THE Royal Dublin Society has been granted €10 million to get the development of the Anglesea Grandstand off the ground at the world famous venue.
Home to the annual Dublin Horse Show and Leinster Rugby, the funding was granted last week by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport as part of the €77.4 million Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund, with 25 individual projects benefitting. The RDS were the biggest beneficiaries, alongside the Galway Sportsground Redevelopment.
“We are very appreciate of the funding from the government. We look forward to progressing the development,” Michael Duffy, CEO of the RDS, told The Irish Field yesterday (Friday).
The successful applicants were decided following a rigorous assessment process with the highest scoring applications receiving grant offers. All applications under the fund had to be supported by a National Governing Body for Sport (NGB) or a local authority, with Horse Sport Ireland and the IRFU lending their support to the RDS.
New planning permission was granted for the estimated €46.5 million RDS development in July 2018. The development consists of two major elements; the new two-tier Anglesea Grandstand and the Pocket Building, home to the pocket bar.
The planning application to Dublin City Council said the new development, which will increase the capacity of the Anglesea Stand to 6,481, will “provide the spectators and competitors alike with a unique and enhanced experience, and it will enable a more enjoyable use of a well-loved institution for decades to come.”
It said that while the current pocket area is “idiosyncratic, well-loved and famous” it would “greatly benefit from improvement”.
The plans for the stand, available on the Dublin City Council website, show a sleek new look, allowing spectators look out over the judging rings as well as the main arena. The ground floor will be open to overlook Ring 1 and 2, with bar areas under the rake of the seating tiers.
Level one of the stand will host the VIP and hospitality areas, as well as premium seating. The top tier will offer dramatic views of all areas of the main arena and across the judging rings.
The ground floor of the two-storey Pocket Building, which will remain in the same general area as it currently stands, will be raised one metre above grade with an outdoor terrace. Level one will be directly linked to the grandstand.
The RDS has not yet given a definite timeline or start date for the project, but it is believed the development will take approximately 12-15 months. Leinster Rugby have confirmed they will continue to play their home games at the venue throughout the build.
Qualifiers
With the Dublin Horse Show taking place a month earlier in 2020 (July 15th-19th) in order to avoid a clash with the Tokyo Olympic Games, national riders will be out earlier in the season at qualifiers around the country.
Just three young horse show jumping qualifiers will take place with season, instead of the usual four, starting in Mullingar Equestrian Centre on Wednesday, April 29th, followed by The Meadows EC on May 6th and Barnadown Showjumping on May 20th.
However, the same amount of horses will qualify for each division, with the exception of the seven-year-old class, in which just 15 qualify this season (16 in 2019). Eight four-year-old horses will qualify at each qualifier, totalling 24, 12 five-year-olds (36), 12 six-year-olds (36), five seven-year-olds (15) and four eight-year-olds (12).
The rest of the jumping qualifiers for ponies, young riders, children on horses and amateurs will continue to run over four days. More information on these and the rest of the qualifiers can be found on www.dublinhorseshow.com.