Incorrect. The new stadium will be 100% owned by Castleford Tigers and Wheldon Road will continue to be ours too (until the land is sold off - then the loans from Jack Fulton will be repaid).

It's not and never has been sold as a "community stadium"

Confusing that with Wakefield's i think.

no I don't.

The western terrace is not a big stand to start with. It can't realistically be extended. Putting a roof on it will be expensive, and it is likely to cut capacity if anything. We wouldn't be able to charge huge amounts more, and the market for it even as a super wonder stand isn't massive because of its small capacity

So its a stand that will cost millions to build, bring in few if any new customers, certainly not regularly, and would cut the capacity of the stadium. I can't see any business case for it. I cant see how it will pay for itself.

The north and south stands do need an upgrade. The north stand isn't cracking and working the YCCC we should see quite a big benefit from redoing that. The southstand is pretty much going to be a copy. As ans we aren't going to see much difference but the business will as the old girl is getting pretty expensive to maintain. But the money spent on covering the western terrace isn't going to come back.

If there weren't the planning issues behind it and it was just spare land then yeah, I think we would see something similar to the Carnegie there. It would make sense. But spending large amounts of money just to put a cover on it really doesn't make business sense.

Interestingly, Yorkshire have stopped selling tickets for the Football Stand end for the T20 and international games due to part of it being condemned.

The plan is to replace in entirely in 2019, so it may be that they just don't fix it and bring forward the replacement instead, which may hasten any plans to replace/refurb the North Stand on the rugby side.

One thing is certain. While the cricket ground work takes place access to the North Stand on matchdays is going to be chaotic to put it politely.

The benefits are hugely outweighed by the hassle and cost.

Planning permission would be difficult if not impossible to get due to objections from those in the houses behind. Add in the need to resite the scoreboard and big screen to the costs of construction and for what? Maybe a couple of thousand extra away fans over the course of a season?

The sums don't add up, and if GH is anything it's a businessman who won't spend money unless he sees a return.

The North stand cricket side is basically falling down, as others have noted. There'll be no test cricket at Headingley unless that's adequately sorted out, and no test cricket makes the whole cricket ground a white elephant. I can't work out how they can rebuild the cricket stand without affecting the north stand, so it would make sense to do them both at the same time.

The main thing I think Leeds miss out on is making use of their facilities to improve gameday experience. It's all, like the rest of RL, stuck in Bullmania days of third-rate reality show singers and goose-bumped cheerleaders. Headingley has more opportunity than other grounds to get street food concessions, craft beer stalls etc going on the cricket side to get more punters (especially students) in and spending money, but the whole catering side things is just tired.

As for the ground as a whole - close, traditional city stadiums are the way forward not back. When the cladding started falling off at newbuilds in the US they were all clamouring to build up "heritage" ballparks, just as will in St.Helens or Wigan, not that they'll be able to afford to build them.

I believe the latest thinking is to rebuild the Southstand before 2018, as it would need doing prior to the planned North Stand rebuild in 2019 (isnt the Aussie Test in 2020?).

This is easily achievable given the cash required is sat in the bank and planning permission has been obtained.

Having said that I think its pretty unlikely the club would build the new Southstand they have planning permission for. They were baffled that they could only get planning for the most basic of structures from LCC (one that is not capable of raising extra income in any way as alluded to above).

Its more likely the first step will be a return to planning to try and get a capacity bump to something like the original 8000 (not 6000), with some basic bar and catering facilities (rather than the approved empty shell).

I thought the whole north stand was getting re-done, I didn't realise the rugby side was staying as it is!

Quote: Sal Paradise "I thought the whole north stand was getting re-done, I didn't realise the rugby side was staying as it is!'" That is the intention. Test cricket will continue without the existing shared stand although YCCC is looking at the options to use the lower level even if the top part is out of action. The next ashes Test is in 2019 - already confirmed - so the aim is for any new stand to be finished in time for that. Plans have been shown on the YCCC website. yorkshireccc.com/news/view/2740/ ... masterplan

Quote: Sal Paradise "I thought the whole north stand was getting re-done, I didn't realise the rugby side was staying as it is!'" That is the intention. Test cricket will continue without the existing shared stand although YCCC is looking at the options to use the lower level even if the top part is out of action. The next ashes Test is in 2019 - already confirmed - so the aim is for any new stand to be finished in time for that. Plans have been shown on the YCCC website. yorkshireccc.com/news/view/2740/ ... masterplan

Further to all this, I think it's interesting to note that apart from those clubs that share with soccer clubs, all the new grounds have a lower capacity than those they replaced.
Another reason not to relocate away from Headingley.

Is it a top class stadium though?

The club is not going to relocate from Headingley we all know that ,but if we did where would an appropriate site be?

No, but how many "top class" stadiums are there in the UK, across all sports?

Single figures, I would venture:

Wembley
Murrayfield
Cardiff (Millenium)
Old Trafford
Olympic Park
Etihad
Emirates

Most of the rest are either old stadia starting to look a bit tired, or medium sized new-builds with all the character and appeal of a used tissue.

Headingley doesn't need to venture into that bracket to attract/maintain visitors. It's always interesting to hear overseas players who have experienced its atmosphere talk about it in glowing terms, even when their new homes are much more salubrious - Wayne Collins this week being a perfect example.

Leeds don't need a 20k+ stadium when was the last time the crowd was >20k

Plenty of brownfield land in Leeds, but it's primarily south of the river. Otherwise, you're heading further out into the suburbs where transport links are poorer.

An ideal site would probably be somewhere along the A1/M1 link in the Colton/Garforth/Swillington kind of area. Good road access, decent bus links - you're just reliant on finding a friendly farmer happy to sell you the land you'll need and a compliant planning committee.

The other problem is that if the rugby side did decide it wanted to move, what would the value be of the current site with the cricket ground in situ? I would venture next to nothing, given you couldn't really build on it.

So any funding for a new stadium would have to be borrowed, either from the bank or from Mr Caddick.