So watching Scrum Vs discussion of regional stadiums got me thinking last night.
I can see the +s/-s of staying in smaller grounds with plenty of atmosphere and moving to big stadiums. For most matches of the year the crowd does seem to be lost at liberty stadium And the big guiness premiership teams only have 10-18,000 seater locations.
It was remarked that staying at rodney parade would be the best option for newport. My question is:
If the Dragons had the resources to move to a 18k stadium outside of the city centre with decent transport links do you think it would attract more supporters from around the region, or not?
No. Way too little and far too late (about 5 years). And they would not dare go outside N*****t as their supporters would fear taking N*****t out of the name would be discussed again. Let us just bide our time. Did you notice at the Liberty stadium the Merthyr Ospreys supporters waving their "Ospreys, the only true region" banner. Apparently there are some Gwent supporters who attend there too, but their support, the Ospreys that is, is short of being financially viable.
I dont understand why they can't be like Munster and have two grounds, they could use the new stadium for big games, a la thomond park. The arms park could still be used for the lesser games (Musgrove park).
I think it will be a great shame for the arms park to go, its right in the city center and provides a good close atmosphere, something you wont get in an all seater stadium. I personally think something is missing if you have to sit down to watch a game. Whats next? Segregated crowds? There is no reason that they couldn't have incorporated a terrace. I hate to say it, but the Scarlets have done something right in that aspect.
Of course if you're going to share your ground with footballers then you have no choice about terraces. Football fans cant be trusted to stand up and not throw rocks at people at the same time.
All this is interesting but doesn't really affect us, let us concentrate our time and resources on EVRFC and enhance our position in the league and borough next season. All the stadia are soulless and quarter full, so you can deduce from that, that regional REGIONAL RUGBY IS NOT WORKING.