Grand designs
Built at a cost of £45 million (€58m), Parc y Scralets ushers in a new era for a passionate rugby region although misty-eyed sentimentalists from southwest Wales will be saddened when their beloved 129-year-old Stradey Park shuts its gates for the last time following Saturday’s Heineken Cup clash with Harlequins.
Stradey is a world famous name having staged many, many epic Welsh club rugby clashes, internationals and, in the last 13 years, a series of memorable Heineken Cup matches where Llanelli RFC and subsequently the regionalised Scarlets reached three semi-finals. Along the way they’ve played some intoxicating rugby, brushing aside the likes of Stade Francais (January 1999), London Wasps (Jan 2000) and Leicester Tigers (January 2002). But arguably their finest European night came when they beat Munster in April 2007.
Stradey has been at the epicentre of some heroic struggles and great days, and shares some similarities with events at Munster’s Thomond Park: the All Blacks were downed in both grounds, in Llanelli in 1972 and Thomond six years later, while Australia also were left red-faced when leaving Stradey in 1968.
Plans to demolish it have faced objections from local residents who say it should remain a recreational site. There are plans, however, to build a small garden of remembrance on the site to remember the sporting heroes who played there and the fans whose ashes were scattered on the pitch.
Due deference will be paid to past heroes inside their impressive new facility: Derek Quinnell and Phil Bennett are just two who’ll have their names linked to special lounges inside Parc y Scarlets.
The new complex boasts all the hi-tech facilities one expects from your modern stadium, but what they want to retain or borrow is the intense atmosphere Stradey once created. “I’m sure that in the years to come Parc y Scarlets will come to have the same values as Stradey Park,” says Quinnell.
Like Thomond, Scarlets chiefs decided not to sell the naming rights to their new ground, a decision that has gone down well in the region. One stand has been designated to families, while a training barn and training pitch with athletics park is also attached. “West is best” and Scarlets are painted on to the seats and there’s certainly something very bright and futuristic about this new ground. According to the region’s website, the name, Parc y Scarlets, will take the history of Stradey Park and Llanelli rugby with [us] into a new era.
Quinnell adds: “It’s important that we retain powerful links to our great traditions. The club’s had great players and great administrators and it’s important that we don’t forget that.”
Phil Bennett is equally enthusiastic about Parc y Scarlets: “The name tells me that this is a ground all about the rugby and the people. We’re traditionally a working class town and the supporters have been wonderful over the years. The name gives them an identity.”
FOR those with a strong emotional attachment to Arms Park and the glorious days of Cardiff RFC, moving to the new £30m Cardiff City Stadium will be a tough pill to swallow for the traditionalists in the Welsh capital.
It appears there is no way back after a 20-year agreement was signed by both the Cardiff Blues and Cardiff City FC who’ll ground-share at the 26,500 all-seater stadium in the Leckwith area of the city.
Planning delays meant work on the all-purpose stadium didn’t begin until late 2007, but it’s scheduled for completion by next May and to be ready to open its doors for the start of 2009/10 season.
Opposition to the venture has come from former Wales great Bleddyn Williams, who in his capacity as president of Cardiff Athletic Club says the sale of the seven-acre Arms Park site believed to be worth £15m “would be a tragedy”.
However, Blues owner Peter Thomas, who pumped millions of his own money into the regional franchise, believes the move would be in the financial and sporting interests of the Blues while the sale of Arms Park would ensure the WRU could complete the Millennium Stadium with an extra 8,000-plus fans able to see games in a redeveloped North Stand.
“From a rugby point of view, we might attract more fans from the Valleys if we moved away from the Arms Park,” says Thomas.
Cardiff Blues currently attract an average home gate attendance of 7,369 supporters, but once upon a time the Arms Park was a fortress. Cardiff supporters hope the glory days will return once again as it seems the Neath-Swansea amalgamation, Ospreys, is the No 1 team in Wales right now.
The Arms Park witnessed the feats of many, many great players. The Blue and Blacks are, like Llanelli, a club rich in history and tradition and associated with rugby immortals such as Bleddyn Williams, Cliff Morgan, Gerald Davies, Barry John, Gareth Edwards, John Scott, Rob Howley and present Blues coach David Young. Cardiff has provided more players to the Welsh national team and the British and Irish Lions than any other club in Wales.
Arms Park has been witness to some giant-killing acts down through the ages. Five years ago the club celebrated the 50th anniversary of the legendary 8-3 victory over the All Blacks. In 1907, they beat the visiting Springboks 17-0 while it can also boast an impressive record against the Wallabies: six sides between 1908 and 1984 established an unprecedented invincible record against the Australians.
It was said that before the game went professional Arms Park was a real fortress, especially on days when it housed the once fabled domestic Cup competition derbies against Swansea, Newport or Llanelli or and when they reached the 1996 Heineken Cup final.
Traditionalists will be slow to embrace the move to the new stadium while naming rights have become a source of controversy as well. Millionaire Mike Young, creator of the cartoon character Super Ted, had designs on sponsoring the new stadium.
Imagine what Arms Park and Cardiff rugby followers would say to a new home known as Super Ted Stadium!
WELFORD Road as we know it, a 17,000-plus stadium, is a typically old-fashioned rugby ground, perhaps too old-fashioned as Munster players came to realise after a Heineken Cup clash there in October 2006.
After playing (and winning) in Arctic conditions, Munster returned to their dressing-room to discover the showers weren’t working and they had to scrape the dirt and muck off with buckets of water.
Such days should be long gone when Welford is transformed into a 30,000-capacity stadium for the start of 2009-2010 season.
AFL stadium designers, responsible for the new Thomond Park, have drawn up a futuristic and radical image for a new-look Welford Road. The swooping horse-shoe roofline will become Welford’s iconic image, and when completed, will become the biggest club rugby union stadium in England and a fitting home for the best supported club side in English rugby.
When full of Tigers supporters, Welford can unnerve most visiting teams but their new plan hopes to retain that fortress-like quality — Tigers directors don’t want their stadium sanitised.
Rugby will continue to be played at the home of the Tigers during phased development but credit to the designers, whose ambition to build a 30,000-stadium on such a compact site is commendable to say the very least. The designers have also been given a brief to retain the ‘bear-pit’ fortress of the old Welford.
“We had to get the greatest number of supporters as close to the playing surface as we could because that is what the Board of directors want and that is one of the things that makes Welford Road such a special sporting venue,” says AFL sports director Roberts. “That was also true of the designs for Munster.”
Tigers’ directors did announce plans to abandon Welford Road in 2004 in favour of a groundshare at Walkers Stadium with the city’s main football club, Leicester City FC. However, the two clubs could not agree on which one would have priority at Walkers Stadium, and shelved the plan in 2005.
Welford Road has been home to many great English League, Heineken Cup and internationals since the Tigers moved there in 1892. And it was here they forged their reputation as one of the best sides in European Cup rugby, winning the Heineken Cup in 2001 and 2002.
Tigers’ fanatical fans will hope the new Welford brings even more glory days.
THE MOST talked about redevelopment on this island in recent weeks, the new Thomond Park hosts its first Heineken Cup match against Montauban this Friday.
The new structure, designed by AFL, adds immensely to Limerick’s skyline, and one can only imagine the noise the 26,000-capacity stadium will generate when, in front if its very first full house, Munster run out against the French minnows.
It is hoped Thomond will retain its fortress-like quality and, by retaining the terracing, it should remain a bear-pit for visiting teams.
The trusses that sweep atop both stands are the iconic images of the ground where Munster have produced heroic and sometimes incredible victories.
The visit of the All Blacks in 1978 along with the Gloucester (2003) and Sale (2006) “miracle matches” will forever be etched in the memories Munster supporters, but when Montauban, the All Blacks, Clermont Auvergne, Sale and Leinster visit this season, it’s likely they’ll find Thomond hasn’t changed at all.
As Munster hooker Jerry Flannery pointed out recently, the structure may change but the supporters make Thomond Park.
“I don’t think the supporters are going to change too much over a year — there is still going to be a lot of bitterness and stuff when people go to games. We’ve very knowledgeable supporters here. I’m hopeful and pretty confident the atmosphere will be retained.”
Other components of the new Thomond Park will include the Munster Rugby Inter-active museum, the Munster Walk and Munster Rugby Store, all inside a multi-purpose stadium that will in the future play host to concerts and other sporting events.
It is without argument an impressive structure, delivered on time and within budget, a rare Irish phenomenon when one considers the many construction projects that have been built way above the original cost. The new Thomond was built within 20 months for €40m and what a journey it has been for Thomond Park Development Committee, headed by the former Munster hooker and IRFU committee member, Pat Whelan.
It was a development not without controversy around Limerick. Plenty of hard bargaining had to be done by the IRFU in buying out 13 privately owned terraced houses at Knockalisheen Road. And when it was announced that Thomond’s naming rights were up for sale, there was uproar amongst the huge Munster support base, and eventually those plans were ditched. Thomond remains Thomond.
And even before this dream was ever realised, Munster Branch officials were thinking of moving the whole operation to a green-field site near Limerick racecourse. What a disaster that would have been: Thomond is a figure-point for Limerick people.
It’s a stadium its supporters can be proud of. The hope for them is that within these surroundings the good days continue.
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