Sam may have faults and agenda's but it would the most hardened man not to be impressed by the advances at the club.
In three seasons we have been promoted, play off semi finalists and then promoted again. The second promotion came on May 25th, a day that was the biggest in the majority of living fans memory. Winning at the Millennium Stadium.
We have already spent £10m on players. Maybe not all good buys but they have done a job. We are now a first division team and the news on Monday evening that the Assembly would not halt the stadium means we can progress even further.
New stadiums do not guarantee success. Look at Derby County and Sunderland who have fallen from the Premiership. Cardiff cannot think they have a right to waltz into the homes of Man Utd and Arsenal because we have a new ground. We need a stronger platform to be able to sustain a higher level of football. Lets not get too carried away. We've just spent 18 years in Div's 2 and 3.
We are though heading in the right direction. Sam Hammam certainly talked the talk when he arrived at Ninian Park with dreams of a united Wales flocking to the Capital to support Premiership football.
We will not attract all of Wales, especially areas like Swansea and Wrexham who have their own football teams to follow. We may though attract enough new interest to fill a new stadium week in week out if the product is good enough. The fans were won over by dreams of new stadiums and higher levels of football. These fans were getting rained upon in outside toilets at Ninian Park while watching City teams skirt with relegation from the league and if we were lucky a promotion to Divison 2 now and again, it usually ended in tears with relegation a season or two later.
That was only 5 years ago.
So after the talk did Sam walk the walk? I think he did. We are a first division team, and on the evidence seen so far this season a good first division team. We are attracting players who are in the thoughts of their international managers. We have had 7 (seven - as the vidiprinter would say) players on international duty over the last few days and the icing on the cake to go ahead with a new stadium.
As a Cardiff City fan who wants to see the team and club progress I find it hard to have any complaints of the situation we find ourselves in.
The Echo story below outlines the next £30m Sam plans to spend. £15m on players, £10m on a training ground and £5m on an academy.
As football fans we are amongst the ficklest (is that a real word?) already there have been complaints that the pies will be too expensive and it will never be the same as with a stanchion in the way to block our view. Minor inconveniences surely on the way to something that's just about what all of us will not have experienced before.
Sam reveals spending plan
Sam Hammam will spend £30m-plus over the next few years to take Cardiff City into the Premiership.
The Bluebirds owner will have £15m and more available to Lennie Lawrence for team strengthening, £10m for a training complex plus cash for the club to achieve soccer academy status.
Hammam has always stressed that once the stadium is certain he will have the financial backing from corporate partners to take City's drive to an even higher level.
The news that Cardiff City's new stadium, a 30,000 all-seater stadium eventually building to double that capacity, will go ahead comes three years after Hammam first arrived at Ninian Park.
They have climbed two divisions to achieve a higher status than the club had reached for 18 years - and spent £10m on transfer fees alone.
Full story.