The Guinness PRO14 grand final is to be staged in Wales for the first time, with the Cardiff City Stadium hosting next season’s showpiece.

In the ten years it’s been up and running, the final has only been played in Ireland or Scotland, with Glasgow’s Celtic Park the setting last weekend.

But now that is set to change, with the home of the Bluebirds chosen to stage the cross-border league’s marquee event.

It has held off competition from two other venues to get the nod, with a formal announcement expected soon.

The game will be scheduled on the weekend of June 20, 2020, with the league season being pushed back a month because of the World Cup.

Competition organisers have been looking at ways to bring the final to Wales for the last three or four years.

There has been a real will and desire on their part to stage it here if at all possible.

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However, the Principality Stadium has not been available because of clashes with sporting and non-sporting events.

As a result, Wales has never previously applied to host the big PRO14 finale.

But with the Cardiff City Stadium entering the bidding equation, the situation changed.

It meant the organisers now had a potential location.

They held a site meeting at the stadium last month to give the ground the once over.

And they are now about to confirm it will be the setting for next season’s big event.

With a 33,280 capacity, the football ground is smaller than recent venues.

A record 47,128 crowd watched Leinster beat Glasgow at Celtic Park on Saturday, while the previous two finals, both at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, attracted 44,558 and 46,092.

So there will no doubt be an emphasis on encouraging people to snap up tickets in advance for the Cardiff clash.

The Bluebirds’ home ground has hosted rugby matches on a number of occasions in the past.

It was where Cardiff Blues played for a couple of seasons before returning to the Arms Park.

And it was also the setting for the 2011 European Amlin Cup final between Harlequins and Stade Francais.

Now the PRO14 showpiece is heading there.

For the first five years of the event, home advantage went to the finalist who had finished highest in the regular season.

Tondu RFC sing the national anthem at the site of ground zero

Since 2015, there have been “destination finals”, with teams, Unions or grounds bidding to put on the showpiece.

That has enabled the venue to be announced well in advance, giving more time to sell tickets.

Next season, the PRO14 campaign won’t get underway until the weekend of September 27 because of the World Cup, so everything will be pushed back a month, with the final in mid-June.

The idea behind the late start is to limit the number of games where teams will be without their international stars and to have league games in blocks, with less of a stop-start structure.

So, you will have an initial three rounds of matches, one week off for the World Cup quarter-final weekend, and then another three rounds.

The idea is players from some countries will start to filter back to their PRO14 teams after the group and quarter-final stages and become available for league duty.

There will be three rounds of matches in November, a month in which sides should gradually be getting back towards full strength, with no autumn internationals this year.

The World Cup in Japan runs from September 20 to November 2, with the group stage concluding on October 13.

There will also be a new look to the PRO14 conferences.

The two sections of the league have remained the same for the first two years since the structure was introduced following the expansion of the competition with two South African sides coming on board.

So you’ve had the Ospreys and Cardiff Blues in Conference A, alongside the likes of Munster, Glasgow and the Cheetahs, with the Scarlets and the Dragons in Conference B, vying with teams such as Leinster, Ulster and Edinburgh.

But the two sections are now to be re-shaped, based on finishing positions at the end of this season’s regular fixtures.

Conference A will feature the highest and lowest ranked Irish sides, along with the middle two Welsh teams, the Scottish and South African top dogs and the second Italian outfit.

Then Conference B will be made up of the best and worst performing sides from Wales, the second and third ranked Irish, the top Italian team and the second-placed Scots and South Africans.

Teams will play sides in their own section both home and away and then those in the other group home or away, plus return derbies.

It will mean a fresh look to the fixture list, with some sides who have only played each other once over the past two seasons now having home and away encounters.

The new conference structure will stay in place for two years, with sides having 11 home games the first season and ten the next.

PRO14 Final locations

2010 - RDS Dublin

2011 - Thomond Park, Limerick

2012 - RDS, Dublin

2013 - RDS, Dublin

2014 - RDS, Dublin

2015 - Kingspan Stadium, Belfast

2016 - Murrayfield, Edinburgh

2017 - Aviva Stadium, Dublin

2018 - Aviva Stadium, Dublin

2019 - Celtic Park, Glasgow

Guinness PRO14 Fixture Schedule 2019-20

Round 1: September 27-28

Round 2: October 4-5

Round 3: October 11-12

Round 4: October 25-26

Round 5: November 1-2

Round 6: November 8-9

Round 7: November 29-30

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Christmas period: Derbies

Final: June 20, 2020