National Basketball Arena, also known as Tallaght Arena, is an indoor sporting arena located in

Tymon Park Tymon Park is a large suburban public park in Dublin, Ireland. It has an area of over and is divided in two by the M50 motorway, the two divisions being linked by a pair of pedestrian bridges. One of Dublin's historically important rivers, th ...

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, South Dublin, adjacent to the M50 motorway. The capacity of the arena is 2,500 people and it opened in January 1993. It is used mainly for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

events, but has also hosted other indoor sports, most notably

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

, as well as exhibitions, concerts and cultural events.

Basketball

The National Basketball Arena serves as the headquarters of Basketball Ireland. It also serves as the home court of the

Ireland national basketball team The Ireland men's national basketball team ( ga, Foireann cispheile náisiúnta na hÉireann) represents the Ireland, island of Ireland in international basketball. It is governed by Basketball Ireland with players from both the Republic of Irel ...

, the

Ireland women's national basketball team The Ireland women's national basketball team represents Ireland in international women's basketball. The team is organised by Basketball Ireland, and play their home games at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght. In February 2010, during ...

and Hibernia Basketball. It has previously served as the home court of

Shamrock Rovers Hoops The Shamrock Rovers Hoops were an Irish basketball team based in Tallaght, Dublin. Rovers competed in the Superleague and played their home games at the National Basketball Arena. They were affiliated with Shamrock Rovers F.C., who were nicknam ...

. It also regularly hosts Super League games. The arena hosted the

1994 European Promotion Cup for Men The 1994 European Promotion Cup for Men was the 4th edition of this tournament. It was hosted in Dublin, Ireland and the host team achieved its first title ever after beating Cyprus in the final game. Preliminary round Group A Group B Class ...

. In November 2022 it hosted the Dublin Basketball Challenge with teams from the MAAC and ASUN competing.

Futsal

The National Basketball Arena has hosted finals of both the

FAI Futsal Cup The FAI Futsal Cup is a cup competition organized by the Football Association of Ireland for futsal teams based in the Republic of Ireland. The winners qualify to represent the Republic of Ireland in the UEFA Futsal Cup. The competition was intro ...

and the

Emerald Futsal League The Emerald Futsal League was a futsal league featuring teams based in the Republic of Ireland. It was initially planned that the league would develop into a full national league. However the vast majority of its member clubs are based in the Gr ...

. It has also served as the home court of both the

Republic of Ireland national futsal team The Republic of Ireland national futsal team has represented the Republic of Ireland in the UEFA Futsal Championship. The Republic of Ireland has, to date, never qualified for the final stages of a major tournament. It has, however, taken part i ...

and Shamrock Rovers. The arena has also hosted international

tournaments. In February 2009 the Republic of Ireland played against

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

in a

2010 UEFA Futsal Championship The 2010 UEFA Futsal Championship was the seventh official edition of the UEFA-governed European Championship for national futsal teams. It was hosted by Hungary, between January 19 and January 30, 2010, in two venues located in Budapest ( Papp L ...

preliminary group qualifying tournament. The Republic of Ireland acted as hosts and all six group games were played at the National Basketball Arena. The Republic lost to both Cyprus and Kazakhstan, either side of a 2–0 win against England. In January 2011 the Republic of Ireland played against

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Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in a

UEFA Futsal Euro 2012 The UEFA Futsal Euro 2012 was the eighth official edition of the UEFA European Championship for national futsal teams. It was hosted by Croatia, and was played from January, 31 to February, 11. 12 teams competed for the title, with 11 teams gain ...

preliminary group qualifying tournament. Once again the Republic of Ireland acted as hosts and all six group games were again played at the National Basketball Arena. In August 2014 when

Eden Futsal Club Eden Futsal Club is an Irish futsal club based in Blanchardstown, Fingal. The club played under various names including English in Dublin, Sporting Fingal EID, EID Futsal and Eden College. In 2008 they were founder members of the Emerald Futsal ...

hosted their

2014–15 UEFA Futsal Cup The 2014–15 UEFA Futsal Cup was the 29th edition of Europe's premier club futsal tournament and the 14th edition under the current UEFA Futsal Cup format. Times are CET (UTC+1) during winter and CEST (UTC+2) during summer. Preliminary round Gr ...

preliminary group, all six games were played at the National Basketball Arena.

Boxing

The arena has hosted many

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

fights, featuring, among others,

Wayne McCullough Wayne Pocket Rocket McCullough (born Wayne William McCullough; 7 July 1970) is a former professional boxer from Northern Ireland who competed from 1993 to 2008. He held the WBC bantamweight title from 1995 to 1997, becoming the first boxer fr ...

, Eddie Hyland,

Naseem Hamed Naseem Hamed (born 12 February 1974), nicknamed Prince Naseem and Naz, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2002.. Retrieved 25 February 2016. He held multiple featherweight world championships, including the WBO ti ...

, Oisin Fagan,

Michael Carruth Michael Carruth (born 9 July 1967) is a southpaw Irish Olympic boxer from Dublin. He is best known for winning the welterweight gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. He turned Pro in 1994 but retired in 2000. Amateur boxing ;Ol ...

Scott Dixon Scott Ronald Dixon (born 22 July 1980) is a professional racing driver from New Zealand, who competes in the NTT IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing. Dixon has won the IndyCar championship six times: in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 202 ...

and Patrick Hyland.

Wrestling & Other sports

The arena hosted an American Wrestling Rampage show in 2008 which featured wrestlers such as

Rob Van Dam Robert Alexander Szatkowski (born December 18, 1970) is an American professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam (frequently abbreviated to RVD). He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling ...

, Sabu,

Chris Masters Christopher Todd Mordetzky (born January 8, 1983) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) under the ring name Chris Adonis as a member of Strictly Business. He is a former two-time National Ch ...

, Rene Dupree and

Scotty 2 Hotty Scott Ronald Garland (born July 2, 1973) is an American professional wrestler who was most recently signed to WWE as a trainer at the WWE Performance Center. He also competed under the ring names "Too Hot" Scott Taylor (1991–1999) and Scotty 2 ...

. The arena has also hosted many Irish Whip Wrestling shows which have featured wrestlers such as Tatanka, Daivari,

Balls Mahoney Jonathan Rechner (April 11, 1972 – April 12, 2016), better known by his ring name Balls Mahoney, was an American professional wrestler. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) during the late 199 ...

Nigel McGuinness Steven Haworth (born 23 January 1976), better known by his ring name Nigel McGuinness, is an English actor, professional wrestling commentator and retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with WWE where he worked as a color ...

, Andy Boy Simmonz and Chad Collyer. From February 2019 the arena will host regular Wrestling events presented by Ireland’s premier wrestling company

Over the Top Wrestling Over the Top Wrestling, commonly abbreviated to OTT, is an Irish professional wrestling promotion based in Dublin, Ireland, that was founded in 2014. The promotion mixes elements of traditional pro wrestling, comedy and sports entertainment. Ove ...

(OTT). It has also hosted karate,

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

, and

MMA Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on strike (attack), striking, grappling and ground f ...

events.

References

External links

National Basketball Arena on Facebook
{{Futsal in the Republic of Ireland Sports venues in South Dublin (county) Indoor arenas in the Republic of Ireland Basketball in South Dublin (county) Basketball venues in Ireland Boxing venues in the Republic of Ireland Futsal in the Republic of Ireland 1993 establishments in Ireland Sports venues completed in 1993