Quote justthebasicfax="justthebasicfax"I think Wakefield will bounce back from this, maybe a stint with us and Leigh wont do them any harm long term.
The Cas situation however is intriging, how a town of 35000 can support a 15000 £15m stadium (in this climate) with just a SL season, and some of the games taken on the road is beyond me. Wakefield on the on other hand is a MUCH larger CITY. that could quite conceivably have a similar situation to ours with either the Football or RU team keeping the costs and upkeep realistic. Im sure there will be reference to someone playing reserves at the proposed Cas ground, but im telling you all its a white elephant and if it does get built (which i doubt) the stadium management would have a hell of a job to get the place even breaking even. The local authorities should be parping themselves if this goes ahead, it smacks of other stories we all know too well. Chins up Wakey, the battle may be lost but the war can still be won.'"
The population of cas is just a shade under 40k and there are about 1500 houses being built within 2 miles of the ground in the next couple of years. Cas dont just draw support from cas there are large amounts of cas fans in pontefract, knottingley, normanton, allerton bywater, selby, kippax and even some in methley, fev, wakey and barsley. Wakey dont really draw much support from the east of heath common as these are fev and cas areas (with well in excess of 100k people living there). Other sports have struggled to survive proffesionaly in wakefield with ru team going bust years ago , as for the football team there is bad blood between them from last time they shared with wakey so i doubt they would share with wakey when they have there own ground which is big enough for there needs and will cost alot less than sharing a sl quality stadium with wakefield.
The cas stadium will be 13.5 k capacity and will cost 11.5 million, cas will be a lot better of financially in the new stadium as we have virtually no corporate revenue at the moment while we will have a large amount at the new ground, as well as the fact that crowds should increase (as the nearly always do with a new ground) with new ground which is in a fantastic location with lots to do within 5 minutes walk of the ground, it will aslo be the easiest rl stadium to travel to by a long way, which should tempt a few more away fans through the doors. The ground will be used for other events such as concerts and some minor internationals (ie like keepmoat and leighs new ground). The ground will also have a large bar which will operate 7 days a week in a busy tourist destination and will bring alot of cash. Another thing to consider is that the maintaince cost on an old ground like ours are higher than they will be in a new stadium. Cas are not a rich club but live within our means and were one of 4 sl clubs to post a profit in 2009 (albeit only 26k) and dont have a history of financial instability. Wakefield have had to fight the taxman off twice in a year despite having already been given half the money from the sale of belle vue to payoff debts and several hundred thousand pound in transfer fees for brough and atkins, and had to have a benefactor pay there last tax bill for them. Cas had players play for england at u16's, u18's and senior level this year and cas played 11 home grown players in sl last year.
I dont have anything against wakey (for me salford would be for the drop) but i fail to see where wakey are superior in anyway to cas other than they are a city and we are a town (like warrington and widnes are).
Cas are putting in for fpp tomorow (with no objections to the site, which is already earmarked for development) so i understand, and should begin building in april after being held back by outside agencies for the last 2 years.
