My god, it has nothing to do with Lord or the fan base.
Have you not seen the trophy cabinet and arena.
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Fair enough.
However I would argue both of those points more than the aforementioned .
Point about the arena; as a fan I do agree with many of your points - from a fan perspective. However from a players perspective it is many times better than the set up in Sheffield. As a player what do you care about? Decent locker room conditions, good ice, ease of access, consistency of location amongst a few other points.
Cardiff is head and shoulders ahead of Sheffield in these aspects. I have used the facilties in Sheffield and they are far from ideal. Their changing rooms are almost spilt in the middle, not all players can see each other, it's benches with a tiny bit of cheap overhead mdf storage with little personalisation. No expense has been spared on the Devils locker room, not by IAW but the club, there's a kitchen area, cool personalised stalls, decoration, storage - it's comfortable. Not perfect as the pillars aren't great but miles better than Sheffield. With a full time, experienced kit man.
They have to play over at Ice Sheffield regularly (with really cramped facilities). We only play home games and train at IAW.
The ice is pretty crap at the motorpoint as well, at least it was about 3 years ago. And Sheffield very rarely get it more than 2/3 full, I'd prefer a sold out 3k arena to half empty 10k seat.
And it's convenient for all the players in relation to where they live.
Arena wise we are miles ahead of Sheffield from a player perspective.
Trophy wise it's subjective. Would you prefer to be part of a growing brand with ambitious new owners or somewhere where success is expected at all costs. Neither is the right or wrong answer for that point.