This is one of SmokeyTA's observations of Wakefield a few months ago.





He feels a paternal pride for us, that's nice isn't it.

He'll be so proud of your news today. He'll be like a dog with two cocks.

The RFL have maintained for quite some time that certain clubs facilities were not up to standard.

That came into play because the image of our sport must be improved.

Not true. If ever any of them could play in a stadium fit for super league, get crowds good enough for super league, produce good young players for the national team, and spend 80% of the cap, then I think they could get in.

I think the next step though is getting those 'next level' sort of clubs and putting them into a fully proffesional league, I think the potential is there, the league would just need a decent TV deal which it could potentially get with the right teams and the right structure. That is the only way these teams could build for super league.

I reckon with a good TV deal you could find 10 clubs willing to be fully proffesional. It would be a cracking league, all the teams would have potential to reach super league.

Yes but you specificaly stated licencing as being the reason, whereas LM pointed out many of your examples were originally planned well before the possibility of that system was made public

Tricky call for Cas. It has always been stated that it is a community stadium for the whole of the Wakefield district, and so Cas are able to rent it too. But, I doubt they will, because it will be tougher for them to persuade their fans to go. It is a stadium that is in Wakefield geographically, and was intended as a stadium for Wakefield, as Wakefield have always been cited as the anchor tenants. So could Cas sustain financially a team at a ground that is not only no longer in Castleford but is in the territory of their top flight rivals and would be regarded as their rivals stadium? I doubt it. You would probably find them operating with crowds of much less than Wakefield, which would weaken them.

One of the factors quoted in the report as to why it would not be feasible for Wakefield to play out of the proposed Castleford ground was that fans wouldn't support it, and cited the reduction in Saints fans travelling to Widnes. It noted that Saints knew it was only temporary and the distance was less than it would be for Wakefield playing out of the proposed Castleford ground. A similar analogy has to work for Cas playing out of a ground in Wakey.

Good luck to Cas. I want them in Super League. Two clubs. Two grounds. One rivalry.

Except nobody is interested in it, definatly not enough to actually pay anything for it

Assuming the stadium comes off, congratulations to Wakey - takes away one of the easy cheap shots against them as a club.

I do think that in a rational world, Cas and Wakey should seriously look at sharing a stadium if new ones are being built, as they are expensive assets and utilisation and sharing costs is the key to getting value out of them.

You are forgetting one aspect: what is in it for Cas? Lose a lot of their fan base and try and compete with a team pulling in twice as many fans in the same premises. If the teams are renting premises, there is no shared costs. Wakefield will agree a lease that has no relation to Cas.

Think of this way: what benefit would there be for Saints to play out of the DW Stadium? None. They would be tenants, not co-owners, and would lose half their support, be the poor relations and sink. The prospects for Cas in the Wakey stadium would not be good. The prospect wouldn't bother Wakey fans, because the ground would be regarded as Wakey's ground. It would certainly bother Cas fans.

That may appear sensible from the outside looking in, but given that both clubs have different business models that are predicated on their respective and separate stadium plans, it wouldn't work in reality.

Heyup Gronky old mate. How's it going then? All well in Tiggerland?

Went down t'lane today but couldn't find this place to buy my snap from that you and Dicky have been going on about for a year now.

Oh, and to quote from the Wakey ground judgement:

"Castleford Tigers wish to pursue a retail scheme at the Wheldon Road site, but that is out of centre and at best problematic. Even so as Mr Francis noted that site alone could not generate significant revenue to fund a stadium let alone the lengthy new road link. Where would the rest come from even if a retail scheme came forward? The evidence is that it is unlikely, as the Tigers’ own announcement makes clear."

Maybe I'm not going to be wrong after all then, eh?