I presume the assumption must be that having a big successful club in the area will attract the floating voter, or those intrigued by the new big name team & forthcoming generations of kids who just want to attach themselves to a successful team, irrespective of area loyalties. The only comparison I can think of is forming MK Dons in an area that previously did not have a top flight football club. They had to attract a new fan base, at the moment they seem to get c8k crowds, whether that is sustainable or successful I have no idea. But if a Calder team was formed they would need to get >10k to be seen as a success. If they were top 4 they might achieve it, but you couldn't form a top 4 team out of the current 3 teams. All of this would come at the potential loss of several thousand speccies to the game. Personally I will watch RL anywhere, anytime, but that's probably because I am not from the heart of that region.

he played for Whitemoor warriors juniors now Selby Warriors. to say Selby is a cas area is very wrong and very annoying from my position. there is just as many if not more Rovers and Rhinos fans, i have seen many buses from Selby going to watch Rovers games but never 1 to see cas. cas have done nothing to help junior rugby in selby i myself started the warriors juniors up and rang rovers for some help, they bought us a new kit several match balls to get us going,and sent a coach round to pick all the kids up and took them to a game i rang cas and the answer i got was "must be joking we could do with some sponsorship". Rovers Are doing coaching in Brayton, Carlton and Selby high at the min and only last week Rovers hooker andy Ellis was at Brayton high doing a talk in assembley. Rovers let the Warriors use there ground all the time free of charge and the selby and district cup finals day is to be played at post Office Road on the 4th May again free of charge. cas sent Ryan mcgoldrick to do a session the other year and then sent the lottery manager to try and get the club signed up to there lottery, (no chance)If Selby is a cas area there not doing a lot to protect it are they

I thought I'd left this excellent debate but the superb post above requiress further comment. I agree with all of Bullseyes comments with a couple of important caviats.
re. passion and emotion - I only advocate a coming together so that that passion can be bottled up and given to any new club born out of the 3, and never lost. Purely because that seems a far better option to me than losing 1 or perhaps 2 of the 3.
New stadia do not guarantee a thing...... I would again agree with that, and good examples of this are at Salford and Widnes where the passion and size of crowds I witnessed in the late 60s and 70s simply is not there today despite new Stadia. But in the Calder area(excuse the term I can think of no other) we are dealing with fans who ooze passion without having any real recent success. Thats why I believe the model you will be looking at is the KC Stadium/Halliwell Jones/and Langtree Park/DW. ie. A model whch is successsful. Indeed Wires success may be a factor in the Widnes's supporter malaise despite all they won in the 70s.

Takeover; Again I agree, this could never be a Hull/Gateshead scenario, it has none of the Geographic or club size/history issues. We are dealing here with Fans and Directors who would never allow that to happen and the RL HQ would not dare even try forcing it as they did so poorly with Gateshead. It would have to be completely fair, transparent and favouring not 1 former club. Each club would be divesting its future and its own fan base to something bigger and BETTER of course, that could hold its own against the very best. (Some of these points also cover TigerTots insightful comments above too.)

Having said all that, I am of course aware that the strength of feeling on here is so anti any merger that even with such potential as can be seen at the Club stadia models I refer to, I still feel there is just not the will to let go of what you have and come together for the good of the game in the area. And believe me I do respect and concur with that.

Over in Hull, mergers were talked of prior to the KC being built and both clubs rejected it. Hull FC believed they had the fan base to be sustainable and indeed we are and have held an A Grade license throuout our tenure in SL. Ironically Rovers also believed they had that same potential to recapture their success of the 70s and 80s. I say ironically because it is their lack of acceptable stadia and smaller fan base which are 2 of the things holding them back. I say ironically also in terms of this discussion because Rovers are sadly now looking down the barrel, and at the same time you 3 could have the opportunity to make sure you never are in that position. I'm convinced Neil Hudgell at HKR would hapilly merge with a club who had similar support base / size etc/East Hull based/ if it meant keeping the East Hull SL flag flying AND SUSTAINABLE. One day that club may even be Hull FC who knows ?, FC may yet find difficult imes ahead, anythings possible. But for today FC are doing well on their own, with a great place to play and an owner who continues to run the club on a firm financial footing and a fan base most would die for.
FC are indeed fortunate and I want this fantastic RL area to ensure they can feel the same fortunate way in 20 years time by making the tough decisions today.

Right, thats it I'm outa here, bye.

(p,s. just for the record I'm 100% behind HKR sorting out their problems too.)

If I were in charge down at Red Hall (and not a Cas fan) and was looking at the conundrum of Cas/Wakey/Fev this is what I would do. Sod mergers, they will never fly. It would be a case of build it and they will come.

Set up a new club, new stadium, invest some proper cash to allow the club to spend up to the full cap and a appoint a top coach. Basically, a franchise team, but in the heartland. Then stick Cas and Wakey with Fev in the Championship. You would end up with the best players at Cas and Wakey leaving anyway and you give the new side first pick from of the refugees. Then the three sides would also end up acting as feeder clubs for the franchise team, dual regs. etc. Each club also gets to keep their identity and rivalry.

Of course it would be a risk, but in an area that loves rugby I think you would soon see fans from all three clubs start turning out at the new club; if it were properly competitive and playing in good stadium. Also, in one stroke you get to reduce the number of sides in Super League (something which apparently has to happen...) and add another competitive team into the mix.

There is no conundrum. Just supporters of other clubs pontificating on what they think should happen. (as long as it doesn't involve their club)

I dunno, I think the conundrum is that you have a relatively small geographic area that lives and breathes Rugby League, that produces many many top players but yet cannot muster a side that can challenge for honours, nor one that is particularly sustainable, or who can get their house in order to move to a modern stadium.

edit. Your bolding has highlighted the grammatical error in my post- now corrected!

Out of interest... how many Hunslet or Bramley fans turn out at Leeds games?

That is why it would need to be new club. No ingrained rivalries.

However considering that only a few hundred turn up the watch the Hawks each week I'd take a guess that a few fans (or former fans) do go see their big city neighbours.

I like the idea in principle but there's another factor you haven't contributed as well.

I would still want to watch castleford in the championship (where we belong at the moment, regrettably)

but I wouldn't watch the new SL team as well. Why?

...........Cause it's too expensive to watch one club, never mind two

This is of course a problem that would require serious thought (much more than the 5 minutes I gave this idea originally). However I had envisaged heavily subsidised tickets at the new club for the first few years to try help build a base of fans.

So essentially you're basing the success of all three existing clubs plus another 'super club' on a speculative estimate of fan behaviour which itself looks highly dubious when compared with similar situations elsewhere...

I don't want to support a new club. I want to support Castleford. Even if I did have the disposable income necessary to be fully active in two clubs, my second choice wouldn't be a new club, it would be Castleford TWICE. I doubt very much indeed that any new club in the area would get any support at all from those already paying to follow their chosen club. There may be some drift to the lure of Super League rugby, yes, but I'd wager not enough to sustain the club, and certainly to the detriment of the three 'feeder' clubs' gates.

The only way a super club would survive is if the three existing clubs didn't.