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The internal battles in Welsh Ruby turned ugly on Wednesday in the wake of Swansea based region the Ospreys being granted planning permission to develop a new ground. The Ospreys intentions to relocate away from the Swansea.com stadium – where Swansea City football club play – to the smaller, historic ground of St Helens with financial backing of Swansea council have been public knowledge for some time. Now though, events at the planning permission hearing have caused consternation in the Welsh Rugby community.
During the hearing, 4 letters of objection against the proposals were submitted plus 2 late objections. These 2 late objections were on the grounds of misuse of public funds, sustainability and development principles and breaching trust with taxpayers. The two objection letters were identical; one was signed by an unnamed ‘independent individual’ and the other by the Scarlets Supporters Trust, Crys 16.
Crys 16 are an independent Scarlets supporters group; fans become a member officially by signing up and paying a small fee. It is important to distinguish between Crys and the Scarlets Official Supporters who are more like an in-house organisation. However, Crys are recognised by the Scarlets via a seat on the board and hold regular meetings with the management.
Reports of the Scarlets Supporters trust objections surfaced on social media on Tuesday evening. They were initially greeted with scepticism from fans, including many paying members of the trust who were unaware of the letter being sent. However, a video recording of the meeting later confirmed the reports to be accurate. It prompted a huge reaction across the Welsh Rugby community; several Ospreys fans conveyed their anger towards Crystal trust whilst many Scarlets fans expressed confusion and dismay at the action.
Some accused the Scarlets of hypocrisy, as their own stadium was paid for via funds from Carmarthenshire council. The Scarlets moved to their new stadium, Parc y Scarlets, in 2008 at a cost of over 25 million pounds, of which over 18 million was provided by the council. The Ospreys’ redevelopment of St Helens will receive just over 5 million in council funding, but is a project smaller in scale due to the ground already existing. The avenue the funds will be provided via is still unclear, as is the ownership arrangement when the work is completed. The initial suggestions being the Ospreys will lease the ground from the council.
24 hours after the news emerged, Crys 16 issued a statement explaining their decision to file an objection, an action it is understood they only decided to take the night before the hearing was scheduled. In their statement, they said that the development of a new professional rugby facility in Swansea posed an existential threat to the Scarlets, whose own facilities are less than 10 miles away from the St Helens site. They claimed they had acted in the best interest of their members and confirmed that there was no time to consult their members between the decision being made and the hearing taking place. The date of the hearing was public knowledge well in advance.
On Wednesday afternoon, it emerged that Crys’ action did not take place in isolation. A cross-party group of West Wales politicians – Plaid Cymru MP Ann Davies, along with Member of the Senedd Cefin Campbell and Labour MP Nia Griffith – have called for the Welsh government to intervene. They too argue that the redevelopment of St Helens poses a threat to the existence of the Scarlets and professional rugby in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire and West Wales.
Griffiths wrote: "The new stadium would duplicate this provision and would clearly pose a threat to the viability of Parc y Scarlets and the contribution it makes to the regeneration of the Llanelli area."
The actions of the MPs and Crys 16 are believed to have been triggered by the planning of the Welsh Rugby Union. Last month the Union confirmed publicly for the first time that they are considering a reduction in the number of professional rugby teams in Wales. It is widely reported that their intention is to go from 4 teams down to 2.
It is thought that one of the two surviving teams will be based in Cardiff and the other will be based in West Wales – meaning the Scarlets and Ospreys are in direct competition for survival. This is something that Campbell referenced directly in an interview with BBC Wales Radio on Wednesday.
Ospreys CEO Lance Bradley responded to the objections, giving his own interview on BBC Wales. He said that he was ‘flattered’ that MPs in Carmarthenshire thought the St Helens redevelopment impacted them and suggest their argument was invalid because St Helens is not a new venue but a pre-existing one that is to be upgraded.
The consequences of the Scarlets ceasing to exist for Llanlelli would be significant: Rugby is the dominant sport in the area and Parc y Scarlets is the largest venue west of Swansea with a capacity of 14 and a half thousand. The Scarlets lean heavily into the heritage of Llanelli RFC, one of the most historic clubs in Wales with roots that go back 150 years. The loss of the Scarlets would not only be culturally significant but also impact the economy of the local area - Parc y Scarlets is still part owned by the council.
Until this week, the expectation was that the Scarlets were safe and the Ospreys would be the team that were cut. In recent years, the Ospreys have been rumoured to be merging with rivals or closing multiple times. The last few seasons have seen their crowd sizes drop dramatically to the lowest in Wales and they have alternated hosting games between the football stadium in Swansea - something the leadership publicly says is wrong for them - and a ground in Bridgend which is normally used for semi-pro level rugby. Meanwhile, the Scarlets were thought by some to have a stronger branding and more stabilised funding whilst they also possess– crucially – a modern stadium of their own.
However, it is now being reported that the WRU’s new director of rugby – Dave Reddin – has intervened in the decision making process. It is suggested that he believes the sole West Wales team should be based in Swansea because it has a larger population and economic base than Llanelli. For this to happen, a bespoke professional rugby facility in Swansea would be a key enabler. If such a facility were built, it would dramatically weaken the Scarlet’s case to be retained. It is this sudden change in direction that is thought to have triggered the last-minute objections to St Helens.
Reddin is already a controversial figure in Welsh rugby, despite only being officially unveiled a few months ago. He has no prior experience of working in Welsh Rugby and has not worked in rugby union at all for two decades – his last involvement being as an assistant coach to Clive Woodward’s England team in the early 2000s. His perceived lack of knowledge in rugby even lead to a rumour the WRU were to appoint a special assistant to Reddin to advise him on rugby specific matters, although this has not happened.
Reddin’s previous employment at the FA in England was overshadowed by investigations into bullying accusations made by staff who said he left colleagues "in tears, suffering with stress-related illnesses and being forced to leave the organisation". The news of his appointment by the WRU came just months after Performance Director Nigel Walker and Women’s head coach Ioan Cunningham were forced to leave amid their own bullying accusations. The investigations into Reddin’s conduct were closed by the FA with their outcomes not being disclosed.
For months, there has been a distress in Welsh rugby as rumours of teams being cut circulated with no official communication from the WRU being forthcoming. Publicly, the WRU still maintain that the decision on reducing the number of teams is yet to even be taken. Now though, with politicians joining the fight, any facade of unity has disappeared: the Ospreys and the Scarlets are openly scrapping for survival in full public view. The WRU have committed to a decision on the future of the regions in October. Desperate times, it seems, is leading to desperate measures.