Newport-based club Albion Rovers, currently playing in the Second Division of the CC Sports Welsh League, are pursuing the option of quitting Newport Stadium, which they ground-share with Newport County. Albion have used the Spytty Park Stadium since gaining promotion to the Welsh League nine years ago, because the Kimberly Park ground they used during their highly successful days in the Gwent County League did not meet Welsh League criteria. But the Stadium is expensive to hire, and even more importantly is across the town from their 'heartland' of Maindee. Although the club initially enjoyed success after promotion, they have struggled in recent seasons and there is a growing feeling that a move home would signal a change in their fortunes. Albion officials have been in negotiation with council officials for two years with a view to bringing Kimberly Park up to the required standards, and new barriers and rebuilt changing rooms are expected soon.

Albion's Welsh League neighbours Llanwern face a ground dilemma of a different sort. Fears that the Llanwern Steelworks complex could be closed have cast a shadow over the whole community, and the football club is just one potential casualty. At the beginning of February it was announced that most of the Corus steelworks were to close although the Llanwern works will remain open for the time being in a ’finishing’ role. The eventual consequences for the football club could be loss of both funding and their ground, which is part of the BSC Sports and Social Club at the Spytty Lane end of the massive steelworks complex. The club faces an anxious few months.

Cardiff Civil Service, of the CC Sports Welsh League First Division, have secured an extension to their lease on their Sanatorium Road ground until the end of the 2001-2 season but remain concerned about their long-term future at the venue. There has been a shadow of uncertainty over the Civil Service Sports Club complex in Cardiff for some time now, with sale of the land an option that has been discussed. Decisions such as this rest with the Civil Service Sports Council in London, and while they might decide to relocate their social club and sports pitches within the city, this might not help the football club, which has only nominal connections with the CSSC. Finding another ground of Welsh League standard in the city would be a difficult prospect, but until they know the future of Sanatorium Road they are unable to formulate any plans for the future. Life at Sanatorium Road has become increasingly difficult for the club, as the environment around the complex changes. With the adjacent mill closing, and Lansdowne Hospital demolished to make way for housing, the area has become more of a target for vandalism, and motorbike damage to the pitch recently caused the postponement of a first team fixture.

Just round the corner from Sanatorium Road is Cardiff Athletic Stadium, Leckwith, currently the home to UWIC Inter Cardiff (League of Wales) and Porto's Grange Quins (CC Sports Welsh League), but the favoured site for Sam Hammam's new stadium for Cardiff City. Although this is only a plan at present, it does raise questions about the long-term homes of the club currently using the Athletic Stadium. UWIC, however, seem set to move out sooner rather than later: with relegation from the League of Wales looking inevitable, the merged club are likely to quit Leckwith (saving the matchday rental fee) and retrench at the UWIC campus in Cyncoed, where there is already a basic ground of Welsh League standard and a rugby ground which, although not much better in terms of facilities, stages to relatively senior Welsh league rugby.

Bridgend-based South Wales Amateur League club Bryntirion Athletic are seeing their impressive new facilities taking shape as they prepare - on and off the pitch - for an application for Welsh League status. After moving away from their sloping recreation ground in the Bryntirion district in the early 1990s, the club ground-shared at Coychurch Road, Bridgend Town, until moving back 'home' last season, playing on a new level pitch just over the road from the old rec. The overall cost of the project to build the new Bryntirion Park ground is estimated at £259,000, with Sportlot and Brains Brewery funding a new clubhouse, One-2-One due to install floodlights, and numerous other backers assisting with the project. The clubhouse was opened just after Christmas and a new main pitch will be laid out adjacent to it, with a stand also planned on one side. If the club can win the Amateur League and the promotion play-off against the Senior League champions, Bryntirion Park may be an exciting new Welsh League venue next season.

Cwmbran Town will have to vacate the Stadium temporarily from March while it undergoes major rebuilding. They will use Pontypool Park, home of Pontypool RFC, from March until the end of the season.