed at the RDS. Photo: Bryan O'Brien / The Irish Times
'But there is no construction on the grass. They are operating within the confines of the construction site and they are coming in either Anglesea gate or Simmonscourt Road gate.'
There are no plans to increase ticket prices to offset the cost, which is set at €52 million, part of which came from Government support through the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF).
The RDS sees it as a 10- to 20-year reinvestment in facilities, although it expects the modernisation and increased capacity of the ground to a seated 20,600 may give opportunities around different hospitality options that would not have been available in the old stand.
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'The match day experience is somewhat unique,' says Kavanagh. 'You are not in the likes of the Aviva or Croke Park. You are on a campus and that allows for a broader match day experience and you can see that during the Horse Show, the way people use the wider areas for social and hospitality.
'From a stadium perspective you've got Croke Park at 70,000 or 80,000. You've got the Aviva at 50,000 and you drop down to Tallaght Stadium [10,500 capacity].
'The RDS has a sweet spot there around the 20,000 mark. It would be great to see some of the women's sports come here in either soccer or rugby. So, we have our eyes and ears open for that.'
The Horse Show 2026 also coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Nations Cup and Aga Khan trophy, so there will be celebration around next year's event.
It is also the 100th birthday of the Equitation School, while in 2031 the RDS celebrates its 300th anniversary.
It [new stand] will be a significant upgrade on what was there before and the RDS will be 300 years old in 2031,' says Kavanagh.
'I think it will give the campus momentum to do other things and extend facilities further. You like to think it was not the end of something, but the beginning of something broader.'
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