Sloper Road
Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales
Sloper Road, Cardiff, Wales — opened Easter Saturday, April 1928, 2 rugby league games hosted, home of no rugby league club was ever a tenant here — the ground's primary tenants were greyhound racing (from 1928) and motorcycle speedway (Wales's first speedway venue); both recorded rugby league fixtures were one-off representative/county matches.
Sourcing caveat: A Coflein heritage-register entry states the ground "is perhaps most famous for hosting a crowd of 70,000" for an October 1928 England v Wales rugby league match — sharply at odds with Rugby League Project and Total Rugby League's mutually-corroborated figures (15,000, 14 November, Wales lost 39-15 to England) and exceeding even the ground's own stated ~40,000 capacity. We judge the Coflein figure very likely erroneous (possibly confused with London's much larger White City Stadium) and have followed the two mutually-agreeing specialist sources, but the discrepancy could not be independently adjudicated with a third source. The second match (April 1929, Glamorgan/Monmouth vs Yorkshire, County Championship) is well corroborated but omitted from the test_matches list above as a county rather than international fixture.
Ground facts
| Opened | Easter Saturday, April 1928 (Built by the Greyhound Racing Association (South Wales) Ltd in Grangetown, Cardiff — commonly known as "White City Stadium" or "Welsh White City" (echoing London's White City Stadium), formally "Sloper Road Stadium." Distinct from both Cardiff Arms Park and Ninian Park, two other well-known Cardiff grounds sometimes confused with it.) |
| Home club | no rugby league club was ever a tenant here — the ground's primary tenants were greyhound racing (from 1928) and motorcycle speedway (Wales's first speedway venue); both recorded rugby league fixtures were one-off representative/county matches |
| Closed | closed 1937 (sold to Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds) and demolished in 1984 |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 2 |
| Top recorded crowd | 15,000 |
| Capacity | terracing described as accommodating "over 40,000" at its peak |
| Test matches hosted | 1 |
| Surface | a grass pitch, reportedly turfed with grass sourced from Caerphilly mountain |
| First rugby league match | 14 November 1928 — Wales 15-39 England, Senior International (attendance 15,000, our recorded top crowd) |
| Years used | 1928–1929 |
| Location | Cardiff, Cardiff |
Name history
- White City Stadium, Cardiff — the common name throughout its life, also called "Sloper Road Stadium" or "Welsh White City"
Rugby league history
Sloper Road's two rugby league matches came during the code's short-lived, ultimately unsuccessful expansion into Wales in the mid-to-late 1920s (which also produced short-lived clubs such as Pontypridd RLFC, founded 1926 and folded 1927) — no evidence was found of a permanent Cardiff-based rugby league club playing at this specific ground. Cardiff's later, separate rugby league clubs (of the 1950s and 1980s-90s) played elsewhere, at Penarth Road Stadium and then Ninian Park respectively. The venue's own lasting sporting identity was as a greyhound racing and speedway stadium rather than a rugby ground of any code.
Primarily a greyhound racing venue (Greyhound Racing Association, South Wales) and Wales's first motorcycle speedway track.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 14 November 1928 — Wales 15-39 England (15,000)
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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