Quote: Shifty Cat "The underlined is the only bit I agree with. As for mortgages etc, what is Trinity going to mortgage, goodwill and a promise? The Stadium is not owned by the Club. We could have bought it a few years ago but were advised not to by someone att in a position of 'trust' because the developer of Newmarket was going to and redevelop it because it was cheaper than building a brand new one along with the 2 multi-use pitches at Newmarket. Guess what, they didn't and another developer did called 88m, who's also promised big things that haven't materialised into anything.
As for the rest, there is also a site with full planning, which according to Mr Carter when speaking to another SL Club owner of a side in West Yorkshire, that has won a load of silverware the past 15 years or so, that happens to be in the building development business. Apparently says that the site is probably the best commercial development site that hasn't been developed along the M62, but yet this developer has only built one huge building employing only 125 people in 7 years. You may have seen it if you live in the area.
Amazingly even though the developer only got his hands on the green belt land and old Colliery because of an S106, rubber-stamped by the Secretary of State. With a promise to build a Community stadium and other sports facilities for the people in the area to use, seeing as we have next to nothing in the area. Plus the 15k signatures in support of the development around 8 years ago. Said monstrous Cold store building somehow got passed by WMDC but amazingly didn't count towards the 60k square feet they were to build before it triggered the build of the Community Stadium and other sports facilities. Knowing this you can see what Trinity has been dealing with the past 7 years. Funnily when all this was brought to light in a national paper, the Council suddenly started promising all kinds of unfeasible ideas, the latest being to build a Stadium on some land that has no access on some field behind Peacock Estate lol.
it's amazing though that so many stadiums have been built this way up and down the country but not Wakefield. WMDC have allowed a two-bit developer to run rings around them and get away with murder but yet still won't man up and put pressure on the people or tell them to jog on and let a developer with some ethics move in.
Anyway comparing a Club like Leeds, in a City of that size (even compared to the whole of the WMD) with only one SL club which owns its own stadium, that happens to be owned by a man that's worth about £200m really isn't a fair comparison imo.'"
Excellent post SC - the only thing you missed out though was the involvement of sir Rodney Walker in this fiasco which I'm sure would be of great interest to many on here.