• There will be no club house at the New Stadium.
• There will be no terraces.
• It will be empty for most games, particularly ML games such as Connacht.
• Its location is by far inferior.
• Many fans will defect the region in the short term.
• The stadium lacks character and history.
• Should Cardiff City reach the Premiership, it is possible for them to buy us out of the lease.
• Cardiff Blues will have little identity around the ground, according to new City boss, Peter Ridsdale.
• Financially, we will be only marginally better off from the sale of Arms Park land.
• We will be paying rent on the Arms Park for the next 15 years, plus 25% of match day sales to the new stadium.
• Cardiff Arms Park has 15 years left in the South Stand, and no concerns on the North Stand.
• Work could go ahead on the North Stand quickly, easily and cheaply.

• Huge amounts of money to be made from extra corporate boxes.
• Short term big name signings, such as SA scrum half Ricky January already lined up. However financially not sustainable.
• Greater facilities available to attract the worlds top stars.
• New stadium should guarantee the future of the region, given its longer life span.
• Will have a larger capacity, thought to be around 22-25,000.

 There are too many myths floating around, such as ‘the Arms Park is falling apart’, it gets reviewed on a yearly basis, its last check in March confirmed the above findings, that the South Stand has 15 years life in it, and the North Stand is fine. 

Other rumours say that id we sell the Arms Park, we will get all the money. This again is untrue. The fact is that should the Arms Park be sold, something not even on the cards at this moment in time, the revenue will go the Cardiff Athletic Club. This being the Bowls, Cricket, Tennis, Hockey and the Rugby sections of the club. There are no deeds in the contract to say how any such sale would be divided, and so it is likely to end up being spilt into fifths. Therefore, a £30m would give the region £6m.

True enough a very healthy sum. £2m of this money is already being theoretically spent on big name signings, January one of those stated, that is hoping to attract new faces of fans to the stadium. While the idea is a good one, and is being done with the right intentions at heart, it is unsustainable, and sooner or later would end up back where we are, or worse, as we have no land or stadia to our name. Thomas’ argument is that while he’s expected 1,000 fans to defect the region with the move, he’s hoping to attract the same number or more with the new players and success that should follow. Should the money breed silverware, more fans again will come, and season ticket sales, plus match day tickets will be up. However, with 25% of all sales going to CCFC, plus the rent on CAP still to be paid for 15 years, there won’t be a huge increase in income from ticket sales. The real money is to be made through extra corporate boxes.

So what are our options?

The Executive Directors of the board have stated that we’re currently making 90% of the possible profit that can be made from the land. However, that just obviously isn’t true. Bearing in mind the location of the Stadium, the facilities available, and the commercial benefits having the Cardiff Blues side playing there, there is no way they are making the type of money they should be. In fact, the real figures would show we’re hardly even using 40%. The car park behind the North Stand does make a fair bit of money, something in the region of £750,000 a year. But there’s far more potential on that land, being so close to the Millennium Stadium. How easy would it be to give a small portion of that space to, say, a Travel Lodge in return for them paying for the development of a new stand in the North. The current stand could be knocked down, rebuilt with 2 tiers, including a large Corporate area with boxes, allowing us a larger income from Corporate sponsors and season tickets. Having a small hotel would then benefit the said company, plus they could sponsor the new stand, costing us not a penny.

This is a very feasible idea that many hotel chains would be fighting for. It would improve our facilities, capacity and corporate capacity allowing a larger match day income, and boasting better facilities. Plus, and most importantly, we would still own the land, ensuring the future of rugby for the next 30 years plus. The only real reason this will never happen, is down to the CAC. Whilst the Rugby section want us to stay at the Arms Park, the bowls, cricket, hockey and tennis couldn’t give a monkeys, and would instead much rather the large income generated from sale of the stadium. The bowls section know they do not need to play in the centre of Wales’ capital city, and would happily take a £6m pay-check to buy their own, new, flashy lawn wherever they want it, with all the facilities they could dream of, and of course the same can be said regarding the other sections.

So what else can we do?

Well, seen as the Athletic Club and the Chairman of Cardiff RFC Ltd., Peter Thomas, don’t see eye to eye (to say the least), neither are prepared to work on what is right for the club/region. This is one of the main factors in Thomas wanting to leave the Arms Park. Once he’s gone, he can sever all his ties of the Cardiff Blues to CAC. Yes Cardiff RFC Ltd. will still be the owners of the Cardiff Blues, but effectively at Stade De Ridsdale, they will be untouchable. All this means for us, the loyal fans, is that we’re being let down time and time again by a board so poor, they couldn’t run a 8 year olds birthday party, let alone a professional company in the modern era.

However, this may work in our favour. Promises made at AGM’s have not been fulfilled, and there is definitely a case for overthrowing Peter Thomas and Bob Nortser, by making a vote of no confidence. This is something only shareholders in the club can do, but we as supporters can start the ball rolling with high profile media stunts, letting the fans know how their historical club is being run. There are hundreds, if not thousands of fans who are either unaware of what is going on, or know about it, but don’t know how to help.

The final fact I will give you in this article is this, we do have the power. We have more power than Nortser and Peter Thomas, we have more power than Cardiff Athletic Club, why, because we pay their wages, and we keep their company afloat. Without us, there is no Cardiff Blues, there is no Cardiff RFC. Look what happened to the Borders this year, a club with far more history than Edinburgh or Glasgow, closed, because fans were not watching. We have the power to close this club down, unless it’s looked after in the right way, by the right people. There are positives about moving, anyone who genuinely cares about our future can see, and will concede that there are good things about moving, but those are wise enough, and can predict 5 years from now will tell you that we have more hope in the long run of staying where we are. The least we can demand is an independent adjudicator take a look at the ground and tell us how much revenue we can make potentially, if it’s a single percent les than 90%, which it will be, we will have a solid case to turn this around. 

There’s far more to this move than meets the eye, it is complicated, and there are pros and cons to both scenarios. So I ask you this, if you care for your region, and the history and tradition of Cardiff RFC, you will make it to the meeting on Wednesday night. There you can ask the Calls to Arms lot all the questions you like and they’ll give you all the answers we should’ve already been told by our board. For or against, it’s no problem, just come down and make your voice heard.