It is said that the economy of any Town or City is boosted by £100M annually if that conurbation has a premiership football team. This is because of additional hotel bookings, packed restaurants & many other factors. Top professional footballers tend be aged between 18 & 30 and all that testosterone produces competition among team mates for buying things like cars, houses and the like which in turn produces business and jobs for tradesman who service their needs, people who build kitchens, bathrooms and conservatories, supply cars, clothes for the WAGS etc.
The ‘Premiership’ effect is felt right throughout the community with the wealth being provided by the addition to that community of 20 or 30 squad players, many of whom will be multi millionaires.

It is with this in mind that I am so pleased that Wales now boasts two premiership football teams with the addition of Cardiff City to the top flight next season. Joining Swansea City in the elite of British Football, Cardiff’s elevation is brilliant news for Wales the western part of the M4 corridor and I’m sure that most of the businesses in both Cities will benefit enormously with Cardiff’s promotion to the Premiership.
Something else which influences a community and which is often forgotten is the ‘feel good’ factor produced. Nothing succeeds like success, and feeling like a winner puts a skip in the step of anyone so I expect to see people skipping all the way to the St David’s Hotel in Cardiff Bay to get autographs, where I’m sure many of the visiting teams will stay. I don’t visit Cardiff as often as I would like these days but when I do I always stay at the St David’s where some years ago I gave a talk to a delegation of senior Russian politicians & business leaders who it transpired didn’t speak a word of English, which resulted in everything I said having to be translated into three language’s. Mid way through my speech I asked one of my party to find a way of entertaining our guests during the afternoon which resulted in us taking them on a boat tour of the marina before ending up back at the St David’s Hotel where our Russian friends almost drank the bar dry, at least of vodka!. I won’t mention any names here but there were one or two people who would be instantly recognisable and regularly adorn the pages of the serious press. Good harmless fun but I leave you with the warning to never, under any circumstances, take on a Russian in a vodka drinking contest. Still I was convinced by my seventh vodka that my Russian was pretty good, that was until Yuri my interpreter informed me that I had become fluent in gibberish & that despite speaking 14 languages he couldn’t understand a word I was saying!