Cardiff City Stadium to host Pro14 final in 2020

Cardiff Blues played at the Cardiff City Stadium between 2009 and 2012 before returning to the Arms Park

Cardiff City Stadium will be the venue for the Pro14 final in June 2020.

The game will take place on 20 June and will be the first time Cardiff has staged the event since the competition took finals around the grounds in the 2009-2010 season.

Principality Stadium hosted the league final in 2003 when Munster defeated Neath 37-17.

"We have heard the voices of Welsh fans wanting to see the final here," said Pro14 chief executive Martin Anayi.

"It's great that all of the pieces have finally fallen into place for 2020."

The Pro14 final has enjoyed four record attendances in a row with league bosses hoping the Cardiff City capacity of 33,280 will be filled.

The last four finals have been held in Celtic Park, Glasgow, two in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin and Edinburgh's Murrayfield.

"Cardiff City Stadium also brings us to a football venue for the second year in a row after the tremendous success of our most recent final in Glasgow's Celtic Park," said Anayi.

"Although the stadium itself may be known for the round ball, Cardiff is one of the most attractive rugby cities across the world."

Former Cardiff Blues flanker and recently appointed new board member Sam Warburton backed the decision.

"Rugby has always been a sport at the heart of Wales and having another world-class rugby event in our capital city is very exciting," said Warburton.

"We hope it's not just the local fans who are excited, but everyone from around our competing nations and beyond."

Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Martyn Phillips said the Principality Stadium could not host the final because of pre-existing commercial commitments.

"Cardiff is a great rugby city and we did not feel like we had done it justice in not hosting the final for such a long time in Wales," said Phillips.

"We felt under pressure to make that happen for the Welsh regions and competition.

"The only way to do that was the Cardiff City Stadium and we are balancing two things.

"It was not an option to stage the game in Principality Stadium next June because we have contracts in place for an extended period.

"The event programme we have is in June is critical to us so we did not want to impinge on that but we wanted to get the game here.

"We are pleased we have both and I think we have found a smart solution."

The Pro14 league season starts on 27 September with the final towards the end of June 2020 because of the World Cup.

Phillips said the later World Rugby calendar could be in place now for the next 12 years with the domestic seasons running from October to June.

"As far as we're concerned now the calendar up to 2032 is locked in, everybody's working to that," said Phillips.

"The flipside of that is I don't know many organisations where something stays the same for 12 years."