Cant use the Ynys
Posted by on the 6th February 2008
From todays South Wales Echo (and ic wales)
Stadium decision blow forfootball in the Valleys
Feb 6 2008 by Ben Glaze, South Wales Echo
A FOOTBALL club faces losing its main sponsor because its Welsh Premier League ambitions have been blocked by the local council.
Cynon Valley-based Aberaman Athletic FC want to move to a bigger stadium in Aberdare which meets strict Football Association of Wales criteria for Welsh top flight football – but the council is refusing to give the club permission.
It said that when the Ynys Stadium – where the team hope to play – was constructed, the council introduced a policy that it would only be used for prestigious and representative games.
The team is riding high in the MacWhirter Welsh League Division One and on course for promotion to the top division.
But Welsh Premier League grounds require floodlights, at least 300 seats and basic hospitality facilities.
Officials of the 106-year-old club say its current ground Aberaman Park is unsuitable for upgrade and they want to play home matches at the Ynys Stadium at Aberdare’s Michael Sobell Sports Centre.
Ento could pull sponsorship if the team cannot play in the Premier League.
Club chairman Richard Rowlands said: “The loss of our main sponsor would mean a complete rethink on the future plans for the club and seriously impact on our ambitions to bring top flight football to the Cynon Valley.
“Any such move by Ento would be catastrophic for this club, but I fully understand the frustrations of the board of Ento.”
Aberaman Athletic’s vice-chairman and team manager David Morgan, who is also Ento’s co-owner, blamed Rhondda Cynon Taf council for not allowing the team to play at the Ynys Stadium.
He said: “The council is depriving the people of the Cynon Valley the opportunity to watch Welsh Premier League football and challenge for the FAW Premier Cup and, ultimately, European football. We don’t want to see the club stagnate.”
Mr Morgan said the club would explore other grounds, such as Merthyr Tydfil’s Penydarren Park, but that would mean losing football from the Cynon.
A Rhondda Cynon Taf council spokesman said: “The former Cynon Valley borough council, when it constructed the Ynys Stadium, introduced a policy whereby the ground would only be used for prestigious and representative games.
“These included local semi and cup finals, internationals and RCT schoolboy representative games. Also a number of charity games have been played over the years.
“We have a number of clubs striving to gain Welsh Premier League status and are all in similar position of requiring a ground that complies with the Welsh Premier League ground requirements and we will assist them as much as we possibly can.
“As readers will be aware, we continue our drive to boost RCT for the benefit of residents and recognise that having successful sporting teams is a real advantage and a premiership football team, is something to be welcomed.
“We will continue to support as many ambitious sporting organisations across the county as best as we can.”
- Log in to post comments
Nothing new there RCT seem to put a stop to everything good about Aberdare.
i phoned the ynys to ask about booking jacobs christening and 1st birthday party there, they told me it will be £14 an hour without the bar being open but as i have a guest list of 100 - 120 coming and only 25 of them are children i said that i need the bar open and i was told that the price would then go up to about £170 as its a council run property they need to employ 2 bouncers for the door. the man said he's double check it and get back to me................ that was 5 weeks ago and still no phonecall......... needless to say i have booked somewhere else lol
Robertstownboy I agree. If the stadium was over the Rhondda theyd allow a team to use it. Aberaman only want it to play their matches at- they dont want it to be theirs-athletics, football cup finals, charity matches can all still go on there!! The profile of Aberdare and the Cynon Valley could increase so much with a team in the Welsh Premier-just look at Barry Town a few years ago. Whilst crowds are not massive some clubs do take around 100-200 supporters with them- all visitors to Aberdare!!! The council dont give a toss about Aberdare! Local traders should get behind the club and press the council for change.
Bunny- what a surprise!!! The council are not interested in Aberdare!! Have you booked the christening yet? Where did you go for in the end?
went for aberdare rugby club in the end cause it lets us do our own food, fits around 100 people in the room and is closer to our house as we need to get down there about 7 to set things up as the service is at 11. if it was later in the day i was gonna have cwmaman institure as its lovely there but the travel time will take loads of time out in the morning and we hav to set the room up, take to food down, get ourselves and jacob ready and be at the church by about 10:50am lol
good stuff!! nice club too isnt it?central for most people, you have a great time!
oh dont worry we will. its not till june but had to start booking things early lol
Australia are great at any sport because they are encouraged from all quarters, including local authorities to participate, even the school kids are not forgotten in that area.
The attitude of RCT would be a laughing stock out here.
Who pays the rates for the upkeep of these facilities ????
For goodness sake RCT get into the 21st. century and encoursge local teams and businesses by drawing people to the area as supporters and visitors and inspiring the youngsters to take up sport instead of hanging around the streets getting into bother.
Too many old fuddy duddies running things in the UK that's why they have fallen so far behind the rest of the world and the country has gone to the dogs. No wonder 66% of the population wants to get out of there.
Cymro.
In this instance the council are damned if they do and damned if they don't. I think i agree with them on this occasion. It's all to easy to condem, but if they do it for one, then.........., and we'll all be howling "Stop the bus!" if we have a stream of successfull rugby/soccer/ teams , and our rates will go up to pay for it . No i think it would be a precedent which if set ,could become a millstone around our necks.
I beg to differ on that one dmj as one system feeds off another, if you have successful teams they in turn bring more prosperity to the area. That surely can't be such a bad thing. Attitudes differ there to what they are here as busineses here contribute vast sums of money to local sports teams and get it back again through greater patronisation by greater numbers of customers visitors etc. The swings and roundabouts theme.
Communities here get behind their local and national sporting personallities and that's why Australians are not very far from the top in any sport they participate in. You wouldn't believe how they get behind their teams unless you actually saw it, it's mind boggling really.
Australian teams always and I mean "Always" believe in themselves and are consequently very hard to beat doesn't matter what sport they play, also they never ever give in until the last whistle has gone. Kiwis too have the same determination.
But like I said, The attitude here is so very different and it is very noticeable.
Cymro.
I beg to differ also, in this day and age for a council not to back any sort of sport is irresponsible, when you have youngsters hanging around street corners causing mischief because of nowhere to go nothing to do what better way to encourage them off these street corners than seeing a football or any sort of sport team doing well.But there, quite obvious that Cynon Taff have no interest in the Cynon valley from what I read and hear, shame that when the new bounderies where drawn in the 90's that Aberdare did not get to go in with the Merthyr Council, they would have faired a lot better than with the RCT. I say Shame on the Cynon Valley Councillors for not fighting for a much fairer system for local people to use their facilities as it looks as if not much prestegious sports happen much in Aberdare. Bunny the Rugby Clubs always have nice atmostphere, my daughter married in Dom Rep. and we they came home we had a party could not find anywhere big enough until a friend suggested Rugby Club, well they were so accomadating, we had a wonderful time, they would not take any fee for the use of the club or for staff, and as we were going to set up there had been a rugby match in the afternoon, and the rugby team was only Rhydyfelin Pontypridd and the boys who were in the team were all boys I knew and my daughter knew phew extra guests lol but great night.
dmj- the Stadium is there at the moment though, hardly being used. So what do we do- leave it virtually unused? Doesnt make any sense!! The stadium is paid for by our council tax, I know for a fact Aberaman AFC have offered to pay for any upgrades needed and of course we would pay to use it just like anyone else!! Aberdare RFC have their own facilities that are good enough for the league they are in, Abercwmboi RFC will soon. Aberaman AFC are in a position at the moment whereby they might be in a position to go up. At the moment the 3 other Football Clubs in the Welsh League are 2 seasons away from such a possibility- assuming the 3 get promoted this season and the next.
I work for another Local Authority and see things a lot different there, You can actually see things being done around the Towns and Villages so you know where all your Council tax money is being spent.
Nothing gets done in RCT until its too late usually.
Cymro,extra revenue? We are talking welsh league here ,where mostly its one man and his dog and a few others who watch.... Mrs A Lady, the youngsters who are the malaise of society would not bebnefit from this football team getting the ground, they would rather wreck.(not all youngsters are the same) the place, there are many local/rugby/football teans to join and support or play for, but the issue here isn't about them, its about aberaman being given a facility which a lot of other rugby/football clubs have asked for and have been denied.
RTBOY. Where do you work? it cant be near here.
dmj- aberaman are tied in with aberdare grasshoppers so we are talking potentially 100s of kids being denied the opportunity to play a high level of football in their hometown-is that fair?
As regards revenue the club could potentially qualify for europe and also the FAW Premier Cup (where Swansea, cardiff, wrexham etc play) so im sure this would bring a little bit of extra revenue.
Are you with any club then and youd like it for them? I cant understand why you are so dead against it.
Robertstown- i work outside the valley and i too am embarrassed what i see regarding support other authorities give sports clubs. RCT should be ashamed.
dmj
I dont want to say which Local Authority I work for but it borders on RCT if that helps?
Aberdarejack,,no I haven't got A vested interest in who gets the facility, my point of view is not formed by selfish reasoning, but purely on principle. Is it right to favour one ,when other, equaly deserving cases have been rejected? The answer, sadly, has to be no.
I won't pretend to know more about the situation over there than you do dmj as I have been away from Wales for 37 years ( and I do respect your right to your opinion. ) but just maybe the Welsh league is what it is because of attitudes from the past. Had the authorities of years ago had a more accommodating attitude to the situations that prevailed years ago there might have been a Welsh league now that people would have flocked to see.
I can remember not being allowed to play football on Penrhys park as a youngster and we ran like hell if the parkie was seen to be coming.
Why were we afraid of the Parkie? Isn't that what parks are for.?
It seems there is no more enlightenment there now than there was 50/ 60 years ago.
Perhaps that's why Wales and it's achievers are never mentioned too often regarding anything much.
Who is to say that the best golfer, tennis player, basket baller, or sprinter is not lurking around in the valleys but will never reach his/her potential because of the lack of facilities at their disposal.
If kids are denied everything they will come to disrespect facilities and that I think is partly what's brought our communities to what they are today.
Here facilities like Ynys park are available for use and the result is obvious and Welsh kids are not any different to Aussie kids when it boils down. It's the environment they have been brought up in that's nurtured their antagonisms. AS I said previously it comes down to "ATTITUDE" and they can and do differ believe me.
Cymro.
RTBOY,ok,I get the picture, thank you.
PS;Did you know that the original name for Robertstown was Tre Salem? There! Now you too can bore people to death like I do, with useless information.LMAO!!
Apart from Thursday there is no public swimming in the Pool after 6.30pm either.That's really knackered people who work 'office' or 'shop' hours who would like to swim a few times a week. (like me)
Seems crazy not to open the swimming pool to the public in the evenings.I would have thought that would be when it would be most needed ,most children are in school all day and as you say cynonpuss adults are in work all day.
Is it used other evenings for private clubs or that sort of thing.?
That is really silly not opening a swimming pool to the public in the evening, we have a pool is included in the Ganolfan and is open from 7 in the morning until 10 in the night and is a well used facilitity.
Apparently there's diving, swimming and other clubs after 6.30pm. they udes to section a couple of lanes of for public use but they've stopped doing it now.A lot of people I know use Glynneath pool now instead.
Well I'll be blowed ,I never knew there was a swimming pool in Glynneath.
My OH use to live there and he has just explained to me where it was.To think I was down in Glynneath on a regular basis when we were courting but never knew about it.
I knew most of the pubs though.LOL ;-)
I can never understand why Aberaman Athletic stopped playing on the top field. I think Aberaman had the best facilities bowling green, grass hard tennis courts, putting green, and a great welfare club. I think the NCB or was it the miners that paid for the greens etc.
At the end of the day we pay for a verity of sporting facilities around RCT so what’s the difference a lot of people say there is nothing going on in and around Aberdare so lets help promote something.
Aberaman Athletic has a long history in Cynon Valley
http://www.aberdareonline.org.uk/archive/content/public/history/sporting...