What's the point pushing a Cas-Tigers merger? Why not include Fev and turn the clock back to 1996? (West Yorkshire Wildcat Tigers anyone?). Fans would rather not have a club than support a hybrid version. Ground share certainly - Fev are going it alone and good luck to them but neither Cas nor Wakefield can invest on their own.

One of them has to give and they are neck and neck - hard one to call. I favour Cas; at least they have tried to improve facilities. Nearly twenty years of Sky money and Wakefield have done naff all. No ambition. Compare with other middling clubs like Salford, Leigh etc. And who's to say which one is in better health?

I agree on the first point, but on the last point, have you been living in a Cave for the last 18 months by any chance?

Mr Armadillo - do you think a new Wakefield stadium will definitely go ahead? Even if not certain on timescales.
Also, what do you think Wakey fans attitudes would be toward sharing "their" new stadium with Cas?

I think it is very likely to go ahead yes, and when the 106 finally gets sorted (it has been held up by a land transaction that needs to be sorted before it can be dated) then it looks extremely likely to get built... but as you state, time-frames can be more fluid, but I still think 2015 season is very achievable.

I think Wakefield fans would be ok with Cas sharing as long as the 'M' word didn't then start to be banded about... which it probably would! The Wakefield fans know that it is not 'their' stadium but equally, without them there wouldn't be a stadium in the first place.

Good stuff. Assuming the finances/running of the stadium enable Wakey to flourish then it could be the dawn of a new era for Wakefield, it could really kick them forwards.


Yep, I can totally understand why people don't want a merger. I don't think a merger would work in most British sports.
I can understand why people's preference would be to "have a stadium of their own", I wouldn't want Leeds to share a stadium if there was any chance of sustainably redeveloping/staying at HQ. But what I don't understand from some fans is an insistence on building their own regardless of how it would affect the club. If its a choice between a constant struggle to build and then operate a "home" stadium or flourish at an equally shared stadium then I'd go for option 2 every time.
From an outsiders point of view then a shared stadium seems the best option by a mile.

They are not going to be in the same position Salford unfortunately find themselves in, and the model looks very favourable. The developer (Yorkcourt and possibly another developer who's name you might know!) is paying for the majority of the stadium build, the rest of the funding is coming from Sir Rodney via grants (Sport England etc), Wakefield College (still to be 100% confirmed) and £2m from Wakefield Council. Unlike at Salford the developer & the council does not want it's investment capital back. The developer will lease the land and stadium complex to the Stadium Community Trust on a 100 year lease, but will still own the Freehold. The Trust will pay the developer a peppercorn annual rent but the Trust will be responsible for of course the full up-keep of the complex. So this means that the Trust just needs to find enough money to maintain the complex and nothing more and is of course is not for profit. Wakefield will benefit from a rent that is, believe it or not, not much more than they pay now at Belle Vue and from the increased match day revenue and hospitality income etc. If another team shares then the rent will come down even further one assumes, because the trust is not there to profit and of course can't legally.



This is a complex issue and the history has put both clubs where they are today. In short, Cas (well under the departed Richard Wright's tenure as CEO) wanted to developer their own facility at GH. They own WR so they wanted to use this asset and build and then retain ownership of a new ground at GH. So GH was always going to be their ground, owned by them. You can see why that is attractive as they own and operate their own stadium and all the revenue it generates, which is great, if you have the money to build thing in the first place... which is the problem they still face unfortunately! Wakefield would not agree to go to GH because it is well and truly in Castleford but mainly because RW & the Cas board wanted GH to be owned by them. You can understand this too I am sure!

Wakey don't own Belle Vue (the BOI do now!) so they didn't have this luxury and had to look at other ways of funding a stadium that would support a sustainable business model. Without doing the full history, that is how Newmarket came about and why it was also, from day one, a community facility. I am fairly sure Castleford would be welcomed by the trust, they can't do anything else really, but they clearly don't want to do that (well the fans anyway) at this moment in time and would prefer to stay at WR, which again you can understand.

A shared facility sounds great but when one side has no existing major asset, the other has the asset but doesn't have enough to build a whole new ground purely on the sale of it's existing site, and even with £4m from the council, you are still short of the money to build this ideal shared stadium then it was never going to work!