" The Cardiff City Experience "

Hello all, as you are probably all aware there were a lot of tickets given out to school kids for yesterdays game against Blackpool, my daughter was one of them and she asked if she could go so I put aside my loyalty to Bristol City and took her so that she could have her first football game experience.

I figured that having used forums a lot and seeing the Bristol City forums there is a lot of bias and sometimes it's great to have an "outsiders" opinion so I figured I'd do a review of my day at the Cardiff City match, share my views on pretty much everything and give some feedback.

I'm going to start with the atmosphere which I know is a bit unfair as it was a game between a team who are mid-table and a relegated team so it was always destined to be quiet. So in the interest of fairness I must point out that despite it being quite quiet it was fantastic to see the support of the Cardiff fans towards the Blackpool fans who were chanting "Oyston out", at one point they even joined in and that went a long way with me. The atmosphere as a whole was a little dead but as I mentioned earlier it was essentially a "nothing game" so it was to be expected.

It was the first time I'd been to the stadium and I was a little underwhelmed by the tunnels, they felt a little "bare", not that this has any real impact on the experience but I was surprised by how bare they were. The TV's running the football results were great, was nice to be able to check the other scores at half time and the aerial shots of the stadium were a nice touch too.
One thing that I was expecting was high prices for food, my daughter was hungry and so I got her some nuggets and chips with a coke but at £6.30 I felt like I'd paid for a McDonalds and got half a portion size of McDonalds which is pretty bad. That aside the nuggets weren't that bad and compared to other grounds I've visited the actual quality of the food couldn't be complained about at all.
On a much more positive note the seating was good, the stewards were helpful, polite and even up for a bit of banter and this is far more important than the tunnels or food. My only complaint about the stewards was that they removed a Blackpool fan who was protesting without actually causing any real issues, there was no conflict, he didn't resist but they still removed him.
Overall I expected the stadium to look a little nicer inside but the experience was still nice, the fans were easy going and fun, the stewards were good and the food wasn't bad.

With regards to the football, it was nice to see Cardiff City get the win but the performance was surprising to me. Fabio looked fantastic, he's a player you really need to keep, I personally think he could do a job in a lower Premier League team, Noone looked a little frustrated, trying to carry the ball too long and choosing at one point to shoot when he had much better options, I was surprised by him as he's looked a good player in the past. Overall I think the defence backed off way too often and this actually led to both Blackpool goals, the first was really surprising as Orlandi seemed to be given all the time in the world to run at the defence and then finished with ease.The second goal for Blackpool was also woeful defending, no marking, no pressure, not good enough if you want to be competitive next season.
I want to say there were more positives but at the beginning of the game you seemed to sit deep, pass it around in your own half and then play it long which most of the time seemed to result in loss of possession. I think all in all Cardiff need to start playing to their strengths, you're not a long ball team, you have a squad very capable of playing passing football but it seemed like Slade has set out to try and make you play a different way.

The last thing I'll mention is the attendance, I know the stadium can hold 33k but yesterday it looked half full so I thought to myself 15-16k people so I was a little surprised when the attendance came up as 26k I've since been told they included season tickets who never attended and the 5k tickets to school kids but if that makes up the missing 10k people that means hardly any school kids used their tickets, which I don't think is the case as there were loads where I was sitting, and/or you have 5-7.5k season ticket holders not turning up, which I personally think is crazy. Not sure what the whole thing was about but it certainly seemed to get a response from the fans

Anyway, to sum things up I like the stadium, it could be better but it's easy to navigate around for first timers, it's got plenty of places to get food, plenty of toilets etc and the seats had good leg room, all in all a thumbs up. The performance wasn't too bad, a lot of room for improvement next season and that defence needs to improve.

Oh and just to add, my daughter is now undecided on who she supports, she said she wanted to support Bristol City prior to our visit so it obviously had a good impression and I may have a bit of rivalry in my own home in the future haha. Thanks for the great day

Thanks for the even handed review. Can't really disagree with anything you've said.

I'd say it was probably nearer 8-10 k season ticket holders not turning up .
Hence the 26 k gate with probably ore like 16-18k in there.
Glad you enjoyed your day.

great review. tip for any future games. go to the burger vans outside where ninian park used to be. £1.50 a burger or hot dog

ccs is boring

nice = boring

That's a very fair review of the modern Cardiff City experience. Fairly pleasant but ever so slightly dull!