Overview
Aviva Stadium is the national home of both Irish rugby and football, and one of the few grounds anywhere shared equally by two codes. It stands on the Lansdowne Road site in Ballsbridge, where the game has been played since the 1870s, and opened in its current form on 14 May 2010 with 51,711 seats. The Irish Rugby Football Union and the Football Association of Ireland jointly own and run it. Beyond internationals, it hosts European finals and stadium concerts through the summer.
If you can get a ticket to a Six Nations Saturday or a Republic of Ireland qualifier, that’s the way to see the place. Failing that, the hour-long tour will do it – and, unlike a couple of years ago, the tours are running again.
From Lansdowne Road to the Aviva
The ground’s history runs back to 1872, when the sportsman Henry Wallace Dunlop founded Lansdowne Road, the oldest international sporting venue in the world. It held the first international athletics meeting in 1876 and the first rugby international a couple of years later. The old stadium was demolished in 2007 and rebuilt on the same footprint; the naming-rights deal with Aviva was signed in 2009 and now runs to 2030. Since reopening it has staged the 2011 and 2024 Europa League finals, the 2023 Champions Cup final, an American-football game between Notre Dame and Navy, and it’s down to host matches at Euro 2028.
The roof
Designed by the stadium specialists Populous, the Aviva’s translucent curved roof is the thing you notice first. It’s often described as retractable – it isn’t. The roof covers all the spectator seating and floods the bowl with daylight, but it doesn’t close over the pitch, so a wet international is still a wet international. The design does its work in other ways: the curve maximises light onto the grass and cuts the wind swirl that plagues open bowls. The ground now carries UEFA’s top ‘Elite Stadium’ classification (the rating formerly known as Category 4), which is what lets it host finals and tournament fixtures.
Stadium tours
Tours run seven days a week, closed only when the stadium is in use, and last about an hour. They start at Entrance A on Lansdowne Road and take in the home dressing room, the players’ tunnel, pitchside and the press room. The route is fully wheelchair accessible. Groups of 20 or more get 10% off; school rates are €4.50 for children up to 12 and €6.30 for older students. Book ahead, and check the fixture list first – a match or concert closes the tour for the day.
Getting there and parking
Public transport is the only sensible way in, and it’s easy:
- DART: Lansdowne Road station is steps from the ground.
- Bus: Dublin Bus routes 4, 7, 7A, 18 and 77A stop within a short walk.
- Luas: the Green Line at Charlemont and the Red Line at Connolly are each about a 20-minute walk. The city centre itself is a 25–30 minute walk.
There is no public parking at the stadium – none at all for concerts, and only limited pre-booked accessible spaces for sporting events, which close two hours before kick-off. A 1km car-free zone comes into force on event days, so if you must drive, use Q-Park Grand Canal Square or Park-Rite IFSC and walk the rest.
Food, facilities and the cash question
The concourses run the usual stadium mix – pies, fish and chips, plus vegan and gluten-free options – with bars on each level and a merchandise store for jerseys and scarves. One thing to know before you go: the Aviva is entirely cashless. Every bar and kiosk takes card or contactless only, so leave the notes at home. Toilets with baby-changing are on every tier.
Accessibility
The stadium is fully wheelchair accessible, with lifts to all levels, designated seating on every tier, accessible toilets, and audio-visual captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing spectators. Guide dogs are welcome with prior arrangement. Accessible parking is limited and must be pre-booked.
Around the ground
Afterwards, Ballsbridge is on the doorstep – Georgian streets and a walk along the Grand Canal – and the RDS grounds are a few minutes away. For high-demand matches, tickets are released in phases through the unions, so plan around the fixture list and book the moment they go on sale. Then get there early: the pubs along Lansdowne Road fill up well before kick-off, and that’s half the day out.