Cardiff Blues make permanent return to Arms Park

Cardiff Arms Park playing host to a Swalec Cup semi-final earlier this season

Good, if unsurprising, news was announced today by the Cardiff Blues as the regional side revealed it will make a permanent return to the Arms Park next season.

In sharp contrast to the international game, regional rugby in Wales is currently in dire straits. A player exodus has hindered any attempt to bounce back after a season in which only one Welsh side made it to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, where the Blues were thrashed 34-3 by Irish province Leinster in April (incidentally, in front of more than 50,000 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin).

The Blues’ home matches at Cardiff City Stadium – like with the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea – were played out in front of dire crowds, conveying a depressing sense that the Welsh public were simply disinterested in regional sides, which are often seen (usually justifiably) as soulless and artificially created.

An LV+ Cup game between the Blues and Harlequins earlier in the season – albeit played on the same day as Wales beat Ireland in Dublin – was attended by just 2,000 people, meaning there were nearly 25,000 empty seats.

But a capacity crowd was attracted to the first of three games the Blues played at the Arms Park this season, when 8,000 turned up to watch a dull win over Connacht on a freezing February night.

Cardiff City Stadium is a state-of-the-art arena, but it is not built for a rugby team, particularly not one which does not have the same attraction as its footballing colleagues.

The Arms Park, like the Dragons’ Rodney Parade in Newport, is a small, semi-terraced and almost dilapidated ground, but one in which 8,000 fans can generate a proper atmosphere, rather than echo sadly in a much bigger stadium.

It is a big relief for the Blues and their fans that the three year Cardiff City Stadium experiment has come to an end.