Supporting Swansea - Both Codes

Although I am a football and Swans supporter first and very much foremost, I tend to follow most sport with a welsh interest strongly, cricket, snooker, golf, I even started watching the darts when Richie Burnett became World Champ and I admit to becoming even more of a follower when a person/team comes from Swansea, ie The Ospreys, The Whites, Glamorgan (to an extent).

What this is all is that I really can't understand all the anti-rugby, anti-ospreys comments being posted on a fairly regular basis on the message board.

Our crowds have been fantastic and the atmosphere generated for these football matches has far exceeded my expectations. But although the atmosphere has really suffered for the Ospreys in our new stadium, their crowds are up also, not including the Wasps game which was a friendly, the Ospreys are averaging nearly 8200 a game, which is only beaten by one regions top attendance this season (Cardiff's highest attendance is 8,500). This is a fantastic achievement when you realise that the Ospreys games are on television far more than the Swans.

This great stadium of ours after all the promises and reassurances that it would go ahead only really moved from the 'fantasy' to 'reality' when it was announced that the Swansea rugby side, in whatever guise, would share the stadium (I can still remember talk of creating a rugby league side to help make the stadium project more viable at one point). My only worry at the time was the pitch, which has been superb and better than I could ever have expected.

Put simply it was the combination of both football and rugby that gave us the magnificent stadium that I already take for granted today.

I am proud to say that with Swansea City FC currently being the best supported club in Wales and one of the best supported clubs in the Coca Cola Leagues, that the Ospreys are also the best supported region's in Wales and one of the best supported clubs in the UK too.

Sport in Swansea (in whatever format) is flourishing, and long may it continue, don't knock it!

Photo: Action Images

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