Glanmor Griffiths was the founding father of the Principality Stadium, the hard-nosed negotiator who got it built on the cheap and whose vision has generated a £2.75 billion economic impact since it opened 20 years ago.
Yet his name is missing from the list of those who have been honoured by government for what they have done for their country.
Cardiff’s crown jewel has truly put the capital and the country on the world map, but it’s rare to hear the name Glanmor Griffiths mentioned these days when arguably the world’s greatest stadium is a topic of discussion.
That’s despite its huge economic impact and the fact it's the engine room that bankrolls Welsh rugby.
Put it this way, if the old National Stadium, with its 49,000 capacity and lack of hospitality facilities, hadn’t been replaced by a state of the art venue, the likelihood is professional rugby in Wales wouldn’t exist in its current form because there wouldn’t have been enough money to finance it.
Griffiths may be 80 in December and has suffered from Parkinson’s disease for some 15 years but, mentally, he is as sharp as ever.
“My head is alright and my brain is still working, it’s the rest of my body,” says the former WRU and Millennium Stadium chairman.
It is the first time he has spoken publicly about suffering from the progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement.
Having the illness may have slowed his mobility but Griffiths still has his finger on the pulse of Welsh rugby.
Love or loathe him – and he had his backers and detractors – the former top banker was a man who got the job done.
The late Rhodri Morgan, who was First Minister of Wales, once said: “He is on his own.
“Glanmor would be the first to say he couldn’t have done the job of building the stadium without having the skin of a rhinoceros.
“It took grit and determination to get the stadium built for a fixed contract of £130m. I asked him many times how he managed it.
“The stadium, which is an iconic building for Cardiff, Welsh rugby and Wales as a whole, will always go down as Glanmor’s achievement.
“Because of him the WRU had a stadium that didn’t saddle it with debts that were completely unmanageable.”
Griffiths smiles as he recalls Morgan’s comments before pointing out: “I got on well with Rhodri but he always turned down my requests for government money!
“Yet the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay has been bailed out by the public purse.
“I find it amazing the Millennium Stadium – I prefer to call it by its original name – hasn’t received more favourable terms from local or national government despite it being one of the biggest financial drivers of the Welsh economy.”
Of being the driving force behind the project to build the stadium, he said: “It was the most difficult, yet most fulfilling, period of my life helping to deliver it and I was thankful for the support I received from the management board we assembled.
“We needed a new stadium to generate the kind of revenues it would take to finance the professional game.
“If we didn’t do it when we did we would never have had the money to do it at a later date and things today would be much tougher for the WRU."
Key to its success was the inclusion of a sliding roof to transform it into an indoor stadium, and Griffiths insisting on a fixed contract with construction company Laing, who had to swallow an overspend of about £60m.
WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips, at the recent launch of the extreme sports Nitro World Games, which will be held outside the United States for the first time when it’s staged at the Principality Stadium in May next year, said: “We have got to give a nod to our forefathers.
“It was probably very financially challenging to do it. To think about the roof, to follow through and have the foresight to put it on. We are reaping the benefits of it today.
“It’s a very big and powerful asset we can continue to use. Huge credit to the people back then for building something fit for purpose and able to compete with stadiums all over the world.”
It’s hosted rugby union’s World Cup final, football’s Champions League final, FA and League Cup finals, Wales internationals, the Olympic Games, world championship boxing, the World Rally Championship, rugby league’s World Cup, Challenge Cup final and Magic Weekend, the British Speedway Grand Prix, Supercross, Monster Jam, horse eventing, international cricket and even a pétanque (French boules) international.
That’s just just the sporting side of things. The stadium has also showcased some of the world's greatest music artists.
The Manic Street Preachers were the headline act at the opening concert in December 1999 with it attracting a European indoor record crowd of 57,000.
Just a few days later, 66,000 attended a Songs of Praise special featuring Cliff Richard, Bryn Terfel, Daniel O’Donnell, Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Band of the Welsh Guards.
Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Robbie Williams, Stereophonics, U2, Tina Turner, Madonna, Oasis, Rihanna, Rolling Stones, Beyonce, Rod Stewart and Paul McCartney are among those to have performed at the Principality, being followed in the last month by the Spice Girls, Take That and Pink.
Rugby union’s biggest global names almost unanimously reply the “Principality Stadium” when asked to name their favourite stadium.
“The total bill was probably a fraction of the cost of the near £1 billion it took to rebuild Wembley and a fraction of the £850m the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium has just cost. And neither of those projects has a retractable roof," Griffiths points out.
“When you look at the figures that have been produced by various economic impacts regarding the role the stadium has played in the financial prosperity of Cardiff, Wales and Welsh rugby you’d have to say it has been the most successful, and vital, building ever built in our country.
“It is also probably the most financially successful sports stadia ever built in the UK, when you consider it was designed, built and delivered in a little over two years to a total budget cost of £130m including land acquisition.”
Griffiths praised Wales’ 320 plus rugby clubs, pointing out they own the union, for backing the project to build a stadium fit to host the 1999 World Cup and in such a short time-scale.
“We could have merely adapted the existing footprint of the old National Ground at Cardiff Arms Park, but the WRU's general committee and our clubs took the bold decision to think big and deliver even bigger,” he said.
“I believe it has been the catalyst for making Welsh rugby great again, a major contributor to the Welsh team flourishing and delivering four Grand Slams in 15 years and reaching a World Cup semi-final.
“The silent partners were always the Welsh clubs. They backed me after a number meetings in which I told them that the stadium would ultimately make us a wealthy union.
“They took the hit as we wrestled with the £50m we had to borrow to create what is still regarded as one of the world’s greatest sporting arenas.”
Griffiths has no time for those who claim the WRU came close to bankruptcy because of the building of the stadium.
“There was never any threat of the WRU going bust because we had the income streams to pay the loan,” he emphasised.
“Barclays signed the agreement to loan us £60m on day one. It was chicken-feed to them. If they didn’t think it was viable they wouldn’t have loaned us the money.
“When I stood down from the WRU in 2003 I said, when the debt on the stadium is cleared (it's down to £6.2m in the most recent accounts) it will become the jewel that will make the WRU one of the richest unions in the world and that still stands.
“Even now, 20 years after we opened, very little has changed but the stadium is relevant to new age events like the Nitro World Games, attracting new audiences.
“The dreams and aspirations I had for the stadium project as far back as 1995 have been fulfilled.
"Happily, cynics and critics who gave me so much hassle and heartache at the time of the development, have been silenced forever."
Perhaps it's an opportune time for Griffiths to be recognised by the WRU and the Welsh Government with an honour as the driving force behind arguably Wales’ greatest and most successful modern-day project?
