Home of Ulster Rugby, Ravenhill Redevelopment to start soon

Work is to get under way at the end of the month, and heres a great wee video of what the final ground will look like!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIw2UQpNanM&feature=share

I hope they have SUFTUM written in the seats at the Aquinas end

Just watched the video...looks awesome.... Rava where are yoooooouuuu???......

toml wrote:I hope they have SUFTUM written in the seats at the Aquinas end

They're planning to link the seats to an audio feed that automatically activates a cattle prod concealed in the plastic. Everyone will be standing - even the opposition fans!

Looks very nice. Whats the capacity going to be like?

Capacity will be 18,000 I think.

Will it really be made of Lego?

rapidsnowman wrote:Will it really be made of Lego?

Absolutely!

The joy of that approach being we can save up to by more and add to the thing each birthday and Christmas!

What will be the capacity?

Like MrsP said above it looks like it will be around 18000.

Rava is the man for questions about this, if he comes in later.

It looks good. Nice video. 18,000 is the perfect capacity too. It will be full or close to full most of the year and have a good atmosphere. A big step forward for Ulster and good timing too!

When you get to the ground for the Northampton game on 15th December there should be quite a few changes.
Obviously there will be the cabins etc. that the contractor will use. Some will be at the Merrion Road entrance and some will be just around the corner from the memorial.
Hopefully the Aquinas "pigeon lofts" will have disappeared and there will already be a hole in the ground for the basement gymnasium.

Both in-goal areas will be shortened to allow for a couple of rows of spectators standing at each end while the two new end stands are being built.

Some discussions have taken place with a couple of high profile companies over naming rights but nothing settled as yet.

I heard for the big games that the capacity can rise to 19000-20000. Is that true?

Leinsterfan, the maximum capacity will be the quoted 18,000 or thereabouts.

Looks absolutely smashing. Can't wait to visit with the rellies and have a goo.

Don't know about this myself. One side without a high stand is better for the grass (more light). I think they should have made it bigger too. Ulster could get more than 18,000 for H cup matches or play offs in the rabo. And curves would be nice. It's a bit 1983 architecture-wise.

Not sure whether you are asking for more or less enclosure there Into?

The stand at the memorial (North) end will not cast a shadow on the pitch. The other stands are hardly high enough to cause a problem for the grass and the only one which will reduce the light is at the Aquinas end and even then it will not cast too great a one surely?

More seats on three sides, less on one seems to work best for grass growth. The pitch in Croker for example is in excellent condition any time that I've seen it.

Hang on a minute now.

Croke Park holds 82,000! That's more than 4 times the size that Ravenhill will be.

The stands are 3 tiers and 17 storeys high. Hill 16 is probably as tall as the stands at Ravenhill will be when finished. The shadow cast and air circulation changes will be on a completely different scale from those at a huge stadium like CP.

I am by no means an expert but I don't think you can compare the 2 really can you?

Are there going to be big screens after all? I thought those had been ruled out.

The gap in the main stand is a path from the changing rooms to the pitch I presume? Something we dearly need in my opinion.

What will the gym underneath the stand be used for? We still getting the museum as well?

Lovely stuff. Are you still allowed to have terraces?

I thought that it had to be all seater these days?

Football has to be all seater after that report in the 80's and Hillbrough, GAA and rugby are still allowed Terraces.

There is talk that since hooligism has really nearly died out since the 80's of reintroducing terraces into football , but that will be years away, not sure if Prem league clubs would want them.

Not sure why Casement Park is being redone as a 40,000 all seater stadium, if it doesn't have to be all seater? Maybe they plan to host other sports?

Is it true that the trophey cabinate is the major priority in the redevelopement?

Its being expanded Scarlet spiderman, it will take up all the space below the main stand, Scarlets I believe are hoping to have a cabinet the same size and Ulster and Scarlets take it turn about to win all the Tropheys in Europe, even top14 and Aviva Prem, Super XV (XVI) etc just cos we're that good.

JayMaster3000 wrote:The gap in the main stand is a path from the changing rooms to the pitch I presume? Something we dearly need in my opinion.

What will the gym underneath the stand be used for? We still getting the museum as well?

Jay all the training will be moving from Newforge to Ravenhill. The Aquinas Stand will cater for all indoor fitness requirements.
The changing rooms will be under the main stand. The teams will exit in the middle.
There will be a museum.

Intotouch wrote:Don't know about this myself. One side without a high stand is better for the grass (more light). I think they should have made it bigger too. Ulster could get more than 18,000 for H cup matches or play offs in the rabo. And curves would be nice. It's a bit 1983 architecture-wise.

This is as big as we could go on the current location.
The height of the stands being built and their position will have little or no effect on the amount of light getting to the pitch. No part of the new structures will be higher than any of the existing structures.

I wouldn't be worried about the pitch, part of the reason Croke park looks good isn't the lower stand but because it is a hybrid grass pitch, it is natural grass combined with artificial fibres.

Looking into it so is the Aviva Stadium (NLR), but I 've noticed its been churing up quite a bit since it reopened, big divets come out in scrums.

Liberty Stadium and CCS also use it, didn't know it was that widespread untill I looked into it.

I don't think that it should have been bigger, as for the most part it may not be filled to capacity, and would have taken away from the atmostsphere, 18,000 is just right imo. big enough for Pro 12 final, h-cup quarters, only game that would be moved would be h-cup semi, and it couldn't have been in Ravenhill anyway.

Rava,

Any chance you could give us a breakdown on what the capacity will be at various stages of the redevelopment?

ie. Date the 2 "end" stands are due to be usable and what the capacity will be at that point when the old stand closes etc.

I know you have told me before but I can't remember the details.

The two end stands will be ready for the start of next season and, along with the reconfigured Prom, will leave our capacity around 12,000 during the rebuild of the existing main stand. Ill try to get a more accurate figure at the beginning of the week but it will be around the 12k.

We're in the Aguinas end on the 21st, do we need to be wearing hard hats?

rodders wrote:We're in the Aguinas end on the 21st, do we need to be wearing hard hats?

I'd take a ladder Rodders. There will be a big hole in the ground

Flip!

So, when you say you will be "in" the Aquinas end you really do mean "in"!

Sure don't worry. I'll text you score updates!

so this could be:

a) the first time we've beat Leinster in yonks
b) potentially the last Ulster game I'm at for a while

....and I'll miss the game because I'll be down a hole when its on!

MrsP wrote:Sure don't worry. I'll text you score updates!

Will I get a signal?!

rodders wrote:

MrsP wrote:Sure don't worry. I'll text you score updates!

Will I get a signal?!

You should - Vodafone Australia

Maybe not.

Just cheer when you hear everyone else cheering.



Crowd shouting "Ah ref!!!!" "Everytime ref" or similar followed by reasonably long silence followed by thud and then a loud cheer = 3 points

Crowd shouting "Ah ref!!!!" "Everytime ref" or similar followed by reasonably long silence followed by thud and then a groan = missed penalty (not a likely occurence)

Very loud cheering followed by reasonably long silence followed by a thud and then more very loud cheering = 7 points

Very loud cheering followed by reasonably long silence followed by a thud and then a groan = 5 points

They are the only ones you'll need!

Fair enough but I won't be joining in with singing SUFTUM.... that would just be too ironic when you are down a hole .....

rodders wrote:Fair enough but I won't be joining in with singing SUFTUM.... that would just be too ironic when you are down a hole .....

Would anyone notice the difference?

Well its often a case of Jump Up for the Ulster men for me anyways I suppose ....

Oh and I forgot to say Thank you Rava for the capacity update.

I thought I rememebered you saying we would not loose any capacity during the rebuild but I wasn't sure if I'd remembered wrongly!



Rodder,

Have you considered stilts?

Grand for the first half Mrs P..... but they could be a bit of a health and safety hazard come the second....

Ah sure you could always sue if you did...you know...suffer terribly from the very poor conditions under foot!

And the fact that the ground kept swaying!

It's a serious matter MrsP .... this is the most distressing news I've heard since I found out stag and Rava had hotfooted it down to 606v3....

rodders wrote:It's a serious matter MrsP .... this is the most distressing news I've heard since I found out stag and Rava had hotfooted it down to 606v3....

Is that where all the Munster lads have gone? Seems to be only the scots in the Glasgow thread

Maybe Rava could put a wee trampoline down there. At least you'd get to see about 40% of the game.

Not the kicks towards the posts at that end though.

(1) It would be a bit distracting for the kicker to see your head pop up out of a hole every few seconds directly in their line of sight when they are running up to take a kick and
(2) It would be extremely difficult for the crowd to maintain the Ravenhill silence if faced with the same sight!

Mind you. When Leinster are playing towards that end you could put them off their game be throwing in the odd wee somersault at the appropriate moment.


Actually. The more I think about this the more I like it. It might even be worth the price of the ticket on it's own, never mind about the rugby!