I agree. The fact that this is one of the most liked post in ages shows you are not on your own.
I was in support of new ground if it was the only way forward but I much prefer to stay at Belle Vue.
I've been watching rugby here since the 70s. I want to keep doing it and luckily I am now doing it in a progressively more modern stadium.

Totally agree PT, Newmarket if it had come off I would have been there. But Belle Vue is where my heart is and I've never lost the excitement and expectation of walking down Doncaster Road to watch Wakefield play. I hope to do so for a few more years watching the club grow.

Just to clarify a few things.

NM was actually a last ditch thing that Ted cobbled up, and to be fair he had very little option.

The original scheme was to have been Thornes Park. Forgetting the fact that it turned out that the Council didn’t own the land, i personally think that one would have been a total winner. In many ways Thornes is better placed than BV.

I was a fan of Thornes. I was not keen on NM. Ted was, but the SWAG group was split. Not bitterly, just in preference. I don’t know if NM would have worked, nobody does, but for me it was to far out. Had it been in Stanley proper then yeah it would have been ok. But it was effectively in the middle of nowhere.

In the intervening 20 years Salfords experience has proved that to be a bad thing, but at the time it was nowhere near as obvious as it is today. That said, HKR ground was once considered a white elephant, but it’s doing ok now.

Truth is that on field success is a huge part of the success of any stadium.

some great drone footage from the GKO films dude... (sorry I don't know how to link a video... I'm sure it will be attached soon by a techno nerd )... but this pic shows the extent of the current upgrade... I love watching this stuff!!

Quote: Spookisback "some great drone footage from the GKO films dude... (sorry I don't know how to link a video... I'm sure it will be attached soon by a techno nerd Link. https://youtu.be/aU4knIvwfTs?si=WQC1E_aS3aGAOM1M

Quote: Spookisback "some great drone footage from the GKO films dude... (sorry I don't know how to link a video... I'm sure it will be attached soon by a techno nerd Link. https://youtu.be/aU4knIvwfTs?si=WQC1E_aS3aGAOM1M

I think this is the most up to date having watched it

That latest drone footage doesn't give a close shot of the north west corner which looks to be included in this latest groundwork project.

Could be, there are a few of them.

pitch looks fairly well after being re-seeded

Might be me but the drone footage doesn’t fully do the changes justice. It’s probably due to works still ongoing in places. I’m also sure once those boxes on west and a roof is put across 3/4 and cladding it will look much more impressive on drone footage.

Interestingly the new east corner has been dug up as far as the turnstiles ( I’m sure this will likely be still re-utilised as new terracing in the corner). I wonder if they will also be replacing the old turnstiles there.

I hope they keep them, even if they don't use them. They've been a landmark feature on that route into Wakey for decades (First time I saw them was in 1973 passing through Wakey on the Leeds Utd Supporters bus from Donny), and are representative of the stadiums heritage.

I'd probably been going to Belle Vue for about 5 years before I even saw that frontage. As a youngster, walking from town, we either climbed over the wall down the western perimeter or entered using the turnstiles down that side. We would then walk behind the South Stand and risk slicing our fingers off climbing over the corrugated metal walls of the gents toilets. We were poor back then.

The drone footage does show just how little a percentage of the N Stand Terracing was upgraded, looks to be around 30% of it.
I’ve said before that I’d love the whole terrace done with a matching roof to the E Stand.
I wonder if there’d be any mileage in removing the N Stand roof and repurposing it as a temporary fix along the West Stand