Marc Davies, events and accreditation manager, Millennium Stadium
About sixty thousand pints of beer, 8,000 hot dogs and 4,000 pies will be sold at the Millennium Stadium tomorrow for the final home game in the Six Nations championship.
Whatever the pundits say about the state of Welsh rugby, the show goes on at the stadium and for the organisers it is all systems go whatever the results on the pitch.
In the hours running up to the game between Wales and Scotland behind the scenes teams of people bubble away making sure it all runs smoothly on the day.
It’s a daunting task and is the culmination of months of planning. Nothing is left to chance.
Nearly 2,000 extra staff are brought in for the day to help with security, ticketing, hospitality, and catering among other things.
“There’s a great buzz before a big game,” said Marc Davies, events and accreditation manager at the stadium. “Months of planning spring into action and behind the scenes everyone has to work together to make sure it all goes smoothly on the day.
“Unfortunately for Wales, we won’t have any presentation tomorrow so people tend to leave after the game. At the end of the day we all have a debrief and sometimes we have a few drinks ourselves,” said Mr Davies.
Princess Anne will be in the President’s box tomorrow.
“It’s all arranged beforehand,” said Mr Davies. “The palace has been in touch and we have literally walked them through to make sure Princess Anne knows exactly what she is doing on the day.”
Up to 74,000 people will throng into the stadium.
“No matter how much planning you do something always happens at the last minute,” said Marc Davies.
“There are all different departments with separate teams and my job is to make sure we all work together and everyone knows what everyone else is doing.”
They even have to think about traffic, and police and Cardiff Council have a hub at the ground with close circuit cameras with eyes on the M4 and other major roads.
“The last thing we want is a hold up on the M4 and coach loads of fans not being able to get through,” said Marc.
Despite Wales’ performance at Twickenham last week the stadium will be buzzing for Flower of Scotland tomorrow, and because of the hard work by people behind the scenes it is expected to be a right royal occasion.
