Guinness PRO14 CEO Martin Anayi is expecting to sell-out the Cardiff City Stadium to provide an unrivalled atmosphere at the 2020 Guinness PRO14 Final. This season’s Guinness PRO14 Final takes place on June 20 next year and will mark the first time that Cardiff has hosted the event in the era of ‘Destination Finals’. The Guinness PRO14 Final has enjoyed four record attendances in a row and now the 33,280 capacity Cardiff City Stadium promises to provide a sold-out spectacle that will create an incredible atmosphere. Speaking from a press conference at Cardiff Castle, Anayi said: “They are real rugby fans at the Cardiff City Stadium, which is quite unusual for a football operations team, so we’re very happy and we think it’s the right size for us in the city. “We’re coming from four record crowds in the last four years but for us it’s the right time to come to Cardiff and they proposed a great solution for us. “We’ve had a fantastic response to our Final so far, it’s got bigger and bigger and bigger every year and since 2015 it’s been a Destination Final of course. “We looked at what we could do to really blow the doors off in terms of atmosphere and that’s a sell-out. “We want it full to the rafters so for us it’s the perfect size. We’ve already seen a record amount of interest on presale and registering interest online.” The Guinness PRO14 Final has established a reputation as one of the most exciting events in the club rugby calendar with 14 teams from across Wales, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and South Africa all battling it out to reach the Championship decider at Cardiff City Stadium. Fans can gain access to an exclusive presale window for 48 hours on Tuesday, August 27 by signing up as a member of PRO14 Xtra – visit xtra.pro14rugby.org or download the Official PRO14 App to gain access – general sale tickets will be available on Thursday, August 29. WRU CEO Martyn Phillips also attended the conference and commented: “First and foremost for us Cardiff is a great city and we didn’t feel that we were doing it justice really, that we hadn’t had the final here for a long time in Wales. “We felt under a bit of pressure really to make that happen for the Welsh regions and for the competition. “The way we were able to do that was to get into the Cardiff City stadium so we’re balancing two things, ultimately we’re going to get a great game in a great city.” The race to Cardiff begins on September 27 when Round 1 of the 2019⁄20 Guinness PRO14 season kicks off in front of an ever-increasing global audience.
