Ulster Rugby has today nominated the RDS in Dublin as its ‘home’ venue for a potential RaboDirect PRO12 Final on Saturday, 25 May.<\/p>\n
In accordance with tournament regulations, Ulster Rugby, as one of the five teams still in contention for a Play-Off place, has had to nominate a venue to host the final should their regular season seeding earn them that right after the Play-Offs.<\/p>\n
Teams finishing in the top three positions can earn the right to host the RaboDirect PRO12 Final. The Play-Off draw gives home draws to the top two teams (1 v 4 and 2 v 3) with the highest ranked survivors after the Play-Offs earning the right to host a ‘home’ final.<\/p>\n
However, the rules also stipulate that a final venue must have a capacity in excess of 18,000. With the two-year redevelopment of Ravenhill still ongoing, it would not have been possible to host the game at the home of Ulster Rugby this season.<\/p>\n
When the work is complete next summer, the capacity at Ravenhill will be 18,200 and the ground will be capable of hosting a RaboDirect PRO12 final or Heineken Cup Quarter-Final.<\/p>\n
If the final is played at the RDS with Ulster designated as the ‘home’ club, Ulster Rugby fans will be entitled to 50% of the tickets for the game in accordance with the rules of the RaboDirect PRO12.<\/p>\n
If Ulster finish in first or second place in the RaboDirect PRO12, the Province will host a home Play-Off at Ravenhill.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the decision to nominate the RDS as it’s ‘home’ venue for a RaboDirect PRO12 final, Ulster Rugby Chief Executive, Shane Logan, said: ‘While no-one is presuming that Ulster will be in a final, it is important that we and the organisers of the league prepare for every eventuality.<\/p>\n
‘Our primary focus is to have the two new stands open to welcome our loyal supporters at the start of the 2013\/14 season. Our build is on time and on budget but it would not have been possible, without significant delay to our redevelopment project, to open the stands on a temporary basis for any potential RaboDirect PRO12 final.<\/p>\n
‘Therefore, in agreement with Celtic Rugby, we have nominated the RDS, with its capacity of 18,500, as the venue for a final involving Ulster as host club.<\/p>\n
‘If Ulster do make it to the final, I have no doubt that the RDS will be a fantastic location for the game and I hope that our supporters will travel there in huge numbers to back the team.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ulster Rugby has today nominated the RDS in Dublin as its ‘home’ venue for a potential RaboDirect PRO12 Final on Saturday, 25 May. In accordance with tournament regulations, Ulster Rugby, as one of the five teams still in contention for a Play-Off place, has had to nominate a venue to host the final should their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3959,1997],"class_list":["post-45909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ulster-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-ulster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45910,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45909\/revisions\/45910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}