Having read quite a few negative posts from Cas Fans about dfferant things like (stadium, RW, Rangi, Ian Millward etc) it really does worry me that some of our supporters are getting drawn in to a constant belief that eveything a the club is negative. There is lots to sort out at CAS but my belief is come end this season (possibly sooner) we will be in a position to say that we are moving forward and we will be one happy family again. After all as a club we are in a better position than some.

I actually don't know what would be construed as good news any more with some of our fans.

The only things I can think of are that a billionaire is coming onboard and the Harlem Globetrotters of League are signing for Cas.

Something positive would be a good start

The club are really not giving fans a reason to renew season tickets.

The famous Cas rallying call!

We aren't doing anything about making the club better unless you give us money first! Business doesn't work like that - if you want people to spend money then give them a reason to do so.

Signing the likes or Jordan Tansey and supposedly selling Rangi Chase is not the way to get people excited...in fact that's a good way to put people off going, especially the ones who aren't sure on whether to buy a ST or even go to games, if they see the club not bothering with the on field product then why should the fans bother paying to watch the dross the club give them?

In fact, the club should be attracting sponsors that along with Sky money can support the club with the lack of money they're currently spending, if the sponsorships are so poor then that, once again, is the clubs fault. Bullying the fans into spending money is a poor strategy.

Sport is different to a business. It relies on fandom and it relies on supporters. Or would you prefer to be struggling like Bradford or to have been in the same boat as Wakefield and Crusaders. We're lucky to have a club at all. Yes - the rallying call. I'm sick of watching a mediocre bottom end side so I'm keeping my end of the bargain to improve things. Are you?

And regarding sponsorships, I'm starting to worry that you living a reality world. Have you seen the economic climate? Businesses are struggling, people are out of work. Do you think that rugby league earns millions from sponsors?

You're asking for sponsors to put in money to support the club yet you aren't even willing to do it yourself. The club will never £4m whilst the fans are apathetic towards it. Why should a sponsor spend more when a fan can't even back its own club? You asked for RW to step-down, you got your wish. Yet it seems you're blaming Steve Ferres, a man who has been barely in charge 2 seconds and walked into this situation with Chase (if there is one).

FFS, give the man a chance and let's at least give the guy something to work with. He is not a miracle-worker. He cannot simply zap millions overnight. As he said at Meet the Directors: how much do Cas fans want SL? I fully endorse that comment.

I've offered to help a couple of times over the last couple of years in better ways than just buying an ST - it always falls on deaf ears, so I gave up.

As for sport is different to business, no it isn't - the same basic principles are there, you need to provide a service (in this case a playing squad) that is value for money

Are Castleford Tigers value for money? No, not by a long shot - poor players who are poorly coached in a shocking stadium that doesn't even have a full sized pitch.

All it would take is 1-2 big signings - known names, Cas could (and should) have got Gareth Ellis but they scared him off with how poorly run the club is, if players can see it then it's a bad sign. Shenton was a good start, but every signing since has been somewhat of a letdown.



You don't need to make millions from sponsors - the Sky money is a fair bit over a million quid now, if you use the Sky money solely for playing staff you should be able to attract sponsors to cover most if not all of the other costs, if you aren't then the commercial department are failing.



Any commercial manager worth their salt can attract sponsors that are "above" the business that they're being asked to sponsor - what do Cas have as sponsors? A load of local companies that probably make less than a million quid a year combined.

It wouldn't hurt to actually go out and look for some moderately big names - a couple of the Unis in the area are loaded, betting companies etc

As for RW, I like the bloke but he was clearly out of his depth and he did the right thing in stepping down, especially with the calibre of replacement brought in.



He's had the job a week, so it's his call to sell him, if he does that is his decision.

In what way?



I'd argue differently. I don't walk into Tesco every week thinking that I'll never change to a rival. The simple fact is that I will and I might. Ordinary high street businesses attract floating buyers. Sport is a business but to truly support a club, you never change that. Unless you're going to pitch up at Wakey next week? Therefore, sporting organisations rely on loyalty and goodwill to an extent. It's what following your club is all about - experience the highs, suffer the lows.



And have other clubs been? Do you think Salford fans have been happy over past few seasons? Do you think Wakey fans have? Do you think that Bulls fans are? How about Huddesfield fans right now? Sure they can spend the cap but they've not won anything like us. And if that's your viewpoint then I suggest that you're following the wrong club if you want everything over night.



Big names? Look, Cas have a limited budget. We can sign 2 big name players just for you but they take up half our budget and so we fill the squad with NL1 'raters' or youngsters as you've vehemently said over the course of the threads. Make your mind up? Do you want a solid base with depth that we've been crying out for or to spend our cap on big name players, who may not even perform like they expect and have a small squad? Equally, let's look at the Aus dollar compared to the cap over here. You're going to see a vast change in the amount of Aussies coming across here now. Look at all the top end clubs eyeing up English youngsters. There's a reason.



The Sky money is barely a million. You seem to be intimating that the only cost is just the salary cap of £1.65m. You forget costs for staff, facilities, equipment, insurance, tax, etc etc. There are other bills to pay.



A load of guff without a shred of evidence. A load of local companies - take a look around Gronk. Tell me which club doesn't have local companies sponsor it? Also, I'd love to know what research you've undertaken into the financial accounts of companies sponsoring us.



Why didn't you apply for Poskitt's role if it's that easy. Perhaps you could have a word with Fozz and tell him all these contacts you have?



The replacement you're already bagging.



You have absolutely no idea what situation he's walked into nor do you understand what is going on behind the scenes.



I await the way you believe the club should be changing things with interest.

I tried buying a number of his shares for what was a fair price, it got no response either time.



There's hardly a team in the league who's value for money at the minute, the sport in this country is dire - that's the RFL's fault, granted and not the 10-12 teams who aren't value for money.



If you added Ellis with the Shenton signing, I'd class that as 2 big names - added to that you get the added bonus of them both being local lads, I can accept having a couple of big names in the squad if it means more talented youngsters - having John Davies in the team offers more than having someone like Lee Mitchell in the squad for example, as much as the coaching staff don't rate him for whatever reason.



I thought it was 1.2m-ish now? If you look I also said if you used the Sky money for the players the sponsorship should be able to cover other costs - then the gate money can be used as the club sees fit, whether that's better staff or more players.



Would you apply for a job that pays less than you already make?

As for helping, he should know to go to betting companies etc, at the minute they'll sponsor anything that's even close to being linked to sport.



Because letting Chase go is a colossal mistake, especially for the rumoured fees - if you can't sell a player of his calibre for at least 300k something has gone wrong.



It's simple, give the fans a reason to want to go to a game, make it a big community event every couple of weeks when it's time for a home game and most importantly, make sure the on field product is up to scratch and can compete on a weekly basis - you can do that without spending the full cap, it's about who you bring in, not how much you pay them. Josh Griffin, Steve Nash & unless Warrington are still paying his wages Lee Mitchell are all a waste of money, as was Jimmy Grehan - that money could have been used to keep some youngsters, or bring in some of the top young players from the area.

Or you could have got Sam Smeaton for example instead of Grehan or Griffin, he's a better player than both.

Wondered how long it would be before you bagged Griffin again. He's put in more effort and done more for the club this season than a lot of other players. I'm sure you've just got some vendetta against him - is it because he played for Wakey before?

Anyway, enough of this negative attitude. I'm sure BT didn't start this thread for this to be destroyed with weakly supported criticisms of the club.

What will be, will be. In Ferres we trust.

OK Fully speak fact, what has been announced that's going to make us buy a season ticket next year

Ill start with Shenny

Remember fact only not "tomorrow they are going to say ??" or are we waiting for Ken Bates to sell LUFC to Borat and then take over Cas ( Only a joke by the way I have no inside info )

Cheers Guys! Very interesting debate.
Starting a thread in order to try and see the positive side of things does not mean we have to live on a cloud. It means have your say and opinion because "if you were in charge" what would you do?. What has to be concidered is the 'long term future of the club so everything has to be balanced out. In my opinion the directors have done a good job with the club, we have our own ground and a vision . We have in the past though 'sold on' our crown jewels on the playing side in order to keep afloat and we may still have to. Our crowning glory will be the stadium and yes RW and co have put a lot of spin on things but that is our future because then the revenue streams will be opened up wider. There has been a lot of banter along the way but seriously if we stay positive, positive things will happen. You only reap what you sow or you can't spend what you ain't got!!!!

No offense 'Fully', but this has to be my favorite quote of the week!

Sport is a business!! It's just that sport accepts 'excuses' which if given in the real business world would get your fired before you'd even batted an eye lid.

Just have a moment to think about it....both sport and other business' have assets, key references, reputations, competitors, marketing and products upon which they approach the market to do business. If anything sport is a simple business model, because to some extent due to loyalty of supporters it has a guaranteed customer base upon which to build or lose....depending on product performance and a few other simple matters. But as ever in business success is based upon listening to what the customer wants....'not' telling the customer what you want them to have!

Any way, back to being positive. The fans desperately need some genuine, solid, real value good news....because there is a big vibe at the moment about fans not renewing their season tickets. So what ever good news some 'think' has already been given, hasn't done the trick!

Be positive...

Umm... We're not Bradford.

MMMMMmmmmm Positive !!!!! Theres a new fanzine imminent



Delboy66(aye of the tigers fanzine)