NOBODY wants the club to go bust again (apart from a few bitter Cas fans) but moving to another ground is a risk and moving outside the town is a massive risk.
As we have seen this season, Wakefield fans are extremely fickle and when we are not winning, any excuse is enough to keep some fans away.
Already, many folk have said that they may not renew S/T's next season and a move to Hunslet or Barnsley will have a further effect on sales of tickets.

IF this is anything other that a short term plan (until Newmarket gets sorted), I think we are stuffed.
Once the club is outside of town our identity will erode further.

I know that we have been told that the rent at BV was unsustainable but, there has never been a hint of this and surely something so important should be put to the fans before embarking on such a massive gamble ?

So where has the Hunslet rumour come from, Barnsley, Dewsbury, Fev, even Batley all make more sense than Hunslet.

Belle Vue is a dump and I will be glad to get out of it, so I will watch and support them wherever they go.

Am I missing something here?

As far as I can tell their are two very separate issues being discussed here.

First is Newmarket or compensation owed if it doesn’t happen. This is the preserve of the Trust, Yorkcourt, WMDC and WTWC RLFC and is well documented.

Second is the much newer issue on here is of the cost of staying at BV and the possibility of moving elsewhere if required. This is a purely business issue for the club and supporters only and has no effect on NM.

Now I’m not kidding myself, they are connected in a fashion - however they are also clearly separate issues and run separately from each other.

As far as I can tell and people will need to read between the lines on this one the club wants a reduced rent to stop at BV - without it they can’t afford to move the club on commercially until or if NM comes on line. This in turn would do Boxes job for him and kill the club before NM is ever built.

I suspect the hope is that the BOI will back down and offer a deal which would ultimately suit us and allow us to stay short term or develop long term. Either way the bottom line is cost and sad and risky leaving BV will be it is the only alternative.

One further point for TRB or IA.

I know the latest amount Yorkcourt are offering to get rid of us and it’s a fair pot of cash other than the strings attached.

Would it not be possible to take that cash and go in with Dewsbury and upgrade their ground which is well placed and ripe for development - or - is this not possible because it’s in Kirklees and the Sports Trust can only operate in WMDC and ditto YC is only obliged to deal with the Trust - if that makes sense?

Think MC and CB had to get the club turned around first by clearing outstanding debts.
When they took over it looks like there was still 2 years left on the BV lease, so not a lot they could do about that.
I'm sure it was a big thorn sticking in the clubs side and rather than moan about it, they have had time to come up with several contingency plans as IA has pointed out.
The hardest decision are always the most unpopular, like stripping the team down but if it means there will still be a club, isn't that what people want?
I feel like we have bottomed out this season but with BS in charge, if we get through this season, the future looks better than it has for ages.

There's a sizeable housing development going up next to the Dewsbury ground now - that might curtail any plan that involved expanding its current footprint.

Not a bad idea though!

It is easy to criticise, but not easy to come up with alternatives.
Bet MC would willingly take on board some sensible innovative ideas as to how we can progress re. venues/or raising capital to make Belle Vue feasible.
For goodness sake please no more of the 'can't take bottles in ' etc tripe.
If we were in top four any 'stay aways' would be back.
Anyhow I too will be attending wherever we end up

Agreed.

On top of that what obligation would the council have to help us when we don't even play in the district?

THe running costs were made known earlier this year. They have become a bigger issue due to the deterioration of the ground, our teams performance and the subsequent dwindling crowds (due to both these factors).

So we could start a bucket collection for circa. £250k per year?

The fans have already had their say.
It wouldn't be a problem if enough fans paid in to watch at Belle Vue