Trinity College is to build a 4,000 seat temporary stadium on the College Sports Grounds in front of the Pavilion Bar this September in order to host three high profile American High School Football games as part of the College Football Classic at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, September 3rd.
Trinity will also be the venue for the Official Welcome Village and will host a number of social, cultural and business events during the game week beforehand. This will include the famous pep rallies and tailgate parties that are a feature of College Football.
Tickets go on public sale in Ireland next Wednesday but Members of Sport for Business have been given exclusive pre-sale access to buy tickets from 9am this morning. Click here and enter the code CFBSportsFB
The game will be broadcast live by ESPN globally however talks are also progressing for ESPN to broadcast their immensely popular flagship sports news programme SportsCentre live from Dublin for over three hours prior to kick off – showcasing the immense benefit the game will have for Ireland on an international stage.
“Our ticket sales in the US have been very strong with 20,000 gone already and this year’s College Football Classic will sell out quickly next week,” said Padraic O’Kane, CEO of Corporate.ie and the game promoter.
“Corporate Boxes have sold out and corporate hospitality is almost fully filled so we are confident that by the time the teams arrive in September we will have a full house at the Aviva Stadium”.
“It has always been our ambition that these College Football Classic games should be much more than a game insofar as they provide an opportunity to celebrate the business and economic ties we have with the United States.”
“The business-oriented, networking and education programme that is developing around the game in September will have long lasting benefits for Ireland.”
“With this now being the third high profile game in Dublin in the past five years Dublin’s reputation as the European HQ for College Football is now firmly established and we hope this will reap great reward both for the city and for the teams involved in future years.”
There was much talk of creating legacy from the event at the launch yesterday and the theme was well aligned with the hashtag of #MuchMoreThanaGame.
The Boston College CEO Club will be bringing it’s Global Forum outside of New England for the first time in its 23 year history and revealed yesterday that Muhtar Kent, the Chairman and CEO of Coca Cola will be delivering the keynote address to that high profile and immensely influential group in Dublin in the run up to the game.
“We have great bonds between Boston and Ireland in a business as well as a cultural, historic and sporting sense,” said Warren Zola, CEO of the CEO Club speaking to Sport for Business yesterday.
“Companies that are headquartered in Boston who have major operations here include State Street, Fidelity, Boston Scientific, EmC and Liberty Mutual.”
“They are showing US companies in a very real and tangible way that Ireland is a great place to establish in Europe and we hope that bringing a great audience to the city in the fall will open up a few more opportunities.”
The launch took place in the dining hall at Trinity College which is becoming more heavily involved in the Business of Sport with this venture.
“This is a great opportunity to give 30,000 extra visitors an experience what we have,” said Trinity Commercial Director Adrian Neilan.
“Sport allows people to come together, to seek excellence as well as social inclusion.”
“It creates a wonderful emotive bond and we will learn from our Boston College and Georgia Tech friends how that can deliver real value in terms of building ties to alumni and enhancing the reputation of education institutions at a global level.”
The creation of the temporary grandstand will be a first for the College and will bring the games right into the heart of the City which is a great addition to this year’s event.
It is expected that the Game Week will drive economic value of over €100 million for Dublin and is being enthusiastically backed by Aer Lingus as the main commercial partner as well as Dublin City Council, Grant Thornton, Failte Ireland, Dublin Town
