The Millennium Stadium has been England’s de facto national stadium since 2001. The Football Association and Football League have both used the gargantuan arena to host around seven key football events a year, the pinnacle being the FA Cup final.
Five years ago, the then two-year-old, state-of-the-art stadium, with 74,500 seats and a retractable roof, became the home of football. “We were all pretty proud that a little nation like ours could produce the best stadium in Britain,” says Roger Thomas, chairman oflocal agency Cooke & Arkwright.
Despite a year’s reprieve owing to delays at Wembley, the final and other key football fixtures are set to return to London next year. But Cardiff’s property players remain upbeat. They emphasise that standing in for Wembley was only ever a temporary bonus. Although the Welsh capital is losing the best publicity it has ever had, it is easy to overstate the effect of hosting the FA Cup on the local market.
Grabbing global attention
Without doubt, the main benefit has been in terms of profile. The small capital with fewer than half a million inhabitants was thrust onto the world stage with over one billion eyes worldwide on it for 90 minutes each May.
Closer to home, it opened up the city to England, as football fans from all over the country suddenly had a reason to visit. Europe’s youngest capital hosted the country’s major football event without a glitch.
“The Millennium Stadium is a landmark that is now recognised around the world,” says Paul Orders, Cardiff council’s head of policy and economic development.
And Paul Williams, Cardiff city centre manager, stresses: “Since it opened in 1999, the Millennium Stadium has been the biggest factor in the development and profile of the city.”
The market will lose seven weekends’ worth of full hotels and thousands of visitors. Keith Morgan, Cardiff-based partner with accountant PKF, says: “One of the things the council will lose out on is a 10% visitor return rate of people who come here because of football games. This will diminish over time. In total, since the FA Cup came to Cardiff, £100m has been pumped into the local economy.”
The council’s estimation of money generated in the local economy outside the stadium as a direct result of the seven English football fixtures is underwhelming at £20m per year.
Although losing this is clearly a blow, studies show that it is only one aspect of a strong local economy. Local academic Dr Calvin Jones of Cardiff Business School says that the city’s economy is worth around £10-12bn per year. Acting as understudy for Wembley has not been the sole motor of the Cardiff economy.
Indeed, there is a strong argument that the bread-and-butter Rugby Union events are far more valuable to the city’s market. Whereas a large proportion of football fans are coached in and out of the city, on Six Nations days the city centre and, by association, the leisure market become a sea of fans spending money.
Morgan of PKF says that, although 100,000 football fans – 30,000 more than the stadium can accommodate – descend on Cardiff on cup final day, with gross spend of £15m-£20m on the day, some of this spend leaves Cardiff, and goes, for example, to the FA’s coffers. By contrast, fans on a Six Nations day spend around £30m altogether.
The stadium itself does not depend on football and rugby matches, and is increasingly diversifying its events schedule. This summer, the Rolling Stones, The Eagles and Take That will all play concerts – and are also due to pack out Wembley Stadium, if it is ready.
The leisure sector was growing before 2001. Graeme Newman, managing director of developer Sovereign Land, the team behind the 150,000 sq ft leisure development Mermaid Quay in Cardiff Bay, says: “Back in 1999, when the stadium was built, we had been developing Mermaid Quay for four years. The Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was already well aware of the regeneration possibilities.”
Midweek matters
The loss of the cup final is acting as a catalyst for Cardiff to examine the future of its leisure sector. It is forecast that the Wales Millennium Centre, the classical concert venue that opened last November, will draw 12% of its visitors from outside Wales and a further 14% from north, mid and west Wales – all fodder for the local hotel market.
And the latest venture being considered is a purpose-built conference centre to draw visitors midweek. Although hotels are usually booked up on big sporting days, Jonathan Miles, partner with Alder King, says occupancy rates are around 1.5% below the UK average. “When there’s an event, the hotels get booked up very quickly, but throughout the year, occupancy rates are down,” he says.
Hotels are already booked up for the weekend of the FA Cup final this May, but you are likely to be able to reserve a room for the preceding or following week. The future success of the hotels that have sprung up in the past few years, such as the McDonald Holland House and the Park Plaza, will hinge on attracting a regular number of visitors to the city.
Football events have not been the making of Cardiff – but they have certainly helped put the city on the map, and it is in this respect that the FA Cup final will be missed.
