HEPWORTH Costings vis a vis a Community Stadium: from what I've gleaned from radio 4 plus quick google. Pls be suspicious of my maths, as I graduated from the D Abbott school of finance
A propos WMDC funding a community stadium.
Cost of Hepworth £36 million plus £6 million grant for 5 yrs.
Money made in first 5 yrs £20 million
Visitors 1.5 million
Apprx. Annual Equivalent for £10million investment in stadium: 75,000 punters spending £800k
Assume 15 home games, need 5k average spectators per game, spending £10-£15 each ( not sure if this is including admission).
From above, would seem to be equivalent viability on financial grounds, tho' kudos of beating Tate modern ( no, it's not a Southern Union team) would be lacking, though Radio 4 do mention CC & grand final-albeit briefly.

I won't knock the Hepworth. Its a great place, brings a lot to the City. I visit it quite often, probably once a month for a coffee and a wander around. You never see huge crowds, if you did it wouldn't matter as its free entry. I would say the members of staff on duty when I visit always outnumber the visitors.

For the life of me I can't see how the place with all its overheads makes a penny.

Okay, so if we assume that Mackie has got the Newmarket site nicely tied down and is clearly never going to build us a stadium, then what alternatives do we have ?
Combining several suggestions that have already been put forward, what about asking the council to give us some land down off the new relief road (Neil Fox Way

), then have a word with either Mr Caddick at Leeds, as I am sure he would be more than capable of building us a stadium, looking at that huge TK Maxx development that he has just erected alongside the A1 and M62 at Ferrybridge, or the company that are set to build Cas' new stadium, or the likes of Keepmoat who built Donny's stadium ???
There are plenty of developers out there who I am sure could be tempted to build us a stadium, if the terms are sweet enough for them, but I admit that Box would be the one that would have to provide the sweeteners !!

MC...can't you take Caddick out for a few beers and whisper sweet nothings in his ear ??

Fil

Building a stadium is not a problem there will be people queuing up to do so.

Paying them to do it is the problem.

Yes, but surely we can get something similar to Cas' set up whereby the developer gets to build a retail park or housing or something similar to maximise his revenue out of the deal ?
If it's going to work for Cas then why can't it work for us ??

Greed?

Yorkcourt and Rodders, yes...but there must be some reputable developers out there too ??

A multi-purpose Stadium could bring events and businesses in to Wakefield. You could have year round income that could be greater than match day income.

FIL, you mentioned the new TKMax development at Ferrybridge.

Is this in addition to the large facility they have or had at Whitwood. I used to work fairly close by and it covered quite a large area.

With the thread being about forgetting about Newmarket and moving on could this be a feasable location, should the old facility be vacated.

I remember seeing Leeds Utd reserves playing Liverpool reserves at Belle Vue in front of a big crowd - I'm sure that a smart stadium along the lines of LSV could keep busy.

Didn't intend to knock Hepworth, PB, as it gets Wakey on the Map. I meant to use it as a comparator to the costs of getting a community stadium up & running, in terms of investment and return, downtrack.
Seems life a strategic win-win for WMDC & Trinity, from my perspective, though I'm aware that council budgets have been castrated by the implementation of "austerity" ideology, since the Hepworth was conceived & suspect Central Arts funding may have had a role in its realisation.
I assume Hepworth makes £ on car parking, food & gifts plus arts-related workshops & events ( lots of compatibility with Stadium revenue streams, if you substitute art with sports/ live entertainment themes). Plus, Trinity charge entry fee (& get a years worth up-front from season-tickets, which numbers would likely increase with a 21st century environment).