October 3 – Enterprise Ireland has launched a campaign to position Irish companies to win business associated with the construction of French stadia in the lead-up to Euro 2016.
French football and rugby organisations have indicated that they will be building a minimum of four new stadia and renovating a minimum of 10 existing stadia over the next five years.
This follows France’s nomination as host country for Euro 2016 and a recent announcement by the French rugby league of a wave of stadia renovations.
The French spend for Euro 2016 alone is estimated to be €1.7 billion (£1.4 billion).
Last week Enterprise Ireland hosted a conference in Thomond Park to showcase Ireland’s excellence in modern stadia construction where applications of building systems; construction services and professional services and applied IT were delivered.
EI Paris brought a delegation of French decision makers across to Ireland including stadia architects and engineers; construction companies; representatives from the Top 14 French rugby clubs as well as those from the French Football Federation.
The delegation of 15 French buyers includes among others, representatives from the construction group Vinci, the managing director and Development Director of the French Rugby league and the Director of the French Football Stadia department in charge of France’s Euro Stadia.
Over the last 10 years Irish Stadia have been in constant evolution, culminating in the launches of Thomond Park (pictured) in Limerick, the home of Munster Rugby, and the Aviva Stadium, the former Lansdowne Road.
“The French delegation came to see our stadium as part of their work in hosting the 2016 European Championships,” said John Cantwell, the stadium director of Thomond Park.
“France must build and renovate new and old stadia and they came here to get a bells and whistles tour of everything they have heard about in relation to Thomond Park – how we did and how we run it.”
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