As a Cardiff City supporter I am bombarded by news stories from my own football club and the South Wales media underlining the importance of a new stadium for Cardiff City.

Our current ground Ninian Park can hold a decent 20000. However a lot of it is terracing and with the Taylor Report you're just not allowed to do things like that any more. In fact if the new stadium weren't "In the pipeline" I am pretty certain the FA would have stepped in and forced us to put seats on all the terraced areas. I should think that would leave us with a capacity of about 14000 or so.

So, "Pistol" Pete Ridsdale and before him Sam "The Man" Hammam have concucted a cunning plan to build a new stadium and retail park that will take Cardiff to the "Promised Land" where the land flows with milk and prawn sandwiches.

Anyway, I wanted to see what the facts were behind these new stadium builds and whether they actually improved performances on the pitch.

There are seventeen clubs in the Football League that have moved to new stadia since 1992.
These clubs are:

• Bolton Wanderers
• Reading
• Manchester City
• Wigan Athletic
• Middlesbrough
• Derby County
• Stoke City
• Southampton
• Leicester City
• Hull City
• Swansea City
• Huddersfield Town
• Millwall
• Darlington
• Oxford United

I tracked their league performances from the day their new stadium was built until the end of last season (2005/2006). Early indications are good! It seems as if a move to a new stadium actually does improve your league placings by an average of 2.7 places.

Of the 17 clubs that have moved:

• 12 have been relegated since moving to a new stadium.
• 9 are worse off than they were previously.
• Oxford United have dropped into non-league football, ending their 43 year stint in the football league.
  
• Leicester City have gone into administration
• Southampton are now playing second flight football for the first time since 1978.
• Sunderland have recorded the two worse Premier League records in history
• Huddersfield Town have gone into administration
• Derby County have amassed debts into tens of millions of pounds
• Darlington's chairman George Reynolds (who built Darlington's stadium) was arrested for financial irregularities.

So, not a completely happy story. The truth is, with good leadership and decent managerial appointments a new stadium can help as it often improves attendences. Clubs like Middlesbrough and Reading with clever chairmen in Steve Gibson and John Madejski have shown how it can be done.

Cardiff City's chairman is currently Peter Ridsdale.