Is Cardiff's Historic Double Sports Day too much for our City?

 

For the first time in history Cardiff is hosting international rugby and football matches on the same evening next month.

Over 100,000 fans are expected to pour into the Principality and Cardiff City Stadiums on Saturday 12 November, with more supporters heading to the city’s pubs and bars to watch the matches.
The Welsh rugby team will be playing in the autumn international series against Rugby World Cup semi-finalists Argentina with kick-off at 5:30pm, whilst the Welsh football team kick-off at 7:45pm against Serbia in the World Cup qualifiers.
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Whilst the rugby date was set many years ago, the football fixture was set by Uefa in July 2016 and had two other potential dates to set the match on.
InterCardiff took to the city’s streets to find people’s opinions of this event. Is it a logistical nightmare or will it be an opportunity for local businesses to seize?
 

“[Sarcastically] Oh yeah, I can’t wait.”
“It’s great for tourism and from a business point of view, it means all the bars will be full, people will be shopping, people will be drinking.”
“The downside is that that amount of tourism and drunk people equals a lot of mess. But I think that the positives outway the negatives when it comes to the city as a whole.”
“They’re both international are they, oh wow, yeah, it’s gonna be a mad one, it’s probably not great foresight by the organisers.”
“Oh goodness there’ll be a lot of Guinness that day. I imagine the police will be out in force for it.”
 

“In terms of business, it is good. Definitely.”
“In terms of people residing in Cardiff, it might not be.”
“I haven’t been here on a match day before, but we were here for the Roald Dahl event and that was big crowds.”
“On our side, it’s good because by five o’clock we need to be packed up and gone, so it’s before it gets a bit too rowdy…I think we are getting the better half of it.”
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“I hope the football will win, I don’t care about the rugby [chuckles].”
“Well, I think it’s a bit silly with the traffic congestion. Transport is going to be a lot more difficult to get to and from, I mean I’m a Cardiff City Season Ticket holder so I know all about that.2
“A lot of people like both sports and would have liked to have seen the two games.”
“I can’t see there being any positives about it really.”
 

“Er, I think I would be hard for me to say, because we only got here on Wednesday.”
“I mean I think it would be a fun atmosphere. I feel like it’s always busy with trains because there are a lot of people around, so it’ll need to be organised. But it’s the same back home on match days.”
 

Andy: “The matches I’ve been to before are always pretty busy round here, it’s always a good atmosphere.”
Tim: “Mixing in the football as well though [pulls a worried face], I don’t know I guess the Welsh team and supporters all seem nice. But I think it’s possibly a bit too much. It’s a bit of a recipe for trouble.”
Andy: “Especially at our age, it’s nice to go into a pub and get served fairly quickly, you just get less tolerant of that sort of thing. But I suppose the local area do quite well, and all the prices can go up in hotels and stuff like that, it’s busy for them.”
Tim: “It’ll be good for the economy, but it’s just that sort of two, three o’clock in the morning kicking out time.”
Andy: “If you like football and rugby, I mean I only really like rugby, but if you’re passionate about both, it’s a bit of a dilemma with which one to choose.”
Let us know how you find the 12th November’s sporting madness by tweeting us.
Tweet to @intercardiff