As far as I seem to remember when all clubs make finance announcements for the year there are always losses at each club

A lot of cas fans are getting excited at the thought of grand redevelopments, but what exactly is meant by redevelopment? I’m guessing it’s a lick of paint here and there and new toilet block maybe. The money just isn’t there to redevelop on any grand scale that’s a fact.

On the other hand, I’m sure it can be tarted up to be “fit for purpose” relatively cheaply. The ground requirements were always going to be relaxed after the Bradford fiasco. It begs the question, why wasn’t this always the case, instead of having clubs trying to overextend themselves getting shiny new grounds?

I think you may be right, although if we get an investor then things may change

Johnathan France ?

we could always put £500 of corrugated sheeting on a few bits of steel at the Railway end, we will be just like Wakefield then. Everybody laughed at Fev when they bought the Scarborough Stand, dont think we are laughing now. Well done Fev.

I wasn't laughing, I said it was a shrewd move

Think a nice new main stand with revenue generating suites and non matchday stuff would make the rest of the ground look suddenly better. The old place would then be of similar standard to Headingley, just smaller.

I think some people are being a bit too optomistic with talk of new stands, new roofs on every stand, turning the pitch 90 degrees etc. It's all going to cost money which we have little of, and time.

The best way as someone mentioned is to take the Hull KR approach and try and upgrade a stand at a time....

The club are clearly wanting to make the Wheldon Road end the place to be for home fans, so for me this is the priority in the close season. The best way I can think of to sort out access issues, is to fence it off from the corner of the Princess Street stand, and again fence it off at the side of the main stand. The downstairs room under the tigers restaurant suite (I don't know what it's used for these days) should be a new Wheldon Road end members bar, the NRL clubs make a lot of money from members clubs (I know we aren't in the same league as them!!). However, simply sticking up a metal fence and making it out to be some sort of exclusive stand won't wash. They need to make supporters want to pay for Bronze/Silver memberships by improving the facilities. Sticking a new bar there sorts out some of the difficulties of having X number of people coming from the Tiger bar/other areas right before kick off. Of course you could also have turnstiles between the Wheldon Road area and the main stand area so it's not completely blocked off. I imagine converting this room into a half decent bar wouldn't be the most expensive thing in the world. Surely there are supporters among us who can decorate, do a bit of plumbing etc who would be willing to provide some free labour if the club provided the fixtures and fittings. The club might also want to look at demolishing that bit of terracing at the side of the main stand in order to have a bigger 'open concourse' area, and also in anticipation of doing some work on the main stand/extending it. There's not much the club can do about the pillars unless they have an expensive stand alone roof which doesn't need supports, maybe they could replace the roof and cladding similar to the way Wakefield have done.

The main stand is also a priority, what people are forgetting is if you completely rebuild this stand, work will overlap into the season. Even if they started work as soon as the season has ended, you could be talking the following summer before it's ready (maybe even longer) which means the club would have to play at a different ground=lost revenue. Again, it would have to be done in stages...I think it makes sense to move the corporate boxes here long term. In the short term (1-2 years) if the club are serious about staying at WR and manage to secure some funding, they could build new offices/changing rooms behind the existing structure. It's clear the roof needs to be replaced in the short term future.

Which leaves the Princess Street and Railway End, it would be lovely to have these nice and refurbished with super dooper new roofs but the club have to be realistic, any available funding needs to be spent on corporate facilities and improving the stands which are used the most by supporters (main stand, WR end).

In times gone by (hovis time) communities used to rally round and help build these kind of facilities, not just in financial terms but labour too. If the club are serious, open and honest then I'm sure within a database of perhaps 5000 Castleford fans there are plumbers, architects, electricians, engineers, decorators....people who own businesses who can provide scaffolding, maybe there are supporters who own small firms within the construction industry who may have contacts, or someone who owns a small carpet business and will give a reduction on new carpet. These people must be out there.

The club just have to tell it straight, don't give us another long term dream and then in 3 years time after nothing has been done say the club need to look at building a new ground at Glasshoughton/Whitwood etc. Or maybe

There was talk not long back of some waste disposal firm wanting to purchase the old Hicksons site. Due to planning regulations it was in this companies interests that WR remained a Rugby ground rather then commercial development. As a sweetener they offered Cas a low interest loan to redevelop WR. Is this still an option? I don’t if the hassle of a loan round your neck would make your business plan viable but it’s certainly an option. It at least looks on the surface the most realistic way of raising the funds to redevelop.

I would agree that developing the main stand makes most sense as this will bring more income into the club.

You can't it's the away end.......................