There are a number of compelling reasons why the council should not just want but passionately desire a successful sporting team playing in a state of the art facility, you've hit on one of them.

Another major one which isn't up for debate anymore as its proven by research, statistics and expert anecdotal evidence is the huge positive effect that sporting aspiration has on the long term health of a populace.

People, the young in particular, are inspired and motivated to emulate their idols and in particular idols with whom they can identify. They are more likely to become Physicaly and mentally active in the pursuit of their desire to emulate, that in turn generates a more active 'lifestyle trait' which is carried forward throughout their lives thus alleviating the budgets of the National Health etc NOT SPECULATION, PROVEN!

it is also proven that schoolchildren who are Physicaly, mentaly and socially involved in an active lifestyle through sport are more likely to succeed academically. NOT SPECULATION, PROVEN!

Children in this area are inspired by sporting heroes to get actively involved in sport but the numbers are drifting downward and will hit rock bottom if we lose the only professional sports club from the City of Wakefield. With these two things in mind it is criminally negligent of the Council and its leader to nonchalantly shrug his shoulders and wash his hands of HIS responsibility to Wakefield.

Children in the area ARE actively involved in sport though - they certainly are in Castleford. Facilities are superb at Cas High School were several teams compete every year in the Wembley finals and Airedale High don't to too bad either.
Will the addition of a couple of all-weather pitches off the M62 for football have that much effect on sporting excellence in the WF area? I don't think so.

True and we need to make a move ASAP

Yes it is fair to say that sporting facilities in schools and colleges in the area have improved massively in the last few years to a point where many have their own top quality facilities and/or links to professional gyms and health clubs giving students access to a wider amount of kit than ever before. The change to academies has also aided this investment. I would say that it would be the community clubs that would benefit the most from a new development but they don't require a massive stadium to be built, just the basic facilities. I would have thought that would make it cheaper for them to use and a more viable option than the costs a large multi-purpose stadium build would incur.

FYI, the sports facilities at Wakefield College have all just been closed.

They now hire Lightwaves and have no outdoor fields to compare with what they had at Thornes Park.

Not a new thing, they were using lightwaves and Thornes athletics facilities 20 years ago when i was there. The old Thornes house facilities should have been pulled down years ago anyway. I believe other agreements are in place to use more modern facilities elsewhere.

Brilliant summation of the situation and sadly very true in every paragraph and although some people on here won't believe it or want it, personally I think he's 100% on the money unfortunately.

They were using Lightwaves when it was still current and well maintained.

The facilities there now are terrible. They have only used it since September because the college want to sell TP for housing.

The college has no agreements elsewhere and the athletics track was not used by the college, unless hired separately.

Where are the modern facilities you talk of?

The last time i went into lightwaves it was for a beer festival so i'll have to take your word for that. I'll ask my mate who works in the sports department there his opinion on it.

The college hire out places to use, just like it did when I was there with the athletics track. I know they did because i used it many times whilst there.

And they have the use of Croftons facilities now as well where they have just built a shiney new sixth form.

Anyway moving on given its in the same district would Cas getting the ok for their 'community stadium' a couple of junctions up the motorway legally lessen the need for the council to provide sporting facilities? Could they point to that as an alternative to Newmarket?

The college does not have access to the Crofton facilities. They closed TP saying the college would use QEGS...yeah right!

One fitness class at college is taught in a cookery room at F block.

Ask your teacher mate about the 3 "classrooms" they have at Lightwaves, or the building classes that take place next door to the classrooms!

Loving how so many people who do not have current knowledge are writing all this off!

You will all be immensely pleased to know that we have every expectation of delivering something that we can all be proud of - be that at BV or NM - and there is very good reason for our stance on NM which we will not alter - unless all the right conditions are met!

To be fair that does sound very Wakey college-esque from when i was there! They dumped us in the old ings road school for a while! I am though assured that plans are afoot to improve matters. Guess time will tell!

What it does show is that despite better facilities already being available like QEGS or Crofton there is no guarantee that they will actually use them. It comes down to money and budget cuts means that whilst academies can gain extra money to fund improvements, publicly funded colleges are struggling big time and i know that one for a fact! The build it and they will come strapline doesn't add up for a major build at Newmarket i'm afraid as it has to be paid for somehow and that can only be by charging more for its use than many could afford. A smaller development may work out financially but a large one? Doubt it, it will run up too many debts. I also think that it is time to push for the BV refurb and forget NM.

You said that about 4 years ago as well......

Sorry but it is difficult to have any positivity about this anymore. A case of same old same. It's not a go at you or any of you involved but my expectation of seeing anything come out of this is zero.

Hate to say it but I'm in the same boat, I expect nothing to materialise as it seems to always be the case.

I commend the efforts of those beating the drums but until I see a brick laid I'm going to remain pretty cynical about it all.

Can't blame you or anyone for feeling that way, I sometimes feel that way myself but we either just lie down and accept that we are not going to get anything or we carry on with the campaign.

As TRB as eluded to there are things going on that have to remain confidential, at least for the time being and our aim is to get something, be it at Newmarket or Belle Vue that we all can be proud of.

We may end up with nothing, but if that is to be the case, which I doubt, it won't be because we did not fight. If we accept that we are going to get nothing that is what we will get.

Fed up with people saying "there are things going on behind the scenes but they must remain confidential" who or what are you protecting? We know there is no money to build a new stadium and probably not enough to even buy the existing ground. The club have been shafted time and time again be politician's and business people promising things for their own ends we ought to see more leadership and openness from the club. It may get us nowhere but at least we will know the real situation and not be
conned that if we don't ask too many questions and are patient Santa Claus will come down the chimney with a brand new stadium in his sack.

Enough already! You trust us, or come and do the bloody job yourselves! We give our time, we tell you what we can when we can and we are asking you to support us in our efforts! If you lot are anything to go by then you deserve nothing! Fortunately you have people who believe that we can still achieve something out of all this! Be grateful, because if it wasn't for this small group of dedicated people then you would all end up with what you seemingly desire and expect - nothing!

I am on holiday 1,000 miles away, and I can tell you we have something to play for! Giving up now would be the most stupid thing in history! Please, please, have some faith! And yes, faith means believing without knowing!

You miss the point!

The facilities are there due to demand, the demand is there due to aspiring young Rugby League players, the aspiring young Rugby League players are the due to the existence of Castleford Tigers.

What if there were no Castleford Tigers!

15 or 20 years from now who would the young kids of Castleford identify with, who would inspire them to pick up a rugby ball, who would they pretend to be when they were playing in the street against their mates.

Substitute Wakefield for Castleford
That's the scenario Wakefield is facing!

Don't know which schools in and around Wakefield that you're refering to?

Outwood have a new £4M sports hall but their all weather is not 3G and isn't fit for purpose when coaching Football and Rugby.

Other than that I can't think of any other Wakefield City centric schools that have anything but delapedated Victorian standard facilities, the odd tennis court sized 3G apart.

TRB has said it all above but if people are not prepared to trust us I for one can find something else to do with my time. Alternatively if you think you know what needs to be done then come and take over from us, I'm sure we'd be happy to hand over to you.

Oh, and by the way, if you want you can complete the application to have Belle Vue listed as an Asset of Community Value, it should be reasonably straightforward as I have done most of the spade work for you.

Both Horbury and Ossett have invested in their sports facilities in recent times as part of their refurbs and others have likely done the same to differing degrees. Whilst they don't have all weather pitches most have large grassed areas fine for coaching RL and they will use this everytime, they are not going to be paying out to use some other facility, they just haven't got the money thanks to the government cuts.

The same would apply for local clubs. Many would probably love to use 21st century 3G facilities but will use their own ground and facilities purely down to it being cheaper for them to do so. I don't know the figures but with rising insurance costs, rate and rental costs and the amount of kit needed i would imagine it isn't cheap to run an amateur club these days. Is anyone actually signed up to use them?

My question and worry would be how much would the trust be charging for the use of the facilities at NM? They can't just let them use it for nothing, they have to make enough money to pay its way and that won't be cheap on a large complex like the one initially planned. Do the figures stack up or will it end up becoming a noose around its neck, racking up the debts until it is no longer viable? Would a basic plan of a couple of basic pitches up there with changing facilities etc and a refurb of BV be a better option all round? That would be my choice now.

The idea is that whilst the Trust will own the facility and the club lease it, the club will effectively run it, for the majority of its operational time. Therefore there should be minimum input required to operate the Trust as the governing body - we are all free!

Foot-stamping in response to people's cynicism isn't very helpful; especially when the cynicism is aimed at everyone other than the volunteers doing the hard work.

It would certainly help if more information were forthcoming - there are a lot of oblique statements and platitudes in response to genuine questions, but no hard facts; and you're not helped by the fact that the bigger players in this are maintaining a stoney silence - Sir Rodney Walker and the club itself are absent from any discussions for example, which seems strange. The only protagonist to have made their position clear is WMDC, and Cllr Box was unequivocal in his dismissal of the whole project.

You can't blame people for surmising that things don't look good.

It can't though be cheap running a proposed development the size of NM. If Wakey are only paying a peppercorn rent as has previously quoted then where will the rest of the running costs come from given many of the potential users haven't got a spare two bob to rub together as i've mentioned above? I hope our business model is just 'build it and they will come', thats a sure fire way to ensure the financial problems stack up.