In a way that only sport can, yesterday the city of Cardiff saw rugby finally see common sense while their footballing counterparts self-destructed into a ludicrous red, Malaysian mess. On the same afternoon that the Cardiff Blues announced that they’d be leaving the Cardiff City Stadium and returning to their city-centre home of the Arms Park, Cardiff City’s investors also announced that a re-brand of the club was imminent; which would see the club ditch their traditional blue shirts for red ones.
The supporters of the Cardiff Blues have been calling for the switch ever since the move back in 2009. Many fans have never even seen a game in the new stadium, and they’re not missing much. The droning, non-atmospheric, blue shell has got progressively worse game after game; to the extent that even the hardiest of supporters have given up. This was epitomised by the final game (hopefully) to ever be played at the ground, where just over 3,500 turned up to bid farewell to their departing stars such as Martyn Williams, Richie Rees, Gethin Jenkins and Xavier Rush among others. It summed up the Blues’ season, an enormous sense of ‘who cares?’.
The circumstances surrounding the Blues’ eventual departure the old Leckwith ground are slightly dubious to say the least. Richard Holland took over as Chief Executive and the fans hoped that the new man would see sense, but in January, when he was questioned regarding a possible move back the Arms Park he said,
“My brief is to make it work at the Cardiff City Stadium, full stop.”
“Whilst people aren’t coming, it’s people that make the atmosphere. So perhaps they need to take a look at themselves and come down and create the atmosphere.”
However yesterday, a matter of four months later he expressed,
“This move is important for our future sustainability,”
“Having listened to the supporters, sponsors and reviewed the financial position of the business, the board and I believe the Cardiff Blues should be playing back at the Arms Park.”
Quite a drastic change of opinion and commitment for a man of such stature, don’t you think? More likely than ‘listening to the supporters’, it’s very probable that Cardiff City’s owners were losing so much money that they asked them to terminate their contract. Because so few people were making their way through the turnstiles, they must’ve been making a net loss. In the first year, when the Blues were averaging 10,000-11,000 attendances for every home game, all was well. But now, with as little as 2,000 coming in, it can’t possibly cover the costs of maintaining the stadium with such things as catering, hospitality, pitch maintenance, licensing, safety stewards, policing etc. With that in mind, if Cardiff City were making a loss, it’s anyone’s guess how much money Cardiff Blues were losing. In business terms therefore, it’s a no-brainer. Although both clubs will portray it as a mutual separation, the likelihood is that the Cardiff Blues were shown the door by their landlords because they weren’t holding up their end of the bargain. It makes the Blues look like they're moving for the fans and it makes the Bluebirds’ owners look like compassionate businessmen for possible future partners; everyone’s a winner.
Let’s break it down further, everyone involved at Cardiff City are happy. The fans don’t have to share a stadium with rugby fans who share an already hostile relationship, the players don’t have to play on a pitch trampled by front rowers, the owners are free to expand and make changes for their own benefit and the club have their name and only their name on the lease. The same can be said of the Blues. As a club, they’ll have their own ground and a reinvented sense of identity, the players will get to play in a stadium with atmosphere, the fans will finally get what they wanted years ago and the owners aren’t restricted as to what they can or can’t do with their ground. Everyone’s happy? Not quite.
The problem is, because of the shoddy way the Cardiff Blues has been run in the past few years, it’s now probably got its weakest playing staff in the region’s history. With the loss of so many players and no-one coming in to replace them, they are threadbare in so many positions.
This is probably the best match day squad the Cardiff Blues could put out onto the field next year:
15. Leigh Halfpenny
14. Alex Cuthbert
13. Dafydd Hewitt
12. Jamie Roberts
11. Tom James
10. Jason Tovey
9. Lloyd Williams
8. Andries Pretorius
7. Sam Warburton
6. Josh Navidi
5. Bradley Davies
4. Lou Reed
3. Scott Andrews
2. Rhys Thomas
1. Sam Hobbs
16. Ryan Tyrrell
17. Tau Filise
18. Ryan Harford
19. James Down
20. Michael Paterson
21. Rhys Downes
22. Ceri Sweeney
23. Chris Czekaj
Who’s left? A few young, overweight props, Dan Fish, Gavin Evans and Richard Mustoe. It’s doubtful that the European elite are quaking in their boots looking at this line-up. The three best players in that squad are Sam Warburton, Leigh Halfpenny and Jamie Roberts who between them managed 23 appearances between them all season (Warburton 8, Halfpenny 10 & Roberts 5). This means that they’ll be reliant on their squad players who frankly aren’t good enough.
Before they moved to the outskirts in 2009, they reached the semi-final of the Heineken Cup, attracting 42,000 to the Millennium Stadium to see them miss out on the final by an inhumane penalty shootout. This in undoubtedly the region’s biggest success and that’s including the EDF and Amlin Challenge Cup trophies that are being packed away ready for a move into the city centre. Since then, the board has been under the illusion that the region has been developing because of the move to the stadium and their flash new training facility. Not only has the region not been developing, it’s moved backwards.
Many Cardiff fans will remember the evening that over 20,000 crammed into the Arms Park to see the Blues’ star signing Jonah Lomu. Who have the same fans been treated to since rugby’s biggest global name donned the baby blue shirt? The worst overseas signing in the history of sport in Sam Norton-Knight and the most negative rugby player on the planet in Dan Parks. They made one fantastic signing in Gavin Henson because he’s a player that people will pay to come and watch and rightly or wrongly, he was hung out to dry for having a beer with other members of the team and management. They were given the opportunity of some sort of input by Graham Henry who has indicated his desire to be affiliated with the Blues in an advisory role, a decision they turned down and opted instead for a horrifying double-act of mediocrity in Justin Burnell and Gareth Baber.
The region cannot afford to spend the summer patting themselves on the back for getting it right for the fans, they must be proactive. Phil Davies has the hardest job of all in getting the best out of an average set of players with little or no money to bring his own men in. If the club really want to make this move for the fans, surely a few games should be played up at Sardis Road to at least try and change the minds of their valleys population. This shouldn’t be a token gesture of a Connacht or Aironi fixture but a slightly more illustrious game.
The honeymoon period won’t last long for the Blues unless they can make the Arms Park the fortress it once was. Many of us will travel the short distance from a Cardiff bar to the Arms Park in the first few weeks of the season, but they must sustain some form in order to pull the people back in. Given the weakness of their squad this is a monumental task, though at least we’ll all be in the right place to watch it all unfold; stood on terrace with an SA Brains in hand.
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