Blues return to cap
I'm very excited about this, though it will likely mean nothing to the peeps here.
I grew up in Cardiff. I spent half of my childhood adolescent Saturdays from September to April visiting Cardiff Arms Park (CAP) with my father, grandfather and brother. We were and are a rugby family. Cardiff blue and black through and through.
Several years ago, long after I had left Cardiff and when I attended home matches only irregularly welsh rugby became regionalised. There was neither sufficient first class players or the money to support the dozen or so of the historic top teams in the modern professional era. As part of this regionalising of the teams Cardiff RFC 'merged' with neighbouring teams, including arch rivals Pontypridd. To launch the regions each was given a new name, what had been Cardiff RFC 1st XV was now called The (Cardiff) Blues. Initially the blues played at the arms park, but as part of the whole rebranding thang the region soon moved to share the shiny new Cardiff City Stadium, home to local footie team Cardiff City. This was contentious amongst the old Cardiff RFC suppoters for many reasons:
The City Stadium is out of town. The arms park is conveniently located in the city centre (transport and pubs).
The ground share was really a tenancy. Cardiff city own the stadium - the blues only rent it for the 12 or so games a season. This felt humiliating.
Cardiff Arms Park had always been the spiritual home of rugby in Cardiff. To leave was an insult to this tradition.
The whole regional rebranding has an inauthentic, contrived, plastic and cynical edge to it that many welsh rugby fans are uncomfortable with. The Blues move to city stadium was seen as a part of this inauthenticity.
At the time of the move some supporters boycotted the blues, and debates on the forums were heated. But, there was sufficient interest in the new stadium to carry the first couple of the cardiff blues seasons. But, the fans failed to bond with the new venue, attendances declined and the calls for a return to Cardiff arms park grew stronger.
Well, surprise surprise... Earlier this week I began to read rumours of Friday's game v Irish team Connaught being switched from the city stadium to c.a.p.. A couple of days later this was confirmed on the blues website.
The forums have gone into joyous melt down. It's like some glorious revolution. Ticket sales have taken off in the past 48 hours.
The blues are officially stating that this is a one off switch. That they are seeing it as an innovative way of raising revenue. The fans are hoping that it might be the thin end of a wedge and are voting with their wallets and feet.
Who knows.
Me, I'll be making the trip down from Gloucester after work and will attend the match if only to remember happy times in the 80s standing with the elder statesmen of my family, surrounded by noise and atmosphere and the collective caring about something that felt genuine and truly meaningful.
:-)
I grew up in Cardiff. I spent half of my childhood adolescent Saturdays from September to April visiting Cardiff Arms Park (CAP) with my father, grandfather and brother. We were and are a rugby family. Cardiff blue and black through and through.
Several years ago, long after I had left Cardiff and when I attended home matches only irregularly welsh rugby became regionalised. There was neither sufficient first class players or the money to support the dozen or so of the historic top teams in the modern professional era. As part of this regionalising of the teams Cardiff RFC 'merged' with neighbouring teams, including arch rivals Pontypridd. To launch the regions each was given a new name, what had been Cardiff RFC 1st XV was now called The (Cardiff) Blues. Initially the blues played at the arms park, but as part of the whole rebranding thang the region soon moved to share the shiny new Cardiff City Stadium, home to local footie team Cardiff City. This was contentious amongst the old Cardiff RFC suppoters for many reasons:
The City Stadium is out of town. The arms park is conveniently located in the city centre (transport and pubs).
The ground share was really a tenancy. Cardiff city own the stadium - the blues only rent it for the 12 or so games a season. This felt humiliating.
Cardiff Arms Park had always been the spiritual home of rugby in Cardiff. To leave was an insult to this tradition.
The whole regional rebranding has an inauthentic, contrived, plastic and cynical edge to it that many welsh rugby fans are uncomfortable with. The Blues move to city stadium was seen as a part of this inauthenticity.
At the time of the move some supporters boycotted the blues, and debates on the forums were heated. But, there was sufficient interest in the new stadium to carry the first couple of the cardiff blues seasons. But, the fans failed to bond with the new venue, attendances declined and the calls for a return to Cardiff arms park grew stronger.
Well, surprise surprise... Earlier this week I began to read rumours of Friday's game v Irish team Connaught being switched from the city stadium to c.a.p.. A couple of days later this was confirmed on the blues website.
The forums have gone into joyous melt down. It's like some glorious revolution. Ticket sales have taken off in the past 48 hours.
The blues are officially stating that this is a one off switch. That they are seeing it as an innovative way of raising revenue. The fans are hoping that it might be the thin end of a wedge and are voting with their wallets and feet.
Who knows.
Me, I'll be making the trip down from Gloucester after work and will attend the match if only to remember happy times in the 80s standing with the elder statesmen of my family, surrounded by noise and atmosphere and the collective caring about something that felt genuine and truly meaningful.
:-)
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