Posted by Hobby (noun): an activity that someone does for pleasure when they are not working.
Is being a Cardiff Rugby supporter a hobby? It certainly doesn’t always fit that description, case in point being the last week. There’s certainly very little pleasure in watching the club that you’ve invested so much time and money into, that represents my favourite place in the world, go to the brink of existence.
It was a week that spawned a whole multitude of feelings; from anger to embarrassment, confusion to relief, and ends with the Blue & Blacks entering a somewhat unknown new chapter in the club’s history. Welsh Rugby Union ownership is not something that anyone would have anticipated or craved, but perhaps it is for the best as a temporary measure at this point.
In terms of how we got here that’s been covered fairly extensively over the last few days. We went into it on last week’s Cardiff Central Podcast with CF10 Rugby Trust Chair Lynn Glaister, while WalesOnline’s Sion Barry put together a written version. The full story will likely never come out, but the long and short of it is that Neal Griffith and Phil Kempe as Helford Capital have simply failed to produce promised money.
There’s questions around that; did they ever have the money? How in-depth was the WRU’s due diligence requirement carried out by a separate London firm? Could the club have acted on the lack of cash flow earlier to prevent it reaching as far as administration? Ultimately though if someone can show they have money and then chooses not to actually stump it up then hands are very much tied.
The fall out from that is major. The mind immediately turned to the impact on players, staff and their families who are most impacted. Possibly losing the club you support would leave a hole, but to have your livelihood put in doubt is a different level of concern. All 153 members of club staff keeping their jobs is the most important aspect of all that has transpired.
For supporters then there’s the possibility of losing money, and perhaps most prevalent, a main source of joy. For those who have bought tickets for future games or season tickets for next season there is, of course, an immediate worry about the validity of their purchases, but beyond that going to the rugby is a key source of socialising for a lot of people even in spite of results!
To lose that would leave a big gap in the lives of those who regularly pack on to the terraces and into the seats at the Arms Park. A quick hark back to the first covid lockdown and the emptiness of life without sport to watch should bring a shudder down the spine of any reader.
Fortunately the Welsh Rugby Union stepping in have allayed a lot of fears, and credit must go to Abi Tierney and her team for the work they have done in ensuring that Cardiff Rugby was not lost and the transition from the old legal entity going into administration and the club re-appearing as a new subsidiary of the Union was very smooth.
That presents some interesting moral quandaries though. As someone who looks at the numbers and doesn’t quite see how they work in getting four competitive professional clubs in Wales it’s difficult not to see Cardiff becoming Union-owned as the ideal opportunity to go down to three. Give notice on the PRA, carry on to the end of the current United Rugby Championship TV deal and then negotiate onwards with the three independent teams.
It also means that the one thing that I said would cause me to walk away from supporting Cardiff – them coming under the control of the WRU – has happened. Few, if any, supporters at the Arms Park would want the club to be seen as a Union plaything where the priorities of the Blue & Blacks are secondary to that of Team Wales.
At the risk of appearing hypocritical though, and with a strongly tinted view as you might expect on a blog called Cardiff Rugby Life, there is mitigation there.
Is Cardiff Rugby a club that Welsh rugby can afford to lose? The capital city, biggest development pathway population, a track record of producing internationals, the biggest average attendance currently, and even down to the simple optics of the Arms Park sitting empty right next door to the Principality Stadium, it all goes in favour of retaining the Blue & Blacks as well as all the history and heritage.
In terms of being WRU owned, when the statements were made about preferring to walk away than be a Union-run club they were never under the guise of “it’s the WRU or nothing”. It was always at a time when the club was seemingly on a stable footing but the powers that be on Westgate Street were looking for greater control or influence over the club game while offering very little.
And that is the crux of it, when it comes to be Union-owned or non-existent then there is only one option. It’s not ideal, far from it, but if it allows Cardiff Rugby to fight on for a bit longer then it’s fine by me.
It won’t be an easy few years, hopefully the return to private ownership comes sooner rather than later, but it can also present an opportunity to reset, solidify, and then kick on again with the great work done by Matt Sherratt & co over the last two years an excellent base for the rugby to work from.
#AlwaysCardiff
Cardiff Rugby Life 