arthur cross

I wasn't at the original Cardiff GP in 2001 but I've been to all four since then ... without a doubt, Saturday's crowd was scattered better around the stadium than in previous years to make it look really busy for TV viewers (notably the far greater use of the upper deck of the back straight). A friend watching at home (but who's been to Cardiff at least twice) texted me just before the opening heat to wonder how much the crowd had increased on past years ... my own hunch at that stage was maybe the crowd was slightly lower than in previous years judging by the pubs & city centre in the afternoon (as well as some gaps at the back of the lower deck and throughout the middle deck cancelling out the extra use of the upper back straight). One tip for BSI or the stadium authorities for Cardiff 2006 ... judging by how neatly the dark safety-tarpualins over the front dozen rows of the lower deck make that space look smaller, how about some big adverts, SGP banners or more dark tarpaulins to cover some other empty banks of seats (eg, the upper deck's 3rd/4th bends) ? ... again, it would make it look on TV that the crowd were filling up a bigger percentage of the available capacity. From what I've read in the past, those lower deck safety tarpaulins reduce speedway's Cardiff capacity to around 65,000 (instead of football/rugby's 77,000) so we're roughly 60% full at the moment ... imagine how packed it could look if there's another crowd increase next year fitted into only say 55,000 available seats with the empty upper 3rd/4th bend seats hidden. My overall impression of Saturday's meeting was that it was the 3rd best of the four I've seen at Cardiff ... last year's remains way clear at the top, followed by the incident-packed 2002 version (helped by having backed Ryan Sullivan and then getting a close-up view on the lower deck 3rd/4th bends of his wonderful winning blast in the final) ... Saturday's opening 10 heats were either dull or terribly refereed but at least the rest of the action put 2005 well ahead of 2003's processional snooze (when the next day's West Wales Open at Carmarthen salvaged an up-till-then expensively-wasted weekend).