New home for Ninian Park's seats

Cardiff City's last match at Ninian Park was played in May

Bangor City Football Club have bought 1,000 seats from Cardiff City's former ground Ninian Park.

The individual seats will be moved north on 18 July and the Welsh Cup winners have appealed for help from exiles to load the seats in Cardiff.

Bangor need the seats at their Farrar Road ground to satisfy Welsh Premier league licensing requirements, as their move to a new home is on hold.

The last match was played at Ninian Park in May after 99 years.

"Transport has been arranged, but what we need is people to help with the loading in Cardiff," said Bangor City FC's spokesman Huw Pritchard.

We're concentrating on getting Farrar Road up to scratch, that's the priority Huw Pritchard, Bangor City FC

"We are appealing to the people of Cardiff, especially if they have a link with Bangor, to come along to help."

"People can just turn up, and many hands make light work," he added.

Mr Pritchard said help would also be needed the other end to unload in Bangor.

The man in charge of the move, Mike Ishmael, said a few volunteers had already come forward but more were needed.

Early start

"The club has quite a large following in Cardiff, especially amongst people from Bangor who've settled there, but you are never quite sure 'til it happens," he said.

It will be quite hectic a hectic week for supporters whatever happens as the Citizens are playing against FC Honka at Espoo, Finland on Thursday.

"We'll fly back on Friday to Manchester, get back to Bangor for some rest before driving down to Cardiff, starting off about 5am on Saturday," said Mr Ishmael.

Cardiff City have been selling off fixtures and fittings at Ninian Park after their move to a new stadium

"Then it's loading the wagon, then drive back to Bangor, arriving back late afternoon, where hopefully we'll have plenty of people to off-load this end," he added.

In February Bangor City FC announced a move to a new stadium at Nantporth, on the banks of the Menai Strait, had been put on hold.

Their current Farrar Road home has planning permission for a retail park, but developers Morbaine have struggled to attract retailers.

The same company is also supposed to be building the new ground, but have used their £5m budget for the project.

"We're concentrating on getting Farrar Road up to scratch, that's the priority," said Mr Pritchard.

"Otherwise we are continuing to work with the developer and the city council (which owns the Farrar Road ground) on the proposed move to Nantporth."

Any volunteers willing to help need to be at Ninian Park at 0900 BST on Saturday, 18 July.