From what it would appear, Wakefield Trinity has no professional business/management/promotion/advertising structures. While ever there is no investment in this area we will continue to flounder. An earlier poster commented that news and views about the club are only relayed through social media or local radio. When someone from the club is offered a spot on Radio Yorkshire or Leeds, I wonder how many of our non trinity supporters are tuning in as well as the diehard fan - not many I'm sure !!
The club, apart from the Community team, have little or no interaction with the city. Whilst this prevails, growth and interest in the club will always be held back and reined in. A sad reflection of this was the fact that as the season ended and until only recently, anyone entering the club shop would have thought they were entering a third rate charity shop under development. I know people may say that the club was awaiting new merchandise but surely proper business plans would have prevented this revenue inactivity from taking place
Maybe the slow movement of progress regarding the clubs home is partly because potential investors, whether they are sponsors, council or developers, see a business organisation that oozez little professionalism.

I must say the interest from the Castleford public toward their local team is much to be admired - lots of lessons could be learnt I'm sure.

Go in the shop now it's full of class merchandise best we've ever had, it was a total rebrand this year so bound to be a cross over. cas have had a top 6 side and a Wembley appearance in the last 3 years with a new stadium on the way that's the difference.

Please re read my post.

That is the whole point - there shouldn't be a 'crossover'.

And I'm afraid on a 'like for like' basis Cas seem to be miles ahead of us.

The problem with that Fergus, is that advertising & promotion costs a lot of short term money, chasing potential long term return. An advertising budget is a bit of a luxury to clubs like ours.

As for the management side, I have to say the club appears to be the best run it has been in my time supporting the club (since 2000) and from what I've read/heard - a lot longer than that. Again, it's all well and good employing an experienced CEO to direct commercial operations, but a good one will cost you say 50k - or 200 season tickets. Thats without pension contributions, NI etc.

I'd suggest the issues with the shop were to do with us not ordering much stuff because Macron were turning out a lot of tat that went unsold and we were locked into the deal with them from before MC's time. Looking at the new gear in the shop, this issue looks to have been addressed, but WE as fans need to back the club and go and buy the stuff.

Cas are to be applauded for the buzz they create in their local area, but let's be real - Cas is pretty much the only ticket in town up there and their ground is spitting distance from town centre and lots of tightly packed, terraced housing around the the town centre. They also have large areas to the east, south and north to gather support from, Wakefield is hemmed in by other SL & Championship sides.

Wakefield have none of these above and the area directly surrounding the ground is a very ethnically diverse area, which tend not to have great representation at sports grounds (aside from cricket)

IMO, the only way to get more punters into BV is to have some success on the pitch, again this season is arguably our best squad in SL era (some say 2009) - so it looks like we are gradually addressing these issues. But it takes time.

Read Vastman's post. The reason is there.

That's so last season mate.
2017 the year that Wakefield TRINITY re emerge and take the RL world by storm.

(you may be right about Cas but, I would never, ever admit to it )

Take RL world by storm ? - don't get me wrong, how I would love that to happen.

But how about the club taking the city of Wakefield by storm as well ! I wonder, I just wonder ..............................

Fergus is spot on. You can't grow a business on a shoestring budget. Sad thing is that what we have so unless MC has a mass change in policy and spends what Trinity do not have we will struggle on with the crowds we are currently getting.

Best thing is the people on here moaning about the club don't have season tickets or go anyway and love to be negative. That's why it was quiet on here on our winning run last season.

That's not true, you can build a business that way and most successful ones were. Problem with Sport is that the expectations are so high and everything is driven by emotion and uncertainty that it starts to become impossible to sustain unless you have a wealthy and generous backer and even then if you look at Hudds and Salford it's no guarantee.

There are risks and uncertainties in most enterprises but in sport it's so extreme as to render the word business redundant. All real businesses are run with profit in mind, yes there is passion and desire but unless the end product has a market and makes money they wouldn't last long. For me the best you can do in sport is run the club in as business like way as you can but it will never be a real business because it's run purely for the glory and prestige of winning and not for profit which makes folk think with their hearts not their heads.

Despite a smaller budget than most the really great thing about sport is that every now and then a miracle happens and the little guy wins. Despite investing far less than the Sugar Daddies of the game MC may with a bit of luck have stumbled across a perfect combination and with a bit more luck like a few good refs calls and the odd bounce of the ball this could be our year, who knows.

The real test would be what happens next, with good management and clever investments the club could be transformed on the back of a great season and it's then IMHO you will need more than a shoe string budget.

Having said all that the first job is to avoid relegation ASAP which is a task in itself. Many businesses fear losing out to their competitors, but I cant think of many where it may depend on 17 young and sometimes immature men including a near ferrel hooker. You also have to take into account the dodgy linesman's calls, broken bones or the way the winds blowing 24+ times a year, cant imagine Alan Sugar could plan for that.

Does anyone else think the new site for the shop can be easily missed.Maybe it's my age ,but I walked past it, when going to pick up my ticket. Perhaps it needs some sort of advertising placards or whatever to 'shout out ' to people as they pass by.

You could argue that Bradford come into the category of "borrowers and speculators" and they risked everything on an immediate return to SL and therein lies a cautionary tale.
The other Championship clubs involved in the middle 8's both this season and last, with the obvious exception of Leigh, put their additional income (from qualifying for the middle 8's) into long term development etc, whereas Bradford went for broke.
MC may not be spending his budget in the way that some would like but, he has done a superb job at steadying the ship and keeping it afloat and I'll take that every time, compared to the fete of The Bulls.

Your 100k target market is a little optimistic. (the total is around 76000)
With so many clubs in close proximity plus all of the other distractions in the summer months, anything around the 7/8000 figure would be superb and MC would be very, very happy.

If we can get some early results and gather some momentum, it would be excellent to sell out a few games at BV

Getting people through the gate each season is directly linked to success on the pitch. Up to this year where we managed a decent season, the previous 3 we finished 12, 12 & 11, is there any surprise crowds have dropped. We need to follow up last season, by being competitive & having at least a decent season again. Only then we will see a gradual rise in people through the gates to around 6-7k. Ateotd we managed to get about 800 more people in this season, from the abysmal 2015 one. A similar rise this season will start to look a bit more respectable.