If you’re the generous sort and money isn’t too much of an object, here are five cracking last-minute gifts to consider for the sports lover this festive season.
Bavaria City Racing F1 Paddock and Grandstand ticket
Excitement is already building ahead of the Bavaria City Racing Event in Dublin in June of next year and you can ensure that one lucky friend or family member is as close to the action as one can possibly get.
A Paddock and Grandstand ticket entitles the ticketholder to mingle with the various personalities and hot babes parading around the paddock, while also getting up close and personal with some of the finest cars the world has to offer, including supercars, WRC rally cars and the Vodafone McLaren Formula One drove by Jenson Button, who will also be in attendance.
What’s more, when the cars do come flying down the home straight, they can plank their arses on the finest seats in the house.
Paddock and Grandstand tickets are available from all Ticketmaster outlets for €163.90. For more information, visit the Bavaria City Racing website.
A pair of Heineken Cup Final tickets
It might be a tad presumptuous to be thinking about Twickenham next May, but an Irish team have appeared in the final in four of the last six seasons and judging by the start made by Leinster and Munster in particular, there’s a good chance that history will repeat itself again this time around.
If the 2012 Heineken Cup Final can live up to this year’s edition, a pair of tickets would be a smashing gift
Besides, even if they’re not cheering their own team on, any rugby fan would relish a chance to head along to European Rugby’s showpiece event, which unlike it’s equivalent in World Cup rugby, rarely fails to live up to expectations. On the other hand, they could sell them off for a ridiculously inflated price, but we’d like to think that they wouldn’t be that type of guy.
Pairs of Heineken Cup Final tickets ranges in price from €88 – €190 and are also available from Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.
Mondello Park experience
If you’re still looking for the perfect gift for someone who’s head is filled more with petrol than, well, anything, then look no further. Mondello Park International Circuit has everything your petrol-headed loved one would want, and more. The thrills of high-speed racing are intertwined with the knowledge that you’re not going to do a Richard Hammond on it and go off the track at a million miles per hour.
Mondello offers a Start Line course starting from €225 where drivers get to experience the fun of a real single seater racer in the form of a Formula Sheane racing car, but not before a bit of training in a race spec. Mazda3 – with an instructor of course. This isn’t karting. This is racing.
Packages available from €149. For more information, visit the Mondello website.
Five-day package for Cheltenham 2012
Back in the Celtic Tiger era you could barely get your arse on a flight such was the amount of Irish racing enthusiasts heading to Cheltenham in mid-March, but the number of people heading to the Cotswolds has lessened somewhat since frugality has taken hold recent years.
It still remains a hugely popular destination, however, and it’s as close as there is to Mecca for racing fans in this part of the world. If you’re prepared to splash out, a five day package that includes return ferry journeys, four nights in a hotel, three days racing, breakfast and dinner every day and all transfers between the hotel and the course will set you back just under €600.
Pricey, maybe, but the recipient of your gift will be able to pay you back with all their winnings, right?
A five day Cheltenham package is available from for Barrys Travel for €590.
Euro 2012 package
If you’re a really, really good friend/brother/son/lover (we’re not here to judge), well then the absolute best present you can buy an Irish sports fan this Christmas is an all-expenses paid trip to cheer on Trap and the Boys in Green next year.
It’s been ten years since we’ve made it to a major tournament, so expect thousands upon thousands of Irish men to forget about the recession and leave the country in their droves next June with their compasses and thirsty bellies pointed east.
It ain’t cheap, and some of the packages on offer don’t incorporate match tickets, but Irish supporters generally find a way to get their hands on tickets when they’re there, right? At the time of writing, you can register your interest and starting paying off your trip with Marathon Sports Travel, or pay a non-refundable €200 deposit with Club Travel to guarantee your spot on the plane. If you really want to be guaranteed match tickets well in advance of the clamour in Poznan and Gdansk next June, you could go down the official Uefa tour operator route – Thomson Sport will have them in time, but no details for the Ireland games against Croatia, Spain and Italy have been confirmed just yet.
An alternative to the luxury route – and by luxury we mean plane travel – is to buy an auld banger of a minibus – or even a caravan – and stock it full of crates of beer for the long journey. That’s what the lads from Back The Bid are planning to do. We spoke to them this week.
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