It may be mid-season in the League of Ireland, but for 130,000 football fans over the next seven days, ‘pre-season’ will be the more common phrase, with two major games coming to Dublin.
Arsenal’s meeting with Real Betis at the Aviva Stadium tonight begins a significant week for elite club football in Dublin, with Manchester United and Leeds United following at Croke Park next Wednesday. Beyond the football, the two fixtures combine ticketing, hospitality, sponsorship, digital broadcasting and stadium utilisation in a valuable commercial package.
Arsenal will face Real Betis at the Aviva Stadium tonight, Wednesday, August 5th, at 7.30 pm, before Manchester United and Leeds United take over Croke Park at the same time next Wednesday, August 12th.
The central commercial player behind both Dublin fixtures is TEG Sport, the international sports-events division of Ticketek Entertainment Group.
TEG Sport is presenting Arsenal against Real Betis as part of its Dublin Games 2026 programme, working in partnership with the FAI and Aviva Stadium. The Manchester United–Leeds United fixture has a slightly different structure, with TEG Sport and Croke Park Stadium jointly bringing the game to Jones’ Road.
The clubs add their own commercial layers. Arsenal will distribute tonight’s match through its digital channels, while Manchester United will carry next week’s fixture on MUTV as part of Tour 2026, presented by Snapdragon. Those media and sponsorship arrangements sit alongside, rather than replace, TEG Sport’s role in promoting and delivering the live events.
TEG is building on evidence that the Irish market will support this type of event. Leeds United’s friendly against AC Milan at the Aviva Stadium last summer was a sell-out, providing a strong proof of concept before progressing to Arsenal this year and then moving into the substantially larger capacity available at Croke Park.
More Than the Match Ticket
Limited tickets remained available for Arsenal against Real Betis in the build-up to the game. Ticketmaster has listed adult prices ranging from €56.25 to €145, with under-16 tickets from €28.15 to €45.
Hospitality adds a second layer. THP has been selling official executive-box packages for groups of 12, 24 and 50, including match tickets, a complimentary bar, dining and access before and after the game. This transforms a pre-season fixture into a corporate entertainment occasion at a relatively quiet point in the business-event calendar.
Arsenal also controls an additional digital revenue stream. The match is not being broadcast on conventional television in Britain and Ireland, but is available on Arsenal’s website and app for £6.99 per game or as part of a £14.99 pre-season bundle.
That direct-to-consumer model means the club can monetise supporters who cannot attend while also collecting viewing and customer data through its own platforms. The stadium audience may be concentrated in Ireland, but the fixture’s commercial reach is international.
The financial arrangements between TEG Sport, Arsenal, Real Betis and the Aviva Stadium have not been disclosed. Appearance guarantees, stadium hire, event production costs, and revenue sharing will all sit behind the headline ticket income.
Even allowing for juvenile prices, hospitality allocations, complimentary seats, and areas unavailable for sale, a well-attended event at the Aviva can generate a potential gross box office running into several million euros. Food and beverage, merchandise, hospitality and streaming sit on top of that.
Croke Park Raises the Scale
The Manchester United–Leeds United fixture takes the model to another level.
Croke Park has a capacity of 82,300, and the game will be the first association football fixture staged there since the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup play-off against France in November 2009. It will also be the first club football match played at the stadium.
The event has been sanctioned by the FAI and was launched with adult tickets beginning at €50 and under-16 admission at €25. Pre-sale access was provided to Croke Park Premium and Suite members, as well as season-ticket holders and members of both English clubs, before general sale through Ticketmaster.
Official hospitality packages have also been available from approximately €225 per person, incorporating premium seating and access to Croke Park’s Davin Lounge. The stadium’s scale offers significantly more general admission and hospitality inventory than the Aviva, as well as a potentially larger food-and-beverage return.
For Manchester United, Dublin forms part of Tour 2026, presented by Snapdragon. The title partnership gives Snapdragon exposure across United’s complete pre-season programme rather than around a single game, with the Dublin fixture carrying the sponsor’s branding through club media, promotional material and digital content.
The match will also be shown through MUTV, adding subscription and engagement value for the club beyond the physical attendance. It is another example of the modern pre-season match operating simultaneously as a live event, sponsor platform and proprietary media product.
Value for Dublin and the Venues
The immediate beneficiaries extend beyond the clubs and promoter. Both stadiums generate income from hire, hospitality, concessions and ancillary services, while Dublin’s hotels, restaurants, pubs and transport providers benefit from supporters travelling from around Ireland and overseas.
No formal economic impact figure has been published, so claims about the wider value should be treated with caution. Nevertheless, two major midweek football events, with more than 130,000 seats in combined stadium capacity, represent substantial additional activity for the city.
For Croke Park, the fixture also continues a deliberate diversification of the stadium’s event calendar. Having hosted the NFL regular-season game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings in 2025, bringing Manchester United and Leeds to Jones’ Road further strengthens its credentials as an international venue outside Gaelic games and concerts.
Sport for Business Perspective
The modern pre-season friendly is no longer simply a training exercise with paying spectators.
It is a layered commercial product incorporating general admission, premium hospitality, tour sponsorship, digital subscriptions, membership acquisition, venue income and international supporter engagement.
TEG Sport’s Dublin programme demonstrates how Ireland can fit into that model. It offers world-class stadiums, major English club fanbases, and short travel distances at a time when teams are managing a compressed post-World Cup preparation period.
Tonight’s attendance at the Aviva and the crowd attracted to Croke Park next week will provide the clearest measure of demand. The ambition, however, is already evident: Dublin is being positioned as a commercially viable extension of the Premier League market.
The Aviva Stadium, Croke Park Stadium, the FAI and THP are full members of Sport for Business.
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Image Credit: Aviva Stadium
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