Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Statement

During recent weeks the club has become concerned about the number of inaccuracies being reported regarding our move to be anchor tenants at the Newmarket stadium.  These inaccuracies have led to speculation amongst shareholders, sponsors and supporters and we would like to take this opportunity to confirm our position on the following points:

The Site:

The land at Newmarket covers just under 214 acres of land of which around 60 acres is being utilised for sport and leisure facilities.  The land was originally part of the Newmarket colliery site which makes up 135 acres of brown belt land at the site. 

Key Partners: 

Colin Mackie is Managing Director of Yorkcourt Properties Limited the Developers. 

Sir Rodney Walker is Chairman of the Wakefield & District Community Trust.  This Trust has been formed to deliver the sport and leisure complex for the District of Wakefield.  The Trust will be the owners of the Stadium once the development completes. 

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats – have been accepted to be anchor tenant at the Newmarket Stadium. 

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council have pledged support to the stadium development in the form of a land donation to Wakefield & District Community Trust.  The value of this support is currently £2million and can only be made to a Trust, the Council cannot make a donation to a Limited Company. 

Stadium & Leisure: 

The Stadium will have a 12,000 capacity with a mix of seated and standing accommodation and has the flexibility to increase to a 15,000 capacity at a later stage. 

The plans have been designed to deliver Health, Education, Sport and Leisure for the District and the complex will include a training barn with 3 G pitches.  Discussions are well underway with a variety of end users incorporating football; two major Leisure Developers one of which would provide swimming facilities; space for charitable trust partners; local colleges and universities; Health Trusts and park and ride facilities.  The Business Plan is in final stages of completion showing a sustainable viable business for the facilities. 

Whilst the stadium will be a community stadium it is a private development and not a Council development although we are grateful to the Council for their help and support in the donation of the land to the Trust and their ongoing support for the project.

Stadium Review:

Neither Wakefield nor Castleford were asked to be involved in a feasibility study but were asked to be involved in a review.  Each club was asked to partake in a review of their respective stadium developments by Wakefield Council.  On receipt of this request Wakefield Trinity wrote to Wakefield Council and confirmed that any review would need to be carried out with Wakefield & District Community Trust and the Developer as the club is only to be the anchor tenant and the other parties would need to be involved in any process.

 Wakefield & District Community Trust wrote to Wakefield Council to confirm they would take part in the review process once they had seen the draft scope for the review.  During discussions it became apparent that this review would cost around £30,000.  Wakefield & District Community Trust, Yorkcourt Properties and the club attended a meeting at Wakefield Council.  =#FF4080At this meeting in light of the substantial progress reported and confirmation that funding was available thereby giving it a high likelihood of being successfully delivered it was agreed by all parties that a review was not necessary and that the Newmarket project should forge ahead to deliver sport and leisure facilities for the District.

Ground Share:

Wakefield & District Community Trust wrote to sporting organisations in the District and invited letters of interest in using the facilities at Newmarket.  Wakefield Trinity Wildcats confirmed their interest and are to be anchor tenants at the facility.  The same letter was sent to Castleford Tigers and Featherstone Rovers who are both developing their own stadiums, neither club were interested in becoming involved at the Newmarket site.

The Club want to place on record that whilst it is delighted to be an anchor tenant at Newmarket it is also looking forward to Wakefield & District Community Trust continuing its work to secure other end users at the facility.  The club has always maintained that the facilities need to be widely used and the Trust, the Developer and Wakefield Council are all aware that Wakefield Trinity as anchor tenants are happy to ground share with any other willing partners of the Trust. 

In a statement issued on 25th July the club said  “ . . .the Wildcats would concentrate their support for Newmarket and that a move to Glasshoughton was not an option”

From this statement many sources have reported that the Club will not ground share, this is not the case.  We are happy to ground share but we are not looking to utilise any facilities which may eventually be developed at Glasshoughton.

Timescales:

An application for outline planning permission was made in February 2010, we are hopeful that a decision on this application will now be made in September 2010.  Plans for the detailed permission are ready to be submitted and the stadium build is a 46 week process.  All parties concerned in the process are aware of the Super League timescale for Licensing.

Yorkcourt Properties have been working with internationally acclaimed architects DLA Limited, if you visit their website on www.dla-architecture.co.uk and look under projects and sport the Newmarket stadium details are listed along with other projects DLA have worked on such as the MEN Arena and other international projects.  The architects have been in place since the very beginning of this project and are key to making this work.  Detailed plans for the Newmarket stadium are ready to be submitted to the next stage of planning once outline planning is granted.

To place this in context, outline planning permission was granted at Glasshoughton in 2005, on 6th May 2010 Castleford confirmed that architects for the detailed plans were announced from a shortlist of 18. 

 We feel we have made excellent progress in just under 2 years in reaching this stage and whilst there is still work to be done we are delighted to be in the position we are in.

 These are exciting times for everyone involved in this project and the amount of work being done should not be underestimated.  Key personnel are already heavily involved in training and preparing for the move to Newmarket and have attended the European Venue Management Institute course for Strategic Stadium Business Management; the Healthy Stadia Network Conference and the Stadium Business Summit Conference in Dublin and will attend the Sports and Events Management Conference at Twickenham later in the year.  St. Helens RFL had also attended some of these events as they prepare for their move from Knowsley Road.

 The news on the progress made at Newmarket is excellent for the District and it is hoped that once the whole site is operational then 2,000 jobs will be created helping regeneration for the region.

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Statement

During recent weeks the club has become concerned about the number of inaccuracies being reported regarding our move to be anchor tenants at the Newmarket stadium.  These inaccuracies have led to speculation amongst shareholders, sponsors and supporters and we would like to take this opportunity to confirm our position on the following points:

The Site:

The land at Newmarket covers just under 214 acres of land of which around 60 acres is being utilised for sport and leisure facilities.  The land was originally part of the Newmarket colliery site which makes up 135 acres of brown belt land at the site. 

Key Partners: 

Colin Mackie is Managing Director of Yorkcourt Properties Limited the Developers. 

Sir Rodney Walker is Chairman of the Wakefield & District Community Trust.  This Trust has been formed to deliver the sport and leisure complex for the District of Wakefield.  The Trust will be the owners of the Stadium once the development completes. 

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats – have been accepted to be anchor tenant at the Newmarket Stadium. 

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council have pledged support to the stadium development in the form of a land donation to Wakefield & District Community Trust.  The value of this support is currently £2million and can only be made to a Trust, the Council cannot make a donation to a Limited Company. 

Stadium & Leisure: 

The Stadium will have a 12,000 capacity with a mix of seated and standing accommodation and has the flexibility to increase to a 15,000 capacity at a later stage. 

The plans have been designed to deliver Health, Education, Sport and Leisure for the District and the complex will include a training barn with 3 G pitches.  Discussions are well underway with a variety of end users incorporating football; two major Leisure Developers one of which would provide swimming facilities; space for charitable trust partners; local colleges and universities; Health Trusts and park and ride facilities.  The Business Plan is in final stages of completion showing a sustainable viable business for the facilities. 

Whilst the stadium will be a community stadium it is a private development and not a Council development although we are grateful to the Council for their help and support in the donation of the land to the Trust and their ongoing support for the project.

Stadium Review:

Neither Wakefield nor Castleford were asked to be involved in a feasibility study but were asked to be involved in a review.  Each club was asked to partake in a review of their respective stadium developments by Wakefield Council.  On receipt of this request Wakefield Trinity wrote to Wakefield Council and confirmed that any review would need to be carried out with Wakefield & District Community Trust and the Developer as the club is only to be the anchor tenant and the other parties would need to be involved in any process.

 Wakefield & District Community Trust wrote to Wakefield Council to confirm they would take part in the review process once they had seen the draft scope for the review.  During discussions it became apparent that this review would cost around £30,000.  Wakefield & District Community Trust, Yorkcourt Properties and the club attended a meeting at Wakefield Council.  =#FF4080At this meeting in light of the substantial progress reported and confirmation that funding was available thereby giving it a high likelihood of being successfully delivered it was agreed by all parties that a review was not necessary and that the Newmarket project should forge ahead to deliver sport and leisure facilities for the District.

Ground Share:

Wakefield & District Community Trust wrote to sporting organisations in the District and invited letters of interest in using the facilities at Newmarket.  Wakefield Trinity Wildcats confirmed their interest and are to be anchor tenants at the facility.  The same letter was sent to Castleford Tigers and Featherstone Rovers who are both developing their own stadiums, neither club were interested in becoming involved at the Newmarket site.

The Club want to place on record that whilst it is delighted to be an anchor tenant at Newmarket it is also looking forward to Wakefield & District Community Trust continuing its work to secure other end users at the facility.  The club has always maintained that the facilities need to be widely used and the Trust, the Developer and Wakefield Council are all aware that Wakefield Trinity as anchor tenants are happy to ground share with any other willing partners of the Trust. 

In a statement issued on 25th July the club said  “ . . .the Wildcats would concentrate their support for Newmarket and that a move to Glasshoughton was not an option”

From this statement many sources have reported that the Club will not ground share, this is not the case.  We are happy to ground share but we are not looking to utilise any facilities which may eventually be developed at Glasshoughton.

Timescales:

An application for outline planning permission was made in February 2010, we are hopeful that a decision on this application will now be made in September 2010.  Plans for the detailed permission are ready to be submitted and the stadium build is a 46 week process.  All parties concerned in the process are aware of the Super League timescale for Licensing.

Yorkcourt Properties have been working with internationally acclaimed architects DLA Limited, if you visit their website on www.dla-architecture.co.uk and look under projects and sport the Newmarket stadium details are listed along with other projects DLA have worked on such as the MEN Arena and other international projects.  The architects have been in place since the very beginning of this project and are key to making this work.  Detailed plans for the Newmarket stadium are ready to be submitted to the next stage of planning once outline planning is granted.

To place this in context, outline planning permission was granted at Glasshoughton in 2005, on 6th May 2010 Castleford confirmed that architects for the detailed plans were announced from a shortlist of 18. 

 We feel we have made excellent progress in just under 2 years in reaching this stage and whilst there is still work to be done we are delighted to be in the position we are in.

 These are exciting times for everyone involved in this project and the amount of work being done should not be underestimated.  Key personnel are already heavily involved in training and preparing for the move to Newmarket and have attended the European Venue Management Institute course for Strategic Stadium Business Management; the Healthy Stadia Network Conference and the Stadium Business Summit Conference in Dublin and will attend the Sports and Events Management Conference at Twickenham later in the year.  St. Helens RFL had also attended some of these events as they prepare for their move from Knowsley Road.

 The news on the progress made at Newmarket is excellent for the District and it is hoped that once the whole site is operational then 2,000 jobs will be created helping regeneration for the region.