{"id":404494,"date":"2026-03-26T06:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T06:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/404494\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T06:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T06:51:10","slug":"rds-puts-the-roof-on-e59m-new-stand-in-expanded-laya-arena-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/404494\/","title":{"rendered":"RDS puts the roof on \u20ac59m new stand in expanded Laya Arena \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

After months of heavy duty structural construction work, the roof was placed atop the new \u20ac59 million stand on Wednesday at the Laya Arena<\/a> in the grounds of the Royal Dublin Society\u2019s (RDS)<\/a> campus in Ballsbridge. <\/p>\n

The focus now shifts to fitting out the three-storey stand internally and installing 6,775 seats in time for it to debut on August 5th for the first day of the Dublin Horse Show<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a very busy construction schedule ahead,\u201d RDS chief executive Paul Kelly told The Irish Times. \u201cWe\u2019re moving into a phase where there will be a huge amount of work going on that\u2019s not very visible because it\u2019s internal. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a huge amount that still needs to be done but we\u2019re on budget and we\u2019re on schedule and we\u2019re very excited that we\u2019ll have it open for the horse show.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said the new stand would provide a \u201cmuch better experience\u201d for spectators while the addition of modern hospitality suites \u201cincreases the attractiveness\u201d of the venue for promoters because there are increased opportunities to \u201csell higher-value tickets\u201d and \u201cgive attendees a better experience\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0RDS members bridle at instruction to use Laya Arena name for showgroundsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The stadium will be known as the Laya Arena under a 10-year deal agreed with the health insurer, while Leinster rugby<\/a> has signed a 25-year agreement to use it for home games. Leinster will return to hosting matches at the stadium in September. <\/p>\n

Kelly said the new structure was funded by a \u20ac15 million grant from the State\u2019s Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund, with the Immigrant Investor Programme providing between \u20ac10 million and \u20ac12 million, and the balance coming from the RDS. <\/p>\n

Following the redevelopment, the capacity of the stadium for rugby matches increases to 20,500. For concerts, the arena will have a capacity of 38,000. <\/p>\n

The roof hosts a solar energy system, and infrastructure for rainwater harvesting has also been put in place. The stand has 57 wheelchair spaces and 52 accessible seats for people with mobility issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After months of heavy duty structural construction work, the roof was placed atop the new \u20ac59 million stand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[44210,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,14926,15,16,5,183112,183111,7,8],"class_list":["post-404494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ballsbridge","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-laya-health","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-paul-kelly","tag-royal-dublin-society","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116294155271006796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}