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Dublin stadium to be renamed
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) have secured a ten-year sponsorship deal for the new Lansdowne Road stadium in Dublin.
Under the terms of the deal, Ireland's largest insurance company, Hibernian Aviva, will own naming rights to the stadium, which is currently undergoing a 411m euro (£364.5m) redevelopment, as well as investment in both the FAI and IRFU's grassroots initiatives. Phillip Browne, IRFU chief executive, said: "We believe that in the difficult economic conditions we are now going through, Aviva Stadium will be of huge benefit to the economy as a whole. Previous research shows that the weekend of an Ireland v England rugby international has an economic impact of up to 90m euro (£79.8m)."
Stuart Purdy, group chief executive at Hibernian Aviva, added: "Contributing to the economy and to the communities in which we operate are vitally important to us, and I can think of no better way to demonstrate this than by supporting Aviva Stadium and the IRFU and FAI grassroots programmes." It was recently announced by UEFA, the European football governing body, that the newly-named Aviva Stadium will host the 2011 Champions League final.