If the Y11 deal is stopped, Cardiff are in serious trouble. If we stay at 4 teams, it’ll be with uncompetitive budgets under £5m. No consortium would touch such an unattractive package, especially with the union demanding total control of on-field business. Close Cardiff and we reach 3 teams.
The current Board are tone deaf and completely unsympathetic but the ruin was began by previous regimes (Lewis then Phillips). The current Board don’t have the ability, though, to repair the damage. EGM can’t oust the CEO.
I’m not pretending the WRU haven’t courted Y11 but it’s them abandoning professional rugby at the Ospreys as they see possible profit (or, at least, less loss) at Cardiff rather than Swansea.
This is either asking to stay at 4 teams and remaining completely uncompetitive or saying “I’m not happy to see my team close but I’ll happily see another go instead”. Besides, even a successful VONC probably won’t stop Y11 going to Cardiff.
Not sure what Mee did wrong to deserve the boot.
Fantastic news. Any likely publishing date?
New Schenke novel is racing to the climax and should wrap up nicely in next few weeks. Nasty people the Hitler Youth.
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#PianoRoom
So, if you stop Y11 buying Cardiff, do you think they’ll be happy guardians of the Ospreys or will they just move on elsewhere?
But in order to stand for the Senedd, you must live in Wales. I’m sure the new Welsh Reform leader will find some family member to register him at that address 🙄
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They tried to sell to Cardiff pre-Helford
Y11 have tried to sell the Ospreys three times. If the Cardiff purchase doesn’t go through, it’ll almost inevitably be four when they look, again, elsewhere.
Easy solution - shut Cardiff
Agree. West/Central/East (Cardiff is east)
Can’t see it being stopped, though. Also, Y11 obviously want out so if it is stopped, will they bugger off?
Just wondering (and I don’t want the Ospreys to go) but where is the anti-competitive claim? It’s Y11 abandoning the Ospreys not the WRU folding them. If Y11 do go to Cardiff, there’s no competition to get to 3 teams.
Agreed. The relationship would be irrevocably broken and I’d see them look elsewhere (? Ealing)
And Scarlets have a very long lease on the stadium
Even the WRU aren’t stupid enough to throw the baby out with the bathwater and move to compass point teams at the same time as asking benefactors to stay. They’ll have precious few fans left as it is. But all this is conjecture and only time will prove.
But if the remaining three teams in 2027 were Cardiff, Scarlets and Dragons and the WRU were to cut it down to two, there is absolutely no way the teams would be Cardiff and Dragons. It would be east and west.
Scarlets are not structurally precarious with the facilities in Llanelli.
If the Y11 purchase does go through and it ends up closing the Ospreys, any future cut to 2 teams would put the Dragons at extreme risk. Scarlets would be last team standing in the west.
I’m just wondering what your endgame is here? Are you trying to prevent Y11 from buying Cardiff and binding them to the Ospreys?
The only team that are guaranteed a future beyond the 2026/27 season is the one who currently have no private owners. I’m struggling for that to make sense.
See my post
That’s because the unions solution was to basically merge Ospreys and Cardiff via Y11 (but call it Cardiff and playing in Cardiff).
They’ve divided Wales into strange geography with Cardiff being a central rather than east team.
If WRU did stay at 4 (2+2?), they still have to sell Cardiff, probably to the Hollywood consortium, and how long before Y11 try, for the fourth time, to sell the Ospreys?
Are the council demanding that Y11 stay as owners of Ospreys and aren’t allowed to buy Cardiff? A business they have tried to get out of three times?
They cannot afford to own both Cardiff & Ospreys long term so Swansea Council are shackling them to the Ospreys? That’ll work out well!
As the man in the orthopaedic shoes said:
"I stand corrected"
Please hold space for Scarlets fans freaking out over our return from the dead. Thank you
Possibly correct. What’s the lease agreement with Bridgend? They’re opening a club shop in the town. Sounds like they expected it to be longer than just to May
