DAY OUT AT RACES DEFENDED

31 March 2005

Senior officials of the company in charge of Swansea's new sports stadium have defended a trip to Cheltenham Races. StadCo representatives spent a day at the races as guests of the stadium's new caterers.FMC has been given the contract for the as-yet-unnamed Landore facility which will be home to Swansea City and the Neath-Swansea Ospreys from next season.

An unofficial council monitoring website picked up on the trip, calling it a junket."Despite all the financial stringencies and safeguards at the stadium, it seems that junkets are an acceptable part of doing business," it said.

The site labelled the visit a jaunt and questioned the need for it.StadCo said its representatives were guests of FMC and the only cost was £20 for petrol.

Ashley Donlan, the stadium's corporate hospitality adviser, said: "When it opens this summer the new stadium will provide the best conference and corporate hospitality facilities in South Wales.

"In order to successfully anticipate the staffing numbers and structures required for this type of extremely high-pressure catering event, senior StadCo representatives were invited to learn from FMC's work at the Cheltenham Festival. These systems will now be adapted to the corporate hospitality facilities at the new Swansea stadium, ensuring that the venue will be offering the highest level of service and professionalism anywhere in Wales."