Where now for

CARDIFF Blues say they are exploring a number of “exciting” options for a new home away from Cardiff Arms Park.

That was after the club said it had been unable to reach agreement with its landlord Cardiff Athletic Club over a new 150-year lease with development rights to redevelop the city centre site, with a new stadium at its heart.

But if the Blues do move, with the current lease on the Arms Park expiring in 2022, where could they end up?

And of course the business would need to ensure it continues to run the region in the years ahead. Its current agreement with the WRU expires in June 2020. Central to that would be being able to demonstrate it could fulfil fixture requirements.

So, it has a four-year window to get a new stadium up and running, which is very much doable – while of course that throws up the obvious question of how it is going to be financed.

The Blues are not commenting on what locations they have identified.

However, if they are to remain in the centre of Cardiff, there are not many options. But here are a few:

The SSE Swalec Stadium There are examples around the world, like in New Zealand with Eden Park and the Westpac Stadium, where cricket and rugby are played at the same ground.

The test match cricket venue SSE Swalec Stadium has the capacity for about 15,000 spectators, with excellent corporate hospitality and catering facilities.

But the challenge would be getting a rugby pitch into the existing playing surface, which might have to involve moving one of the main stands, or the use of temporary seating, to create a rugby stadium feel.

There is also some overlap between the ending of the rugby season in May and the start of Glamorgan’s cricket season in April - that also extends into September which means it coincides with the start of the rugby season.

The fixture crossover could be addressed by Glamorgan playing games at the start and end of its season at St Helen’s in Swansea, or the Blues playing elsewhere for a few games.

So, the biggest challenge would how to reconfigure the stadium so it ensures a great spectator experience for both sports, assuming of course that Glamorgan Cricket would want to do a deal with the Blues.

A big tick in the box is the cricket stadium is just several hundred yards away from the Blues’ existing Cardiff Arms Park home.

Sport Wales Just across from the SSE Swalec Stadium, there is an artificial pitch used for both hockey and football and an adjoining separate grass rugby pitch, which is used by the WRU.

Available land at the back of the SSE Swalec Stadium could also potentially be incorporated to create a new rugby stadium, which could utilise the corporate hospitality facilities at the cricket ground.

But there is also potential for Sport Wales to move its HQ and indoor sporting complex next to the SSE Swalec Stadium, to a new location.This would open up a huge site, along with the car parkand existing pitches, for a new stadium project. The site would be ideal for a new hotel too. The freehold is owned by Cardiff council.

Dumballs Road A site, which runs alongside the River Taff just south of Cardiff Central train station at Dumballs Road, provides one of the biggest development opportunities in the whole of the city. Its footprint extends to 40 acres. The majority of the land is owned by property investment firm Vastint. Cardiff council is keen to see it provide up to 2,000 new homes. However, there could still be room for a rugby stadium and other commercial developments.

Motorpoint Arena Lots of big ifs and buts here, but let’s assume the current operator of the Motorpoint Arena, in Live Nation, strikes a deal with Cardiff council to operate the proposed 15,000-seater indoor arena at Atlantic Wharf. That would bring the existing 7,500-seater indoor arena into play for redevelopment. The freehold is owned by Cardiff council. But it is not a huge site. So, realistically to accommodate a stadium, it would need the adjoining buildings and surface car park to be included.

Cardiff City Stadium Well, this could be very much a case of once bitten twice shy.

The previous arrangement, which saw the Blues being a tenant of the football club didn’t end well. I could never understand why the board of the Blues agreed to sign up to a 20-year lease without a break clause.

It cost them £1m to break the lease to return to Cardiff Arms Park, but if it wasn’t for the charm offensive negotiating style of Blues chief executive Richard Holland, it could have been a much higher exit bill.

At the time, in 2012, there was still 17-years to run on the lease at a rent running into several hundred thousand pounds.

But for the Blues to make that work again, they need to have much bigger crowds. But even if Cardiff City wanted the Blues back, it is very unlikely to happen. But just across the road from the stadium is an ath-