they could play an Origin series!

The TV deal would be an investment that could benefit the broadcaster hugely, it would be no greater than the £/viewer our primary competitor gets currently and create at least 2 extra games per week. Ideally France would provide Cats, TO and Avignon/3rd to the structure,60/70 FT French players would be a great start to recreating a Northern Hemisphere intl comp. The buying power of our N.American cousins should see them competitive Y1 because they will bring in a team, wasting time in lower divisions is silly at best - bonds must be provided by all clubs though. As PT teams find investment and a fan base they should be welcomed into a growing structure, with bonds, if they wish to apply.

People always bring up Catalan but its a total falsehood as there is simply no comparison between Southern France and the USA. The game in France is well established having been played there for 90 years. There was an existing league with numerous clubs and a basic youth system. Thus there was a relatively small but useful fan base. It was all there just waiting to happen yet in its infinite stupidity RL gave the first French franchise to Paris and not to anybodies surprise it failed miserably.

Yet compared to the USA it still made more sense - at least it was close to the UK and relatively easy to get to and at least it was in a RL playing nation all be it the wrong part.

The USA has none of he above yet somehow some people convince themselves it can work there when it failed in Paris. Even when the Denver test sent out s resounding message that nobody was bothered we still pretend. I can't work out if it's vanity, stupidity, naivety or a death wish for the game but its costing us.

Perhaps you'd like to give us an insight into the financial structures and the inner workings at Wakefield which you claim to know so much about.

Wakefield have an excellent business model and one which is totally sustainable. They only spend what they earn.

Do you value "bigger" clubs, who's business model depends on a sugar daddy, more?

Wakefield has few fans and a terrible dump of a 1950s stadium which is a disgrace to the game. The Wakefield business model involves insulting and discomforting away fans who make the mistake of visiting the ground.

I value the bigger clubs like Wigan, St Helens, Warrington, Leeds, Hull FC, Hull KR, Huddersfield and Catalans who offer away fans a wonderful, comfortable, game day experience.

No it doesn't.

For a start, they have only just acquired ownership - before that, they would have been spending their money doing up someone else's property.

Secondly, any business model based on spending more than you have, equals disaster. Ask Bulls. Ask Widnes.

Who are you responding to?

Fair do's, I forgot you are French and following a conversation in a second language can be so hard. My bad.

I was responding to your assertion that Wakefield's business model "involves insulting and discomforting away fans who make the mistake of visiting the ground".

And yes, by the way, our stadium is pants.

The club are doing everything they can to rectify that - they just won't spend money they don't have. That's sensible.

Stadium apart (which isn’t really there fault ) Wakefield are a model most clubs should look to because the squad they’ve assembled and I believe are still under the salary cap is excellent somebody is doing good business for them in there

Quote ="dboy"And yes, by the way, our stadium is pants. The club are doing everything they can to rectify that - they just won't spend money they don't have. That's sensible.'" Yet they've just spent £3.15m that they don't actually have and worse still paid almost double the actual value of the land/ground? https://www.pontefractandcastlefordexpr ... -1-9703559

Quote ="dboy"And yes, by the way, our stadium is pants. The club are doing everything they can to rectify that - they just won't spend money they don't have. That's sensible.'" Yet they've just spent £3.15m that they don't actually have and worse still paid almost double the actual value of the land/ground? https://www.pontefractandcastlefordexpr ... -1-9703559

Quote ="Mr Dog"Yet they've just spent £3.15m that they don't actually have and worse still paid almost double the actual value of the land/ground? https://www.pontefractandcastlefordexpr ... -1-9703559'" Nope. They club have taken on the loan at 2.5% interest, for 15 years. The payments are less than they were paying in rent. Good business, wouldn't you say? The land is worth whatever anyone will pay for it.

Quote ="Mr Dog"Yet they've just spent £3.15m that they don't actually have and worse still paid almost double the actual value of the land/ground? https://www.pontefractandcastlefordexpr ... -1-9703559'" Nope. They club have taken on the loan at 2.5% interest, for 15 years. The payments are less than they were paying in rent. Good business, wouldn't you say? The land is worth whatever anyone will pay for it.

Also, thinking laterally, I wouldn't be surprised if the "inflated" value paid acts as a kind of ring-fence of the loan/ground.

As the loan could be deemed as more than the value of the land (as it stands today), it means the owners of the club can't borrow against the land (it has no equity), and as such they can't "max the cards" and scarper.


As the loan reduces and the value of the land rises (through inflation and development), the club will be much more "wealthy".

Also take in the fact we get less TV income due to the state of our ground - a fact people forget when slagging it off, apparently Cas are the same.

At least Castleford has a reasonable sized fan base. Wakefield doesn't.

Yet Toronto do, you’re in desperate mode.

Wakefield are the sleeping giant of SL always have been. If you wern’t such a troll you’d congratulate a club that still commands a hard core support of 4000 whilst playing out of a hole in the ground but then stuff like that isn’t teally in your agenda is it.

Toronto have twice the attedance of Wakefield, twice the stadium, but didn’t have to pay twice the value to own it lol

Quote ="Mr Dog"Yet they've just spent £3.15m that they don't actually have and worse still paid almost double the actual value of the land/ground? https://www.pontefractandcastlefordexpr ... -1-9703559'" For a start it’s not double the value of the ground is it! The Red book valuation is just that, a valuation. The owner 88m actually paid 2.25 million for it and then paid at a guess another 100k. No developer is ever going to sell at a loss or do you not understand how business works. So that being the case it is like all transactions what buyer will pay and what the seller will accept - red book valuations are meaningless. That being the case Wakefield paid over the odds by maybe 20%. Not ideal but it simply had to be done. Why it had to be done is what really matter, I’d explain it if I thought it would make any difference but frankly I don’t think your bright enough for it to be worth my time. You worry about your club and we’ll worry about ours

Quote ="Mr Dog"Yet they've just spent £3.15m that they don't actually have and worse still paid almost double the actual value of the land/ground? https://www.pontefractandcastlefordexpr ... -1-9703559'" For a start it’s not double the value of the ground is it! The Red book valuation is just that, a valuation. The owner 88m actually paid 2.25 million for it and then paid at a guess another 100k. No developer is ever going to sell at a loss or do you not understand how business works. So that being the case it is like all transactions what buyer will pay and what the seller will accept - red book valuations are meaningless. That being the case Wakefield paid over the odds by maybe 20%. Not ideal but it simply had to be done. Why it had to be done is what really matter, I’d explain it if I thought it would make any difference but frankly I don’t think your bright enough for it to be worth my time. You worry about your club and we’ll worry about ours

Do they chuff, and when it comes to paying attendances they have less than Lock Lane. Sometimes the level of stupidity on here is nauseating. Still it is kinda funny that you suggest they get twice the gates Wakefield get because that makes them better supported than Saints who get away fans at most games



Right that should give you time to slip back into Jean mode.

Oh and their stadium is a municipal crap hole.

That’s pushing it quite a bit.

Rubbish.
Prove it.


What makes it a waste of time? They're bankrolled by someone else's money. They're supported by their own fans from a completely new market that never existed until recently. They're paying full time wages and creating opportunities that were never previously there.
What a waste of time.


Who came to who? Did we seek them or did they seek us? I think you're massively confused about how this has come about. The RFL have made it pretty clear that they have no expansion strategy. If clubs can find their own money she bankroll themselves and outlay the cost of travel for the poor skint Northern clubs, then they can join. So far, a few have volunteered. It has ZERO funding. It costs the game nothing and it would be ridiculous to turn them down as, if it does fail, costs us nothing.

I really don't see the issue.

There’s a bigger market for RL in North America after 2 years than there is in Wakefield after nearly 150.

Tatooine?!?! With that shed of a stadium?

Maybe we should start dishing out free tickets.