GROUNDS FOR OPTIMISM - CARDIFF CITY'S NEW STADIUM

Messageboard regular and top contributor, Paul Evans aka The Other Bob Wilson provided this report on a low key meeting between club officials and a group of supporters in relation to the new stadium development at Cardiff City. Some good information here.

This posting is reproduced from the messageboard of http://www.cardiffcity.com/

1. Firstly, Steve Borley pointed out that the new ground’s design still includes many features that were involved when the intention was for the capacity to be extended to 60,000.

For example, this means that the new ground’s roof will still be the same as the one that was originally going to be replaced as further building work increased the capacity. Similarly, the outside walls of the stadium will still be the same size as originally planned and a consequence of this is that there will be an awful lot of room available in the areas under the seating (Steve described them as being “barns”) - these will offer plenty of opportunities for things like bars, catering outlets, a club shop, supporter’s club premises etc.

2. The building work that has taken place so far for the new ground is for the East Stand which, if you think of Ninian Park, will be comparable to the Bob Bank (the opinion was expressed that it would be good if current stand names from Ninian Park were retained in the new ground - Steve and Wayne Nash both seemed to think this would be a good idea).

To the right of this will be the North Stand which will probably turn out to be the equivalent of the Grange End - this area could possibly have a safe standing area in it, but there is some way to go yet before this can be confirmed.

To the left, will be the South Stand which will be akin to the current Spar Family (Canton) stand.

Opposite will be the two tiered West Stand which will include the Premier Club seating - there was discussion as to whether people who currently sit in the centre blocks of the Grandstand will still be able to sit in the middle of the West Stand and, from what I could gather, it appears that there will still be around 1,000 seats available in that area for non Premier club supporters.

3. Capacity at the stadium was originally going to be 25,000, but Steve has managed to increase this to 26,800+ and he wants a further increase to 27,000 by the time the ground opens.

The increase from the original figure has been achieved by putting additional seating at the top of each of the four corners - this will have the effect of keeping the bowl shape originally planned as opposed to the four separate stands that some on here thought was going to happen.

4. The away supporters will be housed in the corner of the East and South stands. As the seats in the new ground are going to be housed on a “rail” system similar to the one used at the Emirates Stadium, the space they will be given can be adjusted on a game to game basis.

Steve said that visiting supporters could be given as little as 945 seats and as much as around 3,800 depending on demand and the competition involved (away fans get are entitled to a bigger allocation for cup matches compared to league games).

5. There will be under soil heating in the new stadium - given our ever milder winters (I haven’t seen a single snow flake this year!), I was going to ask whether this was still necessary, but, before I could, Wayne mentioned that there was a game called off because of frost in the Liberty Stadium’s first season!

6. Steve said that the pitch will be the best money can buy (it will cost twice what the one at the Ricoh Arena did) and will be the same as the one at the Emirates. Without going into too much detail, it will be sand based and so will need very regular watering - this could lead to problems with it cutting up too easily, but the 2% of artificial grass being used will bind the surface together.

This type of surface is also used at other grounds which house two sports like Hulls (the pitch always seems to be in good nick there), but Steve and Wayne were honest enough to admit that the system isn’t infallible because, apparently, Watford have the same surface.

7. Although it will still be possible for occasional visitors to buy paper tickets for the new ground, the plan is for them to eventually become redundant. Instead, you will be issued with a swipe card which will be read as you enter the ground. There will be different categories of card issued to Ambassadors, Season ticket holder, members, walk up supporters etc. and, just like mobile phone cards, you will be able to “top them up”, so it could be that you could use them throughout the year to save up for a season ticket for the new campaign.

Supporters will be able to buy tickets direct from other clubs who operate the same system for away games and the plan is for food and drink bought on match days to be paid for by this card.

It was also mentioned that there could possibly be deals with the nearby retail units whereby card holders would be entitled to discounts etc.

8. There will be on site parking for 1,600 cars with “season tickets” (which could be paid for by the card mentioned in point 7) being available if needed. It was asked if supporters could use the car parks for the retail outlets on match days. This is entirely down to the individual shops - it was pointed out that many similar outlets limit customer parking to a certain time period, but, on the other hand, if you used their shop before a match and their records showed you were a regular customer of theirs, it would hardly be good public relations if they insisted you did not park on their premises!

9. Steve said that, until recently, the designs showed that the outside of the stadium would be a plain grey colour. The planners did not like this and now, apart from the West Stand which will be used for sponsorship and match advertising, the other sides will feature blue and yellow colour panelling (that might not sound brilliant, but I thought the pictures of it didn’t look that bad) with clear panelling being used in the corners which could be lit up at night.

10. The club shop will be situated in the West Stand and will sell Cardiff City and Cardiff Blues goods with the egg chasers being free to change things like the layout of the shop on their 18 designated match days per year. Steve estimated that around 75% of stock will be Cardiff City related but did concede that the current relationship with Joma regarding the shop will continue and so, what happens in the shop will, largely boil down to what Joma want (from a personal point of view, this is bad news because it means that we are, seemingly, stuck with several more seasons of poor quality replica shirts!).

11. Each stand will have separate food and drink outlets, but nothing has been sorted out as to design, size etc. yet.. Steve said this work would be contracted out and said that it was in the club’s best interest to provide good quality stuff because they want supporters to use the ground in the hours before and after the game rather than use the local pubs and shops.

12. It is the intention that a pub be sited in the North Stand, but this depends on planning permission being granted. If it is, then the pub would be open seven days a week and the plan is for a company like Brains to lease it from the club - if planning permission is not granted, then it is likely that a supporters club (which would only be open on match days) will be built. Similarly, Steve confirmed that permission to build a hotel on the site has been granted, but I got the impression that this might not necessarily be completed when the ground opens.

13. Steve and Wayne were both supportive of the idea that a statue of Fred Keenor be built at the new ground and Wayne also revealed that there will be a garden (similar to the one at Leicester) on site where deceased former supporters could be remembered in various ways.I think that covers most of the matters discussed by Steve and Wayne and the meeting eventually became more of a question and answer session with most questions centreing on our relationship with the Cardiff Blues.

The Gunman has already given his opinion on this and I tend to agree with what he said in that the ground share deal seems some way off being signed and sealed yet (perhaps I am wrong, but I got the impression that the Blues are reluctant to fully commit to it while the court case is ongoing).

To be honest, many of the questions brought up regarding the Blues have already been answered on here (e.g. besides paying their rent, the Blues will make a 25% contribution towards maintenance of the ground) - Steve also confirmed that it is very, very, very unlikely that the first game in the new stadium will be a rugby match!

The upcoming court case was barely discussed (for me, it didn’t really seem the right time to do that), although it was interesting to hear Steve concede that, technically, the Council could be classed as our largest secured creditor.

Overall, I thought it was a very interesting and enjoyable meeting, but my general impression was that it really brought home what an enormous undertaking this is and how much work there is still to be done on it.

Before finishing, I’d like to thank the club for arranging the meeting and, in particular, Steve Borley (who is supposed to be on a family holiday at the moment!) and Wayne Nash for their contributions - as was remarked last night, you got the definite impression that there are at least two people at the club prepared to fight the corner of genuine Cardiff City fans when it comes to the new stadium!