With regards to the stadium, cas have outline planning permission and plan to submitt full planning permission before christmas (and there are no objections to the site), wakey dont even have outline planning permission and wont be able to get it till after the public enquiry which will take about a year. Cas should start construction in april.

Cas are financially stable (and in the last year have increased our income from sponsorship significantly) and even made a small profit in 09. Wheras wakey, quins and crusaders have all had financial difficulties.

Cas have higher attendances than quins, wakey, salford and crusaders and are about the same as catalans, despite dropping 900 off our attendance last season due to poor form, the recesion and most of our normally well attended home games being on sky.

With regards to youth development cas played 11 home grown players last season (including two who have just played in the academy series win over the aussies, 1 being the captain and the other scoring 3 tries in two games), and another playing for england in the 4 nations,we have since lost two, but brought one home grown player in, with 4 or 5 poised to make there debuts this year. This is far better than wakey, salford or crusaders.

Salford and wakey both have 9 (iirc) overseas players wheras cas have stuck to the rfl guidlines and only have 5.

Personally i prefered p+r but if we are using the franchise system cas should be ahead of salford and wakey (and quins and crusaders for that matter).

I would imagine it would be fev.

Apart from the stadium, Wakey's franchise application will probably be better than, if not equal to: Salford, Quins, Cas, Crusaders and any Championship clubs. Its the stadium that matters, and that is what worries me.

when the documents for FPP go in,do they go to local or national government ?.

Local.

so you expect it to go through without any problems ?.

WHY has it taken 3 years to obtain planning permission/start building when ALL the relevant teams have known since before the last farcical round of applications that having an up to date stadium would be high in the criteria list, Saints got the message why didn't the others?

Complacency, and a feeling of untouchableness Fred.

Yes there have been no objections, the council support it and there is very little housing near by, its mainly an area of entertainment and shopping, and these businesses support the ground as it will increase there revenue streams.

Not at all, our main source of funding is the sale of our ground, this ground is next to an old chemical factory, the factory had a 'blast zone' that restricted housing being built nearby. A company bought the factory for housing and intended to do the neccersary work to clear this blast zone, but then went bust with the recesion, cas have been waiting a couple of years for the blast zone to be cleared (something we have no control over) which it now has been so we can sell the ground. Basically cas would already be in a new ground if it were not for the recesion, the club has done everything in its power to get the ground built but outside influences have held us back.

IMO Cas are the safest of the 3 who are fighting against the drop......... Crowds, cash etc are better than Salford and Wakey - I think Wakey should be the most worried of the 3.

I agree with all that leytherjay, but i do like Wakey don't know why really, so hope they are ok, i don't dislike Cas or Salford by the way.

Still happy with the wife Ian ?