Coliseum calls it a day in Cardiff

THE new owner of Sports Cafe today pulled the plug on its Cardiff operation - one of only three sites currently trading.

Coliseum Group paid £8m for the sports-themed bars in London's Haymarket, Birmingham and Cardiff in December. It knew even before the deal that the Cardiff Bay site was underperforming.

Planned as an area for big business with thousands of office workers, Cardiff Bay has turned out to be more of a residential district, and the Sports Cafe was not picking up enough customers.

Sports Cafe founder Bill Balkou, now Coliseum chief executive, hopes to reopen at a Cardiff city-centre site shortly and still plans to expand the chain to 10 by the end of next year. New venues are already signed up for Newcastle and Manchester and negotiations are advanced on two more.

Finance director Rodger Sargent said: 'There is a huge, untapped market for large, sports-based venues. Sports Cafe just needed the money behind it to make it work.'

London and Birmingham are being overhauled but both have seen heavy advance bookings for World Cup parties.

Coliseum raised £2.8m when it joined AIM as a cash shell last July, and a further £4.3m at the time of the Sports Cafe deal. It has net cash of £1.7m.