Cardiff arena

jenks33

Well-Known Member
#41
Such a shame that IAW isn’t a 4,000 seater. I’m not sure we would ever need a bigger arena than that. Don’t get me wrong we haven’t had many problems with a capacity of 3,100 but it’s not the ideal size.
 

Diablo3

Well-Known Member
#42
Everything I've read on the new development states it will be a 15000 concert venue. Nothing about ice pads. Besides keeping a frozen pad that is hardly used or re-freezing it for the odd game makes no sense financially. I'd love to see a 4-5000 seat venue for the Devils but I don't think this is going to be it.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#43
Such a shame that IAW isn’t a 4,000 seater. I’m not sure we would ever need a bigger arena than that. Don’t get me wrong we haven’t had many problems with a capacity of 3,100 but it’s not the ideal size.
We could have had a 4,000 seater but no second ice pad, we were getting crowds of 12-1500 at the time, with not a great future ahead.
 

jenks33

Well-Known Member
#48
No expert, but pretty sure the hockey and figure skating community need the second pad to keep enough ice time available
Thanks. I’ve got no idea how much the second pad is/isn’t used. Just wondered whether it was completely necessary as most rinks in this country don’t have two pads. How many have two pads? Obviously Nottingham has.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#49
The only way the IAW got built in the 1st place was that it had to facilitate, all the junior teams, the ladies Comet team, the Huskies sledge hockey team, public skating, the figure skaters, and probably curling. The main Arena was to be a multi purpose venue staging boxing, netball, basketball etc, and of course the Devils.The Council only gave the land so those clubs could be facilitated which meant it had to have a secondary pad, and had to be funded by whoever got the contract to build the houses at a cost of 19 million pounds. The Councilspreference would have been to knock the tent down bugger a new arena and just build houses there.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#50
Thanks. I’ve got no idea how much the second pad is/isn’t used. Just wondered whether it was completely necessary as most rinks in this country don’t have two pads. How many have two pads? Obviously Nottingham has.
All the places that facilitate other things on a single pad look like a shit house, one of many reasons why the ice in the tent was a slushy bog, and the place a shit house, although it was home.
 

jenks33

Well-Known Member
#51
All the places that facilitate other things on a single pad look like a shit house, one of many reasons why the ice in the tent was a slushy bog, and the place a shit house, although it was home.
Having watched the devils at The WNIR and the BBT do you have much love for the BBT? I started watching the devils in 1996 and I still miss the WNIR to this day. To be honest I hated the BBT. We were usually average on the ice and it was obviously a bit of a dump. Most fans seem to have fond memories of the place tho.
 

Devil94

Well-Known Member
#53
When IAW opened I think everyone was delighted because it had been such a long time coming, and we were no longer playing in a tent.
Few years down the line though you can see the pennies that were saved; for instance the walkways at the top of the seats. You pretty much have to slide on the walls to walk around IAW on game nights. And it shows on the walls, where there's scuff marks on the incredibly white walls.
The small two tiered player benches. No new build rink should have those.
The limited food and drink facilities, with more queuing filling up the walkways.
Poor sound system.

Obviously it's hard to complain about the new rink as the alternative would be much, much worse. But just feels like a missed opportunity in retrospect.
 
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Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#55
Having watched the devils at The WNIR and the BBT do you have much love for the BBT? I started watching the devils in 1996 and I still miss the WNIR to this day. To be honest I hated the BBT. We were usually average on the ice and it was obviously a bit of a dump. Most fans seem to have fond memories of the place tho.
I have a certain amount of love for the tent due to the fact it kept the club alive, plus the fact the Council promised we would be in there for between 3-5 yrs, and then we would have a permanent home those 3-5 yrs then turned into 10 thank you Council. The WNIR will always have a huge place in peoples hearts, it was a new adventure we were all on, it was loud, it was central, Sightlines were good, and we were good, plus many new relationships were made there and that’s always good. The tent did become a fortress to a certain extent, and for me many great nights were had and I always looked forward to going there, the small ice pad made it a more physical game, the Sightlines weren’t great, I told the bloody architect the rake was all wrong but no one listened, fortunately Sorac got the TVs installed to try to compensate for the Sightlines cock up. We went thru some shit at the tent, but then again the club was still breathing, and better things were on the horizon. The new gaff ain’t perfect , but what we got built back then was a bloody god send, and it was due to a band of brothers and sisters , working their butts off, taking time off work, protesting at meetings with Council and refusing to be beat. Just one last point that people should never forget, the IAW wasn’t built for the Cardiff Devils, it was built for all ice users in Wales, Sorac consisted of good people from all the different sports that needed ice time, and without those lovely people passionate folk we wouldn’t be here now, and we would certainly would not be having these conversations, Stay Safe All. ( See you tonight at the best gaff we have ever had )
 

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #56
No room for an ice pad on this plan of the ground floor of the Cardiff Bay Arena,
Do you have a link to a higher resolution version of that? From the look of that it would be next to no use for anything except concerts, certainly not any sport or arena shows though. That and the changes to the sorts village suggests that the council still couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.
 
#57
Do you have a link to a higher resolution version of that? From the look of that it would be next to no use for anything except concerts, certainly not any sport or arena shows though. That and the changes to the sorts village suggests that the council still couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.
All the plans are on the Atlantic Wharfe website, they are a bit lo-res though.
https://atlanticwharfcardiff.co.uk/...-AX-00-DR-A-00-9902-ARENA-GA-GROUND-FLOOR.pdf
 

Mazzoak

Well-Known Member
#58
It’s pretty obvious the Cardiff Devils and the new arena aren’t ever going to happen.......
I’m mean, sorry Little Mix you can’t play 3 sell out nights cos 4,100 ice hockey fans want to watch themselves get slaughtered by an NHL team.....
 
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