turn the argument round and just for arguments sake imagine GH was built 12 months before NM. how many wakey fans would come to cas. less i suppose because they would know the cash would go to cas.

I was thinking about the 'M' word the other day and came up with the name 'Wakefield United', I quite like that!

but it wouldn't

On the other hand, if the ground matches the like of Widnes, and we have a backer like Widnes, why the pressure to merge? The RFL might say that there can only be one team from the Wakefield area, but if we are at Newmarket, are spending the salary cap, have crowds to match the likes of Huddersfield and Widnes (which we do already), wouldn't we be merging to save Castleford? Would they merge if they were at Glasshoughton?

No one tells Leigh to merge with Wigan, or Widnes to merge with Wire. It is always with us that we talk about it, but if Newmarket comes off, what do we have to gain by it? I would tolerate a merged team at Newmarket, but what would Cas have to gain by it?

£12 million quid in the bank instead of spunking it all on a new stadium?

We should expect Huddersfield to be in favour of mergers. You've had one already and did okay. I'm not sure Sheffield share the view though.

A merged team with the Cas stadium money + another million from the RFL?

That's a club set for a decade at the top of the league.

A ground share was the right idea in 2005 or 6 when the plans could have been made to find a site that was fair to both sets of fans. Neither proposal on the table now fits that bill, but it was a no brainer, as the article puts it, and as the history now shows us. I still think it entirely possible that neither plan will ever get off the ground. I was published in the Express in 2006 I think, almost word for word what Kear has said....but it's way way too late now. It's Newmarket or bust for us and a lot of praying over the next few weeks.

You must be the most negative poster on here,if that's the quality of specci that £100 season tickets bring let's put 'em up to £200 a year!!!Glover out!!

Newmarket is slap bang in the middle of the two places, so purely on location its perfect. However Cas fans will see it as Wakefield, whereas a stadium in Normanton would perhaps be perceived as neutral.

I'm shocked nobody has mention Andrew Glover in all this. I can't see him wanting to merger his recently purchased business with another. Also, let's say both clubs average gates of 8,000, I can't see a new club attracting 16,000 each week so that would be more fans lost to the game.

There hasn't been a genuine merger, with both clubs as equal partners, in British rugby league yet, and if Wakefield and Castleford were to merge, there wouldn't be one either. One of the two clubs would end up swallowing the identity of the other. It's no coincidence that there are still independent clubs in Gateshead and Sheffield in the lower leagues, in spite of the "mergers" with Hull and Huddersfield.

The only thing that might work is a completely new club, with the existing clubs operating as feeder clubs in the lower leagues. That way, you might just convince enough people to follow a new club playing in the elite competition, made up of the best young players from both existing teams, but to expect fans from either club to abandon their history and create a brand new fan culture from the existing set ups is illusory, IMO. And whilst the small, rational part of my brain says that this would be a sensible step in many ways, every other part of my body says "sod that".

Having thought about the possibility of a ground share, I would be OK with going to watch CT at NM (if it gets built first) but only for a season. Similar to Saints at Widnes last year. It there were signs of the stadium at GH going up I think most CT fans would be OK with it - but only for that one season.
On a more realistic note - I can't help thinking about the possibility of Cas playing at our nearer neighbours Fev Rovers. They are putting in 2 more seating stands this year but will still only get 2,000 tops watching them. It would be nearer than NM and rent would be presumably cheaper.

On top of that I have a nagging feeling that Probiz recent "partnership" with Fev and our commercial manager joining them as CEO isn't merely a coincidence. Are the chess pieces been lined up for what we are all dreading the most?

The problem with that view is that the funding Cas need to build at GH isn't likely to be unlocked until FPP is granted for the complicated developments proposed for WR; that will take longer than a year in my view, so it could mean an extended stay at NM.

As for the Fev proposal - will their stadium be SL compliant, even after the works you've described? I can see the RFL refusing it either way, to force us together and increase the possibility of a merger; I'm certain that's what they want.

Looking at timescales for the above B2K. Newmarket (if passed) won't be ready until the start of the 2014 at the earliest. If rumours are correct about the new plans for Wheldon Road CT could be looking at 2 years later. 4 seasons from now - 2016 would be a realistic timescale IMO. That would mean 2 more full seasons at WR and 2 years "on the road" depending on (and this is the main problem) when the bulldozers come in to demolish WR.

Regarding Fev's stadium been SL compliant. That is the reason for the ground impovements. If Fev build what they say they are going to they will have more seating than Cas and Wakey put together for next year. They would tick all the boxes. The only thing that the RFL could do to stop their promotion to SL would be to change the rules again.