Sports Stadium

Seasons

0

Episodes

0

Networks

RTÉ One

Overview

Sports Stadium was an Irish television sport programme on Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Broadcast between 1973 and 1997, it was RTÉ's flagship sports programme and one of its longest-running shows. It ran in a variety of slots, but in its final years aired on RTÉ Two on Saturdays between 1:00pm–6:00pm. Its first presenter was Brendan O'Reilly who lasted for fourteen years. Other presenters during the show's run included Liam Nolan, Fred Cogley, Michael Lyster, Peter Collins and finally Tracy Piggott. The format of the show was very similar to the BBC's Grandstand or ITV's World of Sport, and indeed Grandstand's racing coverage was often simulcast on the show. The earlier part of each show would feature a mixture of racing and recorded highlights of other sports. The centrepiece of the afternoon for many years was a live 3:00pm Football League Division One game, which would be followed by the classified football results. Coverage of the All-Ireland League was also featured on the show. For much of its life, the show's theme music was the distinctive keyboard riff from the Europe song "The Final Countdown". The original recording was used in the 1980s, but a re-arranged version was used during the 1990s.