Almost 40,000 tickets will be sold to the public for matches at the redeveloped Lansdowne Road stadium in Dublin, it was revealed yesterday.
Once corporate boxes and premium seats are handed out, 38,500 tickets will be distributed through clubs and will go on general sale.
A spokesman for the Lansdowne Road Stadium Development Company has rejected claims by local residents around the stadium that fewer than half that would be available.
"It was suggested that once corporate tickets are taken out there would only be 19,000 tickets left. This is totally untrue," he said.
The €365 million redevelopment of Lansdowne Road, was given the go-ahead on Monday by Dublin City Council.
The ageing ground will be transformed into a modern 50,000-seat stadium with construction to begin early next year and scheduled to finish in mid-2009.
Developers have been warned they will have to comply with 28 conditions but none of these is thought to require major alterations to the plans or to restrict the height.
Locals residents angry at the council's decision to grant permission for the building are expected to lodge complaints with An Bord Pleanála in the coming week.
The residents have strongly objected to the height of the new stadium, which would rise to 48.5 metres (160ft), pointing out that this is much higher than Croke Park (35 metres/115ft), although the latter has a significantly larger crowd capacity of 82,500.
The development company said that in the reopened stadium there will be 1,500 box seats, 10,000 premium seats and 38,500 general admission seats.
"The 10,000 premium level seats are really long-term seats which were already a factor in the existing stadium," the spokesman said. "They are, of course, also available. To suggest that somehow 31,000 tickets would be for corporate usage is nonsensical."