Quote: Disco "My understanding is...
1) I think the official line is "Um, er, um..". Between the lines it seems to be that the club have SOME of the money (maybe even MOST?) already in place, enough to kick of a 'staged' build at least. It's not much of a leap to conclude that the a*se falling out of the property market has put a serious dent in the saleable value of certain assets the club were relying on to sell. The upshot is there's almost certainly some undisclosed shortfall which means a reduced pot. That means staging the Glasshoughton build, such as building something with 2 or maybe 3 sides at first. Of course that would mean a reduced capacity, below the magic 12,000 number required. Whether the RFL would accept such an outcome is the $64M question... but I fear they probably wouldn't.
2) The club claims to be appraising the RFL of the build situation on an ongoing basis. Nothing concrete about what the RFL are feeding back has ever been forthcoming (apart from the 'warning' Cas and four other clubs received about their franchise promises). My feeling? ... it doesn't look good.
3) I don't think there is a particularly huge delay with the architects, though perhaps the changes outlined in '1' had not originally been part of the submission remit given to the 'final four'? If that's the case I'd expect they've been told to review their designs with a view to possibly building what they've come up with in stages. Just a guess on my part, but if I'm right then such a consideration would be vital.
4) Well the only realistic timescale I suppose is the last thing RW said, apparently.
5) Apparently Cas DO have a Plan 'B' (in fact the RFL made note of it when the first Franchise app's went in) but nobody's too sure what it is. The assumption seems to be something along the lines of "tart up Wheldon Road".
I'm not sure if that clarifies or muddies the waters, but there you go.'"
1. Well from what I have read in the latest Richard Wright blog is the majority of the funding in place? Cas have not even released the funds from the land given to them by wakefield council yet and I seem to remeber the company that we had A FIXED PRICE agreement for the sale of the jungle which I presume was in a binding contract. So if they have pulled out or whatever has happened why havent we demanded they honour contract or pay us a sum to be released from contract.
2. Hope they have been telling the RFL more than what we have been getting. All we get is that everyone is working behind the scenes and that there is another meeting next month.
3. A significant delay with the designers. We were supposed to find out December January time and we are now in April. I get that there could be some issues if have to do a staged build but Please.
4. I would be happy if we got a brick in ground before another potential bad winter halts all work. But remember this we still do not have full planning authority to proceed. We were ahead of st' helens wakefield and salford and all theres seem to be gathering pace while ours stands pretty much still.
5. Plan B by the looks of what we have seen so far is give up and play in National League.
Hopefully the fans focus group mentioned in the blog that is supposed to be taking place next week will have the opportunity to put these point to the BOD.