BID issues statement in support of Dragons RFC

Newport is fortunate compared to many towns and cities across Wales and the UK to have professional sport played just a few hundred yards from its main commercial centre.

The presence of Dragons RFC and Newport County AFC at Rodney Parade is hugely important for the economy of Newport city centre.

As the city centre’s Business Improvement District (BID), part of the role of Newport Now is to support and lobby on behalf of the 600+ businesses we represent. Dragons RFC is just one of those businesses.

Our contribution to the current consultation on the Welsh Rugby Union’s proposals to change the number of professional clubs in Wales is based on the importance of professional sport – in this instance rugby – to the economic wellbeing of Newport city centre.

We will leave it to others to talk about the history of rugby at Rodney Parade, the 70+ clubs across Gwent that make the area a natural place to base one of the professional clubs, and the important work done across the community by Dragons RFC.

Our concern is the impact the loss of professional rugby could have on an already brittle economy in Newport city centre.

The hospitality sector, in particular, is suffering with an average of eight pubs a week closing across the UK in the first six months of 2025.

In Newport city centre, we have a wide variety of pubs, bars, restaurants, cafes and coffee shops. We also have three hotels. All are within a short walking distance from Rodney Parade.

For many of them, the retention of professional rugby in Newport could be the difference between survival and closure.

We do not believe this to be an overly-dramatic claim, more a statement of fact.

For all matches at Rodney Parade, and more so for games with large attendances, the economic impact is not just felt through the turnstiles and in the bars at the stadium.

Visiting teams and their supporters base themselves in our hotels. They use our restaurants and bars. They drink in our pubs. They relax in our cafes and coffee shops.

The city centre economy in Newport is fragile, like all traditional high streets in the age of internet and out-of-town shopping, and following the pandemic.

It is showing signs of recovery, with a reduction in empty commercial units (81% are now occupied according to a recent independent report produced by Centre for Cities) and an increase in both the number of independent traders and in footfall (where we buck both the Welsh and UK trends).

Maintaining and improving that recovery is vital to our businesses.

Removing professional sport from the city centre will have a chilling impact on the local economy and could sound the death knell for parts of the hospitality sector which would see the loss of regular trade almost overnight.

It is not for us to suggest how many professional rugby clubs there should be in Wales. That is not our area of expertise.

But it is for us to say one of those clubs should be based in the centre of Newport, at Rodney Parade.

We would urge the WRU to look at the wider economic impact of its proposals for the future of the sport in Wales, and to ensure professional rugby remains at Rodney Parade.