Thornes Park, now there's an idea

Back on topic.
You can only begin to imagine how MC must feel about the ground.
6 years have passed since NM appeared to have been given the green light, 6 years ???

The job must be hard enough, without the ground issue and whilst the fans get impatient from time to time, who knows what it must be like when you are trying to make any kind of future plans for the club.

What makes this more annoying is to see the industrial development going on all around Wakefield and apart from the big white box, NM is just as it was and Wakefield are in just the same position as they were when 15,000 people signed the petition.

What has MC said now exactly? If he is again emphasizing the embarrassing state of the ground, I'm guessing this is out of frustration that things still aren't moving forward with YC and the council - as expected I suppose it stinks

He knows also that the problem is because of decisions made by previous incumbents, namely that there was a quick buck to be made by flogging the club's only asset to themselves on the assumption that a profit would be made when we shuffle off to Thornes Park. That decision started the ball rolling that has led to reliance on people who can't be trusted.

MC has done his utmost to put everything about the club on the up. Unfortunately, there is one matter he can't control, the ground situation, and that will ultimately undo everything.

We've been through why that isn't true, how long is this myth going to carry on.

I'll try one more time!

Ted borrowed against the ground to raise the money required to pass the franchise for 2007/2008 - remember them.
He did this because it was the only way to raise capital and hardly uncommon in business - HE DIDN'T FLOG IT for heavens sake he used it as security. He was especially confident to do this as Deputy Council Leader Denise Jefferies had stood up in front of a packed meeting and told everybody Thornes was a goer.

It's easy to blame in hindsight and for me Ted made a poor choice and should have bluffed it but as I say that's easy for me to say.

Finally even if Ted didn't sell the ground I suspect it would have been swallowed up by the receiver in 2010 and used to pay debts so it makes little difference.

The clubs demise goes a lot further back than just the Ted regime and it's not the first time we've gone bust is it - we have been an unstable club since the early 1980's.

Part of me wished we'd moved to Dewsbury this season and got the baseball bats out for the false promisers and look again for new site/developer/partner in Wakefield. The longer no news on Belle Vue development the less likely it will happen.

Sorry to be pedantic but Ted did not borrow using the ground as security HE DID FLOG IT.

He sold the ground to THE TILLION PARTNERSHIP which incorporated companies that Ted and his family owned in the Isle of Man. The purchase was secured by a loan from the Bank of Ireland and when the Tillion Partnership went bust and failed to repay the loan the Bank of Ireland became the proud owners of Belle Vue as they had the first charge on the title. The BoI of course then sold it on to the 88m Group.

So Ted did flog the ground to himself and I'm sure the reason for the sale is as outlined in your post.

As you say the clubs problems go beyond Ted and he banked it all on Thornes Park and then Newmarket based on promises made by the Council and the Developer which still remain unfullfilled.

The true and loyal fans are not the ones we want to attract though. I live in Sandal and having been working on Newmarket Lane this week and it's a bit of a trek ! That said, of course I'd go, but getting others with less commitment than me may be a challenge!

Sorry correct - as I said it wasn't the right choice - however being pedantic as Ted had the vast majority of the clubs shares he already technically owned it. It's complicated but he didn't just flog it, there was a lot of good intent involved and he like the rest was misled by the Council and by the RFL who not long after ditched franchising!

Like all these things it's tempting and neat to blame one person but that's rarely the case.

That's how I remember it. If he had used the ground as security, the club would have still owned it. What I don't know is also the following:
1. whether the club would have had the same financial problems if he hadn't done that, because of course the club would have had an asset they could have raised security against
2. whether the club got all of the money from the sale, as I seem to recall also is that the club didn't get all the money for the ground, because wasn't there more to be paid upon a certain contingency being met (moving to a new ground or whatever).
3. whether the ground was sold for its full market value. The owner sold it to himself and his relatives under the guise of a company registered in the Isle of Man, something that didn't seem to come out much later. Did his company pay the full whack?

I would be less blameworthy if he had been open about at the time, or not used it as part of his property portfolio.

I have no doubt it was sold with the best intentions and had it not been sold then its unlikely that we'd still be in Super League if in existence at all. Ted is not the only one who has been let down by the Council and Developer.

The 'myth' will go on because it isn't really a myth, it is kind of what happened. Around 2007/early 2008 Ted DID sell the ground, to a group called the Tillion Partnership (a group of companies he was involved with, i forget their names), for just under £3million, with £1.2million of that paid up front, money that was borrowed from the Bank of Ireland. That money stopped the club going belly up there and then but it did take the clubs name off the deeds. The plan was to pay the balance of the deal over a long period, or transfer the ownership of the ground back to the club if not, whilst paying back the loan to the bank. When the promised Thornes Park development came along it could be paid off in full with some in the coffers to spare thanks to the sale of BV. It went horribly wrong when Ted's finances hit a wall and the repayments couldn't be made and then the council pulled Thornes Park. On the back of the global financial crash that was a killer double whammy with banks under the cosh and being very twitchy about getting their money back. So they repossessed Belle Vue, we ran out of money and ultimately entertered administration.

Now with a bit of luck we could have got away with it but it was always risky and the timing of events was horrendous. As you say in hindsight Ted probably didn't play it right but given the promises we had been made and given we didn't have a pot to you-know-what in at the time he probably thought he had no option. And you are right that we haven't had any brass for decades and still don't. The sad thing is we have been talking about a new ground for over 40 years and we still are no closer to getting there. It will be the thing that means tough decisions have to be made and MC has one to make very shortly. It continues to be the issue that defines a long list of chairmens legacies.

EDIT - Just seen the other replies but i've typed it now!

Didn't Ted also get stung with a bad land deal with Trinity Walk/Sainsbury's? Expected land values were hit by the crash of 2007/8 leaving Ted out of pocket?

Correct.

But it is a myth as just discussed.