I suppose we can say a lot about our Chairman, but in his defence he always answers questions posed to him by the fans. I would love the thought of a developed Cougar Park. If we wait for the Council we'd be waiting forever so I like to idea of looking for other funding opportunities.

Siddal 14 Cougars 10

Good effort at wind up mate.....


On the wrong thread ha ha ha.

True enough Dominance , to me it seemed quite a sensible reply , all quite doable sort of things
with backing from a host of the right sort of people.
The only thing that half bothered was the comment about a 5 million grant.....is that not a
bit of a big ask ? Saying that I know nothing about how those sort of things work ........suppose
if you do'nt ask you don't get lol

We are only having this discussion, because the chairman and the board are trying to get us a new ground.

We have never had this discussion before.

Good on them for at least trying to do something no one else has.

As for the grant. There are loads of grants out there. Its knowing about them and having the right bid in place to get them. Getting the right people behind it and getting the right people to support it.

I am bloody glad we have a chairman and chairman that are willing to give it a go.

Back to the original thread:

Many of these developments are done as partnerships with other interested parties and I notice Gary's reply hints at retail space under the main stand. Leeds were involved with Carnegie who use part of the new stand at Headingly as classrooms.

The one thing that we must ensure above everything is that we have control of the ground entrance fee, corporate entertainment and bar takings - not some stadium management company.

Leigh, amongst others have found to their cost that loosing control of this revenue is a very, very bad mistake.

I've been looking at the catchment area for Keighley Cougars and its population. I guess this will be relevent in applying for funding for the new stadium.

If you take in the smaller surrounding towns that do not in anyway encroach on the legimate catchment area of any other RL club (Oakworth/Haworth/Oxenhope, Steeton/Skipton/Gargrave, Bingley/Ilkley, Addingham/Silsden, Cross Hills/Cowling and the East Lancashire towns of Barnoldswick/Earby/Colne ) the total population is a fraction under 200,000. The town of Keighley itself has a population twice that of Castleford, for example. So all this should be helpful.

Sorry, I'm going to have to pick you up on that. Although they are administered by a body which styles itself as 'Lancashire County Council', this council does not cover the actual county of Lancashire (it doesn't even include Blackburn and you can't get much more Lancashire than that!) and in fact Barnoldswick and Earby are equally as YORKSHIRE as Keighley is. Like Keighley, they lie in the West Riding. Always have and always will, regardless of what their local council likes to call itself.
.
Addressing your post as a whole, yes our catchment area is very large and the potential is definitely there.

Remember the dizzy heights of Cougar Mania ....... the support is out there but unfortunately people like to follow winning teams. We lost a lot of fans to Northern and Halifax to a degree and we have to also consider apathy.

That is the one biggest obstacle that Keighley Cougars face.
Apathy in the town is strangling the club and its going to take something special to change that.

Didn't someone once say "Build it and they will come"?

Apathy seems to be an issue at our level of rugby and it will take more than just calling something "Cougar mania part 2" to cure it.

The club will need to engage with fans, community and above all schools to turn things around.

Oh, and having a winning team might help.

Anybody see what a completely soulless attempt at a new ground Salford have (on Sky tonight)? No wonder they can't get a crowd even though Salford is in Super League ... Main Stand far too far from the touchline, all stands / terracing far too shallow, corners not filled in, seats too small etc.

The "wall" at the south end of the Dortmund football stadium is more like it for any new Cougar stadium (even if only a say third of the height is needed for Keighley).

I've changed my mind - the stands/terracing in any new ground should start a maximum of three metres from the touchlines/dead ball line; 3 metres is sufficient for player safety.

Was at Salford for the U20s last night and I'd actually disagree , apart from the ridiculously out of proportion west stand iit is actually an ideal size for RL.

What however does make is soulless is the corporate greed and basic lack of respect for supporters that a stadium management company like that that run the new facility have.

Ridiculously high prices and poor quality food and drink,draconian ticketing policy's and stewarding that is based on the principal that all supporters are there to fight and cause trouble and therefore deserve to be treated worse than animals ....that is what makes a place soulless

god forbid we never go down that route...