Dublin is set to host another American College football game with the news that Boston College and Georgia Tech will face each other at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, 3 September 2016.
The announcement of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic was made at a reception in Dublin attended by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, which was followed by a reception in Boston College in the US attended by the Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh.
Tourism Ireland, Failte Ireland and Dublin City, in conjunction with Aer Lingus are also supporting the game.
Event organisers are confident the game will be a 48,000 ticket sell-out and it is expected that 25,000 will travel from the US and Europe.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he was delighted that College Football was returning to Ireland; "This is great news for Irish tourism and the economy; in 2012 and again last year, we witnessed a huge surge of US visitors to our shores for the Emerald Isle Classic and the Croke Park Classic and I have no doubt, particularly given Boston College’s close links with this country, we will see another spectacular success in 2016."
Looking ahead to next year’s event, Father William P Leahy from Boston College added: "Our history and our connections with Ireland are well known, we are very proud of our campus on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green.
"2016 is a very special year in Ireland’s history and we are particularly pleased that we will be travelling with hopefully tens of thousands Boston College supporters to share in those celebrations and enjoy this important conference game with Georgia Tech."