The one big thing that a lot of posters on here are forgetting is that over the last few years Wakefield citizens have become renowned for their apathy towards most things. We "lost"our eponymous Cricket team; we "lost" Wakefield AFC, we "lost" our RU side. None of which attracted large numbers of spectators. We have also been too close for comfort in losing Trinity on several occasions. We are a city of over 100,000 inhabitants and should be able to sustain one professional sporting club without going cap in hand. You've only to walk around the city and look at the forlorn, fed up expressions on peoples' faces. What ever happened to the sport loving, fun loving, happy go lucky citizens we used to be. Don't blame it on the pandemic. The rot set in long before that manifested itself.
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I know for a fact that Kevin Sinfield and Jamie Peacock have both done a zoom motivational talk to students at a Wakefield school since the re opening, I know we get out into the community unsure to just how much we do like this , but we need to at least match this or I dread to think of pupils turning to the whinos

Can’t argue with that. I’d say that Wakefield folk are very much lions led by donkeys, certainly at the municipal level.

WMDC is simply to big in terms of size but it’s inhabitants are to spread out. Many of its inhabitants don’t feel they belong to WMDC and certainly don’t belong to Wakefield which is really just a town.

People worry about us being swamped by Leeds, well that happened years ago to everyone In West Yorkshire. No our problem is the merrie city being dragged down by other places in the metropolitan area who in some cases are positively hostile.

WMDC is more like the Balkans than anything else.

I tend to look towards our near neigbours down the road in Barnsley for comparisons; a town of similar industrial heritage and population to Wakefield but their attitude to life itself and self pride in their town is the total opposite to what you find here. They have, like us, one professional sporting side within the borough albeit it being of the round ball type. I'm proud to say that i've been a Barnsley FC season ticket holder for many years, and the pre-match experience there is something. else. Pre-match crowds walk through the centre of town singing and shouting in good humour all the way down to Oakwell. Those crowds walking are all talking about that day's match and previous games. When you enter the ground there is a fan zone behind the East Stand with bands playing and pints being downed. The whole place seems to be alive and buzzing. Compare that to what we have at BV. We could do to take on board a similar outlook in Wakefield rather than adopt that "I'm going to a funeral" attitude.

I understand where you are coming from RC, football in all areas will come first I’m afraid I’m sure that when the ground is redeveloped that there is going to be a fanzone on match days which hopefully will bring in the future younger fans.

True but in fairness football is the no 1 sport in the world, super rich and loved by the media. RL struggles to compete against that, even at the highest level. If Wakefield had a top flightish football team I suspect they too would be far more noticed than Trinity, even a successful one.

It’s not a like for like in my eyes.

I see where you're coming from vasty, but the point I'm trying to make is that ok, our game may be seen to be inferior to football from all aspects, but RL is what we have got so we should be embracing it with the same fervour that the round ball supporters do. I don't want tp go down the "Wnen I was a lad" route, but the appetite for the game was there 60 years ago, but then, along came the apathy.

Dont know why some fans are getting in a pickle over this.for me apart from the odd exeception (likehudds) to raise fans/crowds and make the club more appealing is success but to have any real chance of success money is needed but you generally needs the fans to generate the cash so its a vicious circle.can we do more to attract new fan base well who knows but right now this cannot be easy with the uncertainty of covid and our form over the last couple of years.wakefield people can be very thickle at times like already stated get to a semi or even a Wembley final and there will be people crawling out the woodwork to go but this is no good for the long term as they just disappear when it comes say normal league games.i also believe that the club are up against the fact in the wakefied district there are another 4 clubs to fight against for these fans.
I know the cub interact with cumunity clubs ( i feel this is agood way to attract nee fans as new kids playing will also want to go watch)but again due to the close proximity of these other clubs these clubs are also getting involved.for example my 2 lads play at normy which is what 4 mile max from belle vue but the fan base for the normy club are cas wakey and fev but if you went to east leeds there fan base are rhinos.so when any newbies go to that club and then want to start watching rugby there all off to headingley wheres newbies at normy are off to the 3clubs mentioned opposed to just the one.i cant see what the club can do about this.
Personally i think the club do what they can to promote the club yes as with everything in life more could probally done but thats the same forevery club no

To gain good publicity why did the club not give say 10 free season tickets to the NHS front line staff. How much would this actually cost them to do this but no their preferred choice is to allow a supporter to buy and donate a season ticket.

Get back into the schools in the district, get a presence back into where the very future of the club lies .The school I work at used to have players down doing training drills with the kids ,not seen batchelor down here for a few years now ,even though the kids lapped it up .Remember the match days when kids who got free tickets would bring their parents down to a game. Make it a fun day and give those kids/parents a good time and great entertainment on the park and you’ve got a winning recipe .Drag the kids down to a dreary dilapidated belle vue to watch another boring loss and the appetite soon dwindles .For me it’s a double edged sword ,make it fun and entertaining before the game and then have the team firing on all cylinders and you have a winning recipe. Fifita/Johnstone are loved by the kids that go regular ,I see no reason if we can get them playing at his best that we can’t build on that with a bit of marketing and more fan/player interaction.

I’m reading these suggestions with disbelief but sadly no surprise.

I don't wish to rubbish anybody, I know most people mean well but here as in most places, it’s as if Covid never happened. Well, it did, still is and will be for years to come.

So, even putting aside how dire the club's finances must currently be, the even bigger question is how the heck the club is meant to implement any of these ideas. Those that it can I suspect it already has.

How many of the club's staff are on furlough for a start? I’m guessing all but the most essential?

With nearly all Covid restriction still in place, how can most of these ideas even take place?

At the moment you can’t get into the schools that’s for sure. It may not be far off but not yet.

Ditto almost any other hands-on promo you can think of.

As for marketing, marketing what exactly? No match days for a start, no business lunches, I mean do I need to spell it out?

Nobody was complaining about the club's off-field efforts pre-Covid, quite the opposite. The ability and the desire is there its the ability to implement that is currently missing.

Clubs like Leeds with better facilities have more options but not many, all live entertainment businesses are stuffed and that’s what we are!

Open your eyes folks, Trinity are fortunate to be here at all! We could and should have gone under.

It will take a generation to recover from Covid and the worst is yet to come. Boris has created a fantasy future to convince you all to stay calm but he like me never expected people the really believe it. There is a huge debt to pay and the carnage has hardly begun. in my opinion.

Trinity will survive by prudence and genuine solidarity. It won’t achieve anything in my opinion, others may differ, with cheap stunts like giving tickets away to NHS staff, all of whom have remained in work. All for a season that much of which will remain hugely restricted. If your going to give anything away then at least be imaginative, maybe free match tickets (when matches are available) to the victims of Covid, those kids who’ve lost loved ones, those who need cheering up and pampering, rather than what has now in my eyes become a cynical publicity stunt.

Anyway, I digress, for now, let’s just concentrate on paying the bills and leave speculating to a time when it’s prudent to do so. If we just do that then at some point Trinity will be in a far better shape to move forward than most other clubs.

Quote: Scarlet Pimpernell "To gain good publicity why did the club not give say 10 free season tickets to the NHS front line staff. How much would this actually cost them to do this but no their preferred choice is to allow a supporter to buy and donate a season ticket.'" The Club gave away 6 season tickets as a gesture of goodwill to frontline key workers on the back of that one donation, but never let a good opportunity crop up to stick the knife in https://wakefieldtrinity.com/blog/2021/ ... -williams/

Quote: Scarlet Pimpernell "To gain good publicity why did the club not give say 10 free season tickets to the NHS front line staff. How much would this actually cost them to do this but no their preferred choice is to allow a supporter to buy and donate a season ticket.'" The Club gave away 6 season tickets as a gesture of goodwill to frontline key workers on the back of that one donation, but never let a good opportunity crop up to stick the knife in https://wakefieldtrinity.com/blog/2021/ ... -williams/