Question

[joedynamo]

As you say though...a big win there for someone could change that, the stadium hasn't really had a signature events since it reopened has it?

0/10..must try harder.

 

[BODISGOD]

0/10..must try harder.

Huh?

I'm talking between the various Soccer, League, NFL and even the couple of Union games, there is no really memorable game from the stadium yet is there?

 

[WireMan]

Huh?

I'm talking between the various Soccer, League, NFL and even the couple of Union games, there is no really memorable game from the stadium yet is there?

-1/10

I think as WireMan says the Club Wembley seats do damage it. I don't think you should have to queue for 20 minutes for a pint at half time like I have there, I certainly didn't experience that in other modern stadiums. Seats don't seem to hang the pitch well relative to the Millenium. Just for the chunk of change they spent on it, doesn't seem like they got everything right.

As you say though...a big win there for someone could change that, the stadium hasn't really had a signature events since it reopened has it?

Not sure what game you were watching but at the final the other week the service at half time was fine.

Getting there is easy (not sure how you found it difficult on the tube, it is serviced by 2 underground lines and a national rail station), getting in is easy, you get a good view.
Yes its expensive but standard sporting prices + London prices = expensive.

I actually found the Millenium stadium a fairly standard ground. It is no better than OT, St James, Anfield, Emirates, Villa park or the Etihad of the top of my head.

It is in a good location for Cardiff city centre, but the M4 is a nightmare to get down, parking is hard and the overall match going day lacks the drama of a trip to Wembley.

 

[BODISGOD]

Genuinely what memorable games have been there. Yeah Champions League final, FA Cup, Challenge Cup, NFL matches, few England games but none were classics or really are a signature game to remember the new Wembley and to build a new lore. I know it's early doors...I'm just saying when there is a classic game there it will be remembered.

 

[BODISGOD]

I actually found the Millenium stadium a fairly standard ground. It is no better than OT, St James, Anfield, Emirates, Villa park or the Etihad of the top of my head.

Have to say I find that laughable.

 

[joedynamo]

Genuinely what memorable games have been there. Yeah Champions League final, FA Cup, Challenge Cup, NFL matches, few England games but none were classics or really are a signature game to remember the new Wembley and to build a new lore. I know it's early doors...I'm just saying when there is a classic game there it will be remembered.

That previous comment makes sense..I thought you'd gone on a troll for no apparent reason, my bad bud.

You're right..theres been great performances...Barca looked like they owned they place, the sts against Le Cats were pretty good too, but no really great games...maybe its missing (in a sporting sense obv) a bit of tradgedy...a Nath Graham or Don Fox moment...
That said, I half wondered if the Wolves-Leeds game was going to be the new watersplash final.

 

[WireMan]

Have to say I find that laughable.

Why?

What's so good about it that makes the suggestion that St James or OT or the emirates are better laughable?

Given that i have been to these grounds and Cardiff was not the biggest, not the best facilities, and is a total pain to get to unless you are in the middle of Cardiff, what makes it so good?


Saying Wembley is hard to get to on the tube is laughable.

 

[roughyedspud]

wembley is a piece of piss to get too by tube lol



and i'd like to add that old trafford is a terrible stadium

 

[deluded pom?]

Back to the original post and I personally am fed up with all of the politics in the British game. If it's not clubs failing to fulfill the terms of their licence it's the lack of P & R. If it's not McNamara doing everything in his power to get a winning team on the park it's the winter/summer debate for the amateur game. The game in this country is losing out because of the constant arguments between one faction or another.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

And a certain poster stuck in TFC laughed at me when I said both the English and French games need a kick in the pants and an independent commission of some type themselves to get rid of self interest and the people not good enough or smart enough to see the bigger picture.

 

[deluded pom?]

The problem is Parra that the RFL neglected the amateur game and this led to the creation of BARL who did a fantastic job but ultimately became just as much a part of the problem as part of the solution. Then we had SLE which has alienated a lot of the lower league teams as there appears to now be a glass ceiling for all but the few. The RFL are now trying to regain (some say they never had it) the amateur game with a switch to summer. A fair few of the teams who have switched are now not happy. The poor summer weather hasn't helped with the impatience being shown. Players' holidays and wedding arrangements are also hitting the NCL (amateur league now under the RFL) as stag do's and the actual ceromony rob teams of a large part of their squads on match day. All in all the game in Britain is in a sorry state with the Emperor's new clothes that is the SLE masking a lot of deficiencies in the game here. All this is only my opinion. I'm sure someone will come along and disagree with me.

 

[Evil Homer]

Sorry DP, that's an absolute load of wrist-slitting garbage. You seem to be a reasoned poster in other areas so I have no idea why you continue to talk about P&R, and now complaining about stag do's? Come on. The game is not perfect but this sort of backwards thinking helps nobody and hopefully will be gone from the game in a few years.

 

[BODISGOD]

Why?

What's so good about it that makes the suggestion that St James or OT or the emirates are better laughable?

Given that i have been to these grounds and Cardiff was not the biggest, not the best facilities, and is a total pain to get to unless you are in the middle of Cardiff, what makes it so good?


Saying Wembley is hard to get to on the tube is laughable.

Huh? Millenium isn't good because it is central? One thing I'd say is that Cardiff doesn't have enough hotel rooms.

You compared the MS to Villa fing Park, come on mate. Millenium's stands hang over the pitch, atmosphere is excellent. It has an actual roof unlike Wembley's half assed effort. It is central, you can get to any of the best pubs/restaurants in the city. Along with Wembley, it has the best facilities of any stadium in the UK.

No Wembley is not easy to get to and from. There's two Tube stations 10 minutes walk away yes, but you are waiting for the guts of half an hour to 40 minutes to even get down Wembley Way on a matchday. There are no decent pubs in walking distance. Twickenham has the same issues but at least Richmond has a good buzz after game.

 

[BODISGOD]

And a certain poster stuck in TFC laughed at me when I said both the English and French games need a kick in the pants and an independent commission of some type themselves to get rid of self interest and the people not good enough or smart enough to see the bigger picture.

Because your Independent Commission makes no f**king sense. The RFL is independent, it is a governing body. Rugby League in Australia is a different beast because of the Super League War.

 

[deluded pom?]

Sorry DP, that's an absolute load of wrist-slitting garbage. You seem to be a reasoned poster in other areas so I have no idea why you continue to talk about P&R, and now complaining about stag do's? Come on. The game is not perfect but this sort of backwards thinking helps nobody and hopefully will be gone from the game in a few years.

I see the lack of annual P & R (in whatever form is necessary) as the main bugbear in the British game today. If you are of the opinion that we should simply ringfence the, supposed, fourteen (or however many) best teams and get on with it then that's OK for you but not for me. The licencing system in it's current form obviously isn't doing what it says on the tin. If it is then how do you explain the current Bradford situation or Crusaders, Wakey and coming soon the likes of Salford and Cas. There are only a handful of teams that can compete at the top and that for me is boring. If you enjoy watching the same teams lift the trophies year on year then good fo you. Because there's only a handful at the top it doesn't matter who the rest are. We may as well let another dog have it's day as continually seeing London, Salford and Cas near the bottom most seasons.
Whether you concede it or not the summer amateur game are looking long and hard at the first season and yes player committments outside of the game are impacting on the NCL season with big scorelines as teams send out a weakened team. Didn't Cas LL concede over 100 pts this year as they had to field a reduced team of kids?
Maybe it is wrist slitting stuff but it's turning me off big style. If you're still happy with it and you believe all is rosey in the garden then good luck to you. Enjoy you're RL. I used to.

 

[roughyedspud]

your flatcap is abit wonky dp...lol...let me tackle these one by one


1. lack of P&R.....it does'nt acually bother me...would featherstone,halifax,leigh or sheffield perform any better in next years super league than widnes,cas,salford have this season?? no they would'nt

2. competitiveness...or lack of it - simple answer...cut the deadwood from super league..i'd go all out and cut the league down to 10..

1. london
2. catalan
3. wigan
4. st helens
5. warrington
6. leeds
7. bradford
8. hull fc
9. hull kr
10 huddersfield

each team would play each other 3 times...home,away & a 'blockbuster game' ie wigan v saints 3rd game @ eastlands.....or leeds v bradford @ elland rd....

cutting the number of teams will increase competitiveness and intensity.....super league can do intensity,some of the wigan v saints games over the past couple of seasons have been some of the hardest most intense games i've seen either here or down under...what we need to do is take away the games where the big clubs can run at 75% and still win

we would then restructure the championship properly...it's the only area that i think the RFL have overlooked and it's a really mess at the minute...theres potential there to turn the championship into a really good,competitive,stand alone competition....

3. NCL & summer - moving the kids (under 18's and below) was essential...i'd go as far as to say it was essential for the survival of the game.......whether the open ages lot should have moved too??? meh....it was upto them...but to switch back after just one summer season would be silly, clubs need to embrace it,put on BBQ's,fun days etc on game day...i attend waterhead,saddleworth & st annes games occasionally during the season...and i know i'd rather be stood watching in my shorts with a beer in my hand than wrapped up shivering my bollocks off with snot flooding out my nose lol... and im sure the players are happier too.......as for players going on holiday or weddings....lol...shit excuse that...at least lock lane played a game that day and the game was'nt frozen,snowed,flooded,mudbathed off....

 

[Evil Homer]

There are only a handful of teams that can compete at the top and that for me is boring. If you enjoy watching the same teams lift the trophies year on year then good fo you. Because there's only a handful at the top it doesn't matter who the rest are. We may as well let another dog have it's day as continually seeing London, Salford and Cas near the bottom most seasons.

That's the point. Whether you like it or not, there are only a few teams who can compete at the top level. The teams in the Championship are nowhere near good enough, and you're deluding yourself if you think any of them would be able to even aspire to compete with the current 14 clubs. Anyway, your argument about teams constantly being at the bottom is totally unjustified. Wakefield finished below all those clubs last year, and this year have made the play-offs. Castleford have narrowly missed out on the play-offs for the last two years, and were seconds away from making it to Wembley in 2011. Again, your point about clubs having financial problems is just unsubstantiated. There are no causal factors that can be linked in any way to the licensing system and in case you hadn't noticed, there has been a global financial crisis. I dread to think what might have happened under the old system when clubs were often forced to spend and unable to properly budget. And the whole point of the licensing system is that the league is not 'ringfenced'. Widnes came up this year. All the licensing system means is that promotion and relegation is decided on the basis of logical, sustainable criteria rather than a single arbitrary factor that in no way reflects a club's potential to compete and be successful. The fact is that if any of the clubs outside Super League were stronger than the clubs currently in the league, then they would replace them. That there aren't even any serious contenders at present shows that this clearly isn't the case, and if you are advocating removing a Super League team and replacing them with what would by nature be a weaker team, then like I said that's just totally backwards. It's a shame if it is somehow ruining your enjoyment of the game, but you really need to live in the real world here. Personally I probably wouldn't really watch much Super League if promotion and relegation was still happening because it was just totally stupid and crippled the game.

Spud addressed the issues with the amateur game. I don't know what the people who are complaining were expecting, but again they need to live in the real world. I knew there would be complaints in the first year, but the problems with playing in the summer are miniscule compared to those that arise from playing in winter. TBH though, as Spud says, it's up to the people. If they want to slog it out in freezing mudbaths, miss half the season due to postponed matches and be unable to train, then that's up to them. As long as the juniors are in the summer, that's the important thing. TBH once the old dinosaurs die out and are replaced in a few years then I think everyone will appreciate the move to summer.

 

[deluded pom?]

'spud and EH have just agreed with me. They both posted that there are only a handful of teams that are competive in the SLE and it doesn't matter who the "deadwood" is. That's my point. Salford, Cas, London etc. don't compete with the top teams so why should they have a mortgage on a SLE place. They may have a decent season once in a while but after taking all the pennies Sky give them I wouldn't expect anything less. They have now become selling teams in an effort to balance the books. Bradford will now come into this category as I don't believe Khan has the money necesary to get back to where the Bulls once where. Kopczak will be the first of many walking out of Odsal over the winter. If Fev, Leigh or Halifax go up and don't compete then so what. We see the same old teams season after season at the bottom end of the table with no signs of improvement. You sit back and enjoy it guys.

 

[deluded pom?]

Another club in meltdown?

http://www.thisishullandeastriding....-KR-s-future/story-16871624-detail/story.html

"However, having seen trading losses rise to £503,267 in their latest accounts covering the 2011 campaign, both Hudgell and Crossland are believed to be seriously considering their positions going forward.
Hudgell has already confirmed that the club is unlikely to spend the full salary cap next year, with a focus being placed on developing the young emerging talent at Craven Park."

 

[deluded pom?]

Castleford have narrowly missed out on the play-offs for the last two years, and were seconds away from making it to Wembley in 2011.

Just missing out on a playoff system that incorporates more than half the division is nothing to write home about. After the heady heights of ninth Cas finished level on points with Widnes and after the retirement of Orr and the sale of Chase they will be on the bottom in 2013. Oh and didn't they crash out of the Challenge Cup to a Championship team as well?