Henson and Trundle getting ready to roll

Jan 23 2005
Wales on Sunday

SWANSEA'S state-of-the-art stadium, known under its working title White Rock, will open in six months, showing west is best. PETER SHUTTLEWORTH finds out that Dylan Thomas was right: 'Ambition is critical.'

ALL the world's a stage - and for Swansea's great entertainers, this is how they like it.
Gavin Henson and Lee Trundle are wizards with their respective shape footballs and were born to grace the sparkling £27m stadium rising out on the industrial ashes in the lower Swansea valley on the banks of the River Tawe.

Swansea's latest sporting addition has the finesse of a five-star hotel and the facilities to match. The 22,200-capacity arena has ensured Wales' second city, that boasts Wales' only Olympic size pool and will benefit from a new £3m athletics arena, is stepping firmly out of Cardiff's sporting shadow to challenge the capital.

"I walk around stadiums for a living and there's not a better one in the world in the 20,000-30,000 category than Swansea's new ground," insisted Ashley Donlon, the stadium's corporate chief. "Every minute detail has been considered and there's nothing you could improve; the finish is first class."

Britain's first dual-purpose stadium took almost 15 years from the initial brainstorming process to the first sod being removed. Building work, that began in September 2003, will take little more than 18 months.

Stadium chiefs might well wax lyrical about their state-of-the-art stadium, but it is the players' opinions that count.

For Swansea City's footballing heroes and The Ospreys regional rugby side, their riverbank den will be home. Trickster striker Trundle and versatile back Henson are twin towers in sport Swansea; both need to be comfortable in their new surroundings.

"It feels like you're at a Premiership stadium," said Trundle. "This is where any player would like to play their football. Playing at the best grounds bring out the best in you. We want to move forward as a football club and a big part of that is moving to this phenomenal new stadium."
Henson added: "It'll be an inspirational place to play rugby."

The £27m bill was footed by Swansea Council selling retail plots adjacent to the splendid structure and a £2.5m grant from the football federation, which, along with Football League requirement, stipulates the football club get priority over ground usage.

Swansea stadium's shell is complete and the building work will be finished by early March so the interior designers can take over; but already its grandeur is apparent.

"The finishing touches will be more five-star hotel than football ground," said Andy Edmonds, associate director of contractors Interserve, the company that revamped Murrayfield.

"This ground will be way ahead of any football stadium of its size in Europe."

Donlan added: "The Telstra Stadium in Sydney cost almost $700m while Cardiff's Millennium Stadium cost the Welsh Rugby Union £126m, but the finish of work is not the quality of this."
If Swansea's own golden girl Catherine Zeta-Jones wants to renew her vows with Hollywood hubbie Michael Douglas, the city's new ground will be the only venue big enough to host such a big glamour bash.

Its plush, 800-capacity hospitality suite is twice the size of its biggest city rival. On match days, this is where the 1,175 corporate members, paying up to £125 per month, will be fed and watered.

The stadium's 29 hospitality boxes, costing between £14,000 and £25,000, are already selling like Joe's ice cream on a warm summer's day.

But the most crucial cog of a sports stadium is often overlooked. A genius isn't needed to point out that the state of the pitch needs to be perfection, a simple point that is often ignored. But there are almost a million reasons why critics couldn't accuse Swansea of ignorance. More than £900,000 has been spent on a 21st Century surface, the latest in designer pitches.

The pitch will have plastic grass reinforcements to strengthen the playing surface and provide improved playing conditions.

It will be able to suck moisture away from the surface and blow air underneath to keep it aerated.

Glass panels make up a majority of the stadium's roof to ensure maximum sunlight at all times of the day; the four stands are separated by tunnels in all four corners of the ground to guarantee good ventilation.

Said Trundle: "The pitch is crucial because some new stadiums are excellent but the pitch isn't up to much. For footballers and rugby players, it doesn't matter what is around you, players are only as good as the pitch they play on. They are spending a lot of money on the pitch and that gives the players confidence because they know what we require.

"If the stadium hasn't a good pitch, you can't get the ball down and play football. A bad pitch would nullify our strengths."

Welsh international Henson added: "The Millennium Stadium is a great arena, but the surface isn't always the best; when I'm kicking my left standing foot often slips away. That's always in my mind as I run up to kick the ball so it affects my kicking.

"The Millennium Stadium has a firm surface but the top two inches are wet and greasy and that's why the footballers always tend to slip.

"It's good that we're ground-sharing with Swansea because at least we know their pitch has to be perfect for football otherwise the ball wouldn't travel right. Hopefully we won't mess it up for them! The pitch will be awesome."

Millennium Stadium chiefs are forced to replace their 'pallet style' pitch at least twice annually at approximately £300,000 a time. Swansea hope they'll never have to replace their surface.

The White Rock Stadium at Morfa is the unofficial working title as the stadium's management company are reluctant to formally name as they hope to raise revenue by attracting a sponsor.
Stadco, the tri-partner ground's management company, hope to recoup an estimated £1.5m over the next seven years by selling the stadium's naming rights. BT, Asda and Walkers have been suggested and Stadco, made up of Swansea City and Ospreys board members and Swansea councillors, will probably make an announcement regarding a deal within the next six weeks. Swansea are chasing a League Two promotion spot and Trundle said: "The new ground is great for the club because it'll help attract new players.

"We're on course for promotion; we're in a good spot so it's up to us to secure it. We can only let ourselves down but moving into the new stadium is a big incentive for us to be in a new division as well next season. And there's no reason why we can't push for back-to-back promotions.

"Promotion and our new home will hopefully snowball as we'd attract new fans as families might want a day out and see what this ground is all about. That'll make for an even more intimidating atmosphere."

Henson's Ospreys are leading the Celtic League. He said: "It'll be great to move into the stadium as champions. It is showing what a professional region we are both on and off the field."