Saw this on the South Wales Evening Post website and wondered what everyone would think. Obviously, this is a football forum, and I'm expecting the majority of Cardiff fans to be against the idea as, well, you're football fans! I follow both sports though and, while I hadn't given any thought to the idea before, I think it would be good. Playing in a half empty stadium can't be great for players, and it would be good to have specific use stadiums as the Millenium hasn't ever really been able to claim it's a good surface to play football on, having had a succession of problems with the pitch there. Anyway, opinions?
35,000/40,000 seater football only stadium for swansea ! fine by me but can you see that corrupt self ( cardiff ) serving assembly & f.a.w letting any where else in wales have bigger or better than them !! i doubt it .
Personally, I'd have no problem travelling to Swansea for every International but not a chance in hell would the "powers-that-be" (presumably the FAW/WA) sanction another stadium when we don't/can't fill CCS or Liberty for Internationals as it is. Recent examples are Norway@CCS 12,637 - Switzerland@Liberty 12,317 and this is supposed to be when Wales are on the up? Also the amount of home games at present wouldn't merit the outlay imo. I'd sooner see some cash spent on improving the Mill Stad surface tbh. If the current upturn in fortunes continues and the public (20k+) start to come back to Internationals on a regular basis not just for the 'big games', as it was not so long ago, then Millennium Stadium is there to accommodate them. Until that happens (if it happens), I'm quite happy to see these Internationals shared between the different stadiums available. It's not always possible for football fans in N Wales to get down here and they've as much right to see the National team live as we do.
welsh regional rugby has terrible attendance! I've seen swans reserves have bigger attendances than the scarlets at parc y scarlets. The national team's attendance is brilliant, but surely questions need to be asked why the regions attendances are so poor. I went to see the scarlets v glasgow last weekend as my mate is a scarlets season tickets holder he had a few spare tickets. they had 9,000 odd people there and my mate said apart from scarlets v ospreys games (which usually sell out) thats one of the biggest attendances he's seen for awhile. yet the irish teams get massive crowds 20,000 plus, even 40,000 for big heiniken cup games, and rugby is the 4th biggest sport in ireland!! i do prefer football myself, but rugby is supposed to be the welsh number 1 sport. watched the ospreys on tv last night, the stadium was pretty much empty!! its such a waste, if we were to expand the liberty rugby in the liberty would look even more empty, much like the welsh football team playing at smaller grounds as they couldn't get enought bums on seats in the millennium stadium. i would have to say that building a new stadium for football only in swansea will get a big thumbs up from me!
In my opinion the FAW cannot afford a stand alone stadium for Welsh internationals. If they were to think about this and sustain it then they would have to host other events. The Millenium stadium has concerts, speedway etc, etc... If this is taken into account then Swansea may not be a viable option as it will be in direct competition with the Millenium due to the relatively close proximity. Given the lack of consistent numbers supporting the national team via ticket sales I believe this is a non-starter. How many times would Wales have to play a home venue to generate enough to build and sustain a national stadium even with FIFA money I do not think it is currently a realistic option. The FAW needs to promote the national team across the nation and playing in Wrexham, Swansea and Cardiff will help this even though the catchment area in South Wales if by far the largest. I feel for the the English football fans in the north as they are less able to afford the time and money to go to a live England game because their national stadium is in London.
"build a new 35/40,000-seater (football-only) stadium in Swansea" Why ? build a new stadium when you can't fil the one you've got. 19,296 v Fulham 19,530 v QPR
Nothing to do with inter-club rivalry, but I must agree with you on that one Rhondda. A new purpose built 35,000/40,000 seat stadium down there is a pipe dream. Where are Swansea going to find another 15,000 to 20,000 fans? A new stadium down there would end up like the Ricoh on match days - half empty at best in the Prem and like a ghost town if (heaven forbid) they ever go down. Welsh International fixtures would never justify the build expense nor sustain running costs.
I think you will find the Swans have sold out every single game home fans wise, those figures are because the away club hasnt sold their full allocation of away tickets. Should also add we have a 5000 waiting list for season tickets
I was going to say. There's only so "sold out" you can get isn't there?! Suppose you boys will find out about all these segregation rules which only apply to the PL if you ever make it up I had a bit more of a think about this idea and it's not really got any legs. Football in Wales doesn't seem to have the number of fans backing it that we did in times gone by. Why, I don't know but that's the way it is. I do think that for big games though, against big PL sides, the Swans could easily sell over 30,000 tickets so a 30k stadium isn't completely realistic, but obviously if you get relegated it becomes a mausoleum....but that's life. You don't stay in your tiny house with your massive family while you have loads of money in the bank, purely because if you move, you might lose your job in the future! You accommodate, to the best of your ability, what your means allow you to. It'll never get off the ground, but I think the idea could work if it was given a chance.
Your average last year was 15,507. So are most of them Rugby fans, jumping on the Prem. bandwagon? More Hyms & Arias than football songs.
All that looking up must do crazy things to you! Things like having to resort to picking on what songs we sing because you know we're currently a better football team, and criticising our "poor" sold out stadium. Go back to the drawing board...I'd hardly say an increase of what, less than a third, indicates a massive rush of plastics. More that we got promoted to the biggest league in the world, and, naturally, interest soared. Maybe you'll find out in time eh.
Scottswan - There's no doubt that "fans" follow success. Plastic or otherwise, supporters want to watch a successful team and the fanbase tends to grow proportionate the the success achieved whether anyone likes it or not. The point is that the "overall" fanbase of Swansea City FC would have to grow exponentially to justify a 40,000 seater, and that is just not going to happen. As many down there are very quick to point out, Cardiff has a much greater potential for growth in that direction. The CCS has brought crowds of 25,000 plus (virtual practical capacity given segregation etc) to watch Championship games. Premier opposition would suggest that the additional 8,000 seats proposed from the built-in infrastucture already in place at the CCS would be oversold. Of course we have to get there first whereas Swansea have already made it. The facts don't lie about that, but then neither do the current and potential attendance figures for both clubs.
Rhondda, You must not and i repeat must not present the jacks with truthful statements, It upsets the equilibrium of there delusional minds. They are by far the greatest team ever to represent Wales in the top flight and as such maybe we should get behind the idea of swansea becoming the centre of Welsh football. Also it might stop most of their fans from wearing their man ure liverpool arsenal or chelsea shirts to the games.
Here we go again - anyone want a decent chat about the article, or do we have to put up with this sort of post?
the cardiff fans are right on this thread shame certain posters are being childish again, please go to the banter thread if thats what you're interested in. currently, i would have no problem having all wales internationals in the liberty, however the CCS is bigger and in the capital city, other nations like spain have internationals all over the nation instead of one main city, however to build a football stadium in swansea would be a complete waste of money, the only option would be to increase capacity of the liberty, which i believe could happen, however, the support isnt there at the moment, wales football fans are disgracefully disloyal, to even start this debate we should be filling the CCS, but that isnt happening, come back with this question when this happens
