Spiderman wrote:Companies house shows two companies WRU Gwent stadium Ltd and WRU Gwent rugby Ltd with the same board members.

I might be wrong but this seems to me that the Dragons could move north with the same board and still have the same board operating Rodney Parade.

Kairdiff Exile wrote:I don't follow rugby, either at club or international level, so this post comes from a position of ignorance, but also a position of disinterested detachment.

Surely the lesson of the last 15-odd years is that imposing synthetic regional teams with no history onto large, amorphous geographical areas doesn't work. People identify with their local city or large town, in a way that they don't with a "regional" outfit miles down the road - especially when that outfit only ever plays at a stadium in the biggest city / town in the region anyway! It's bad enough in Gwent, but it has demonstrably been a non-starter in North Wales where people from Ynys Môn are not going to travel all the way to Wrecsam for home games.

Likewise, three our four big regions from Wales playing in a hotch-potch league with equivalent clubs from Scotland, NI, Eire, and various European countries doesn't make sense to me. I can drive a few hours up the road to watch Newport County play away in the Midlands and be back for dinner - but to watch the Dragons away would clock up a lot of air miles and probably cost me a marriage!

Wouldn't it be in the interests or the WRU and their counterparts from Scotland, NI and England to have a proper league structure for all four home nations, with promotion and relegation, based on teams located in (and drawing support from) large urban centres?

Someone tell me why that wouldn't work, beyond the narrow self-interest of the different organisations involved!

OLDCROMWELLIAN wrote:

Kairdiff Exile wrote:I don't follow rugby, either at club or international level, so this post comes from a position of ignorance, but also a position of disinterested detachment.

Surely the lesson of the last 15-odd years is that imposing synthetic regional teams with no history onto large, amorphous geographical areas doesn't work. People identify with their local city or large town, in a way that they don't with a "regional" outfit miles down the road - especially when that outfit only ever plays at a stadium in the biggest city / town in the region anyway! It's bad enough in Gwent, but it has demonstrably been a non-starter in North Wales where people from Ynys Môn are not going to travel all the way to Wrecsam for home games.

Likewise, three our four big regions from Wales playing in a hotch-potch league with equivalent clubs from Scotland, NI, Eire, and various European countries doesn't make sense to me. I can drive a few hours up the road to watch Newport County play away in the Midlands and be back for dinner - but to watch the Dragons away would clock up a lot of air miles and probably cost me a marriage!

Wouldn't it be in the interests or the WRU and their counterparts from Scotland, NI and England to have a proper league structure for all four home nations, with promotion and relegation, based on teams located in (and drawing support from) large urban centres?

Someone tell me why that wouldn't work, beyond the narrow self-interest of the different organisations involved!

So easy to forget how much more resources there are in English rugby compared to Wales, Scotland and Ireland ( combined Republic and NI of course) combined. Multiple times larger, The Celtic nations have nothing at all to offer to the English game other than an occasional European cup game and International matches.

Taunton Iron Cider wrote:

OLDCROMWELLIAN wrote:

Kairdiff Exile wrote:I don't follow rugby, either at club or international level, so this post comes from a position of ignorance, but also a position of disinterested detachment.

Surely the lesson of the last 15-odd years is that imposing synthetic regional teams with no history onto large, amorphous geographical areas doesn't work. People identify with their local city or large town, in a way that they don't with a "regional" outfit miles down the road - especially when that outfit only ever plays at a stadium in the biggest city / town in the region anyway! It's bad enough in Gwent, but it has demonstrably been a non-starter in North Wales where people from Ynys Môn are not going to travel all the way to Wrecsam for home games.

Likewise, three our four big regions from Wales playing in a hotch-potch league with equivalent clubs from Scotland, NI, Eire, and various European countries doesn't make sense to me. I can drive a few hours up the road to watch Newport County play away in the Midlands and be back for dinner - but to watch the Dragons away would clock up a lot of air miles and probably cost me a marriage!

Wouldn't it be in the interests or the WRU and their counterparts from Scotland, NI and England to have a proper league structure for all four home nations, with promotion and relegation, based on teams located in (and drawing support from) large urban centres?

Someone tell me why that wouldn't work, beyond the narrow self-interest of the different organisations involved!

So easy to forget how much more resources there are in English rugby compared to Wales, Scotland and Ireland ( combined Republic and NI of course) combined. Multiple times larger, The Celtic nations have nothing at all to offer to the English game other than an occasional European cup game and International matches.

The English have preserved local identities, which is why Exeter, Bath and Bristol continually play in front of crowds that the Welsh regions can only dream of.

Papski wrote:

newgroundrodney wrote:How much is RP worth?...

If someone wanted to buy it and knock it down for housing, how much would they need to pay?
If someone wanted to buy it and give it to Newport County as a football stadium, how much would they need to pay?

How much is RP worth if the council refuse to let anyone knock it down and build on it? They can earn a heap of goodwill for no cost.

As for RP itself? Jeez. If the WRU paid £3.75m for the whole site plus the new pitch (100k?) so £3.85m. Dare say half?

Swindon paid £2.2m for the County Ground. 15,000 all seater. Dare say RP £1.5m?

excessbee wrote:They seem to have accidentally engineered the best of both worlds. Often 'regional supporters' get on the train at Taunton and stations to Bristol, on their way to watch Bath. Followers of Plymouth Albion will happily travel to Exeter to watch a better standard of rugby.

ExiledinLondon wrote:Scarlets say the merger is "off the table"

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/ ... ugby-union

G Guest wrote:We now know from Scarlet's statement that the WRU were looking at the proposed Gogledd region because they thought they were going to lose one of the four southern ones (because of Ospreys' difficulties) and they need to have four. They were not looking to lose a region because they are determined to create one in the North.This makes much more sense than wanting to kill off a region in a devoted rugby area with a successful playing record in order to set one up in a rugby dessert based in a small athletics stadium in a town with a population of only 30,000.

George Street-Bridge wrote:For older readers, a Scarlets-Ospreys merger sounds a bit like Robert Maxwell's crazy demographics-led plan to merge Reading and Oxford United as the Thames Valley Royals, disregarding.traditional rivalries.