Am I right in thinking that WTRLFC received a loan from WMDC to pay for the cost of the proposals for outline planning permission? If so, does anyone know how much this was for and the likelyhood of the local taxpayers seeing this money again (admin or not).

Am I right in thinking that Ted owns the Cats Bar and if so where does that fit with selling the ground, as it seems to be an integral part of it.
Also, who actually owns the Hospitality block? If it is owned by the club, can it be sold to realise some cash?

The Community Trust got a loan that was guaranteed by WMDC for the plans. If the development is approved & goes ahead then the Community trust will be able to repay the debt in the agreed term. WMDC Council Tax payers will only end up footing the bill if the plans for the stadium are rejected.



AFAIK the Cats Bar forms part of the "land & buildings" at BV and was therefore an asset of the club, although I'm happy to stand corrected on that front.
The hospitality block is owned by the club and in theory could be sold, however, for the time being they serve a purpose through the week housing the club offices & Learning Zone and on match days are a source of additional income (above normal gate receipts) for the hospitality sales.
Selling them now would actually be detrimental and the costs associated to dismantling, relocating & rebuilding them would mean that there is no real value in them at all. The bank certainly won't see them as any form of collateral.

Let's get something clear...Ted Richardson may have found himself falling on harder times than he (and I'm sure the vast majority of us) would have liked in recent months and I know that as a fan of Wakefield Trinity he would want to do all he could to help the club, but the constant innuendo about carving club assets out for his personal benefit is ridiculous. Do you really think that if he had these assets they would have been hidden as he was having to sort out his IVA?

The club has had very little in the form of tangible assets for years other than the ground & the BoD got the best deal they could for the club at the time it was sold. WT may be a small company by general standards, but the likes of Cala or Yorkcourt would not want to buy a large plot for redevelopment knowing that there was going to be a bar & changing room facility in one corner of the site that they needed to buy separately.

Asset stripping is something that I have seen directors of companies get sent down for.

There is only one reason why the club has fallen on hard times & that is not enough people coming through the turnstiles every other Sunday. ATEOTD RL is in the entertainment industry and when the team is performing badly it's understandable that people vote with their feet. Add to that the impact of bad weather on some occasions & people tightening their belts because of the recession and it's no real surprise that income has fallen below the levels needed to cover the expenses each month.

Not the answer I was hoping for, but thanks all the same!

What answer were you hoping for?

while i agree with most of what you say, and its good for us to have someone on here who understands the procedures if not the exact company position, believe me it is greatly refreshing.
1) the amount of inuendo that is flying around is due to one reason and one reason alone, Teds reluctance to tell anyone anything, therefore someone makes a guess, someone adds something else, someone gets the wrong end of the stick and tells someone else......... ted has created this whole inuendo problem for himself by the way he runs the club, end of.
2) it is too complex a problem to simply blame one factor, gates have been poor, but why? Apathy? Poor Stadium? Poor Product? Players Sold? Fans Disenfranchised? Poor Management etc etc
one undeniable fact is true, anyone staying away for any reason, we need you back if we are going to get out of this hole, if you want a club for the future of your kids and grandkids, get off your s this season, even if its just to bring a big "Ted Out!!!" banner and to make your protest heard. But we need the money.
One way or another this will come to a head, shortly, then we need to push on, together for the good of OUR club.

So when the administrator does step in, can we safely assume that he will continue to keep the club functioning, and that we will be able to at least start the season as a SL club, or in the possible event of there being no interested parties in stepping in to buy the club, will he just pull the plug and shut-up-shop ??
Also, when are we eligible for our next round of SL money, or have we already had it ??

Many clubs have been through Administration and come out the other side, Hull KR for one as the BBC made a documentary about it. The Administratior should keep the business trading until it can be sold.

Indeed we did and we all stayed strong and united throughout the process, which is somethig you must all do.

Our process unfortunately took longer than it seems to take now (Usually a week or two), we seemed to be in Admin for around 3 years or so (From memory) I stand corrected. Then we had to rebuild and it took a further 10 years or so to get promotion to the Super League.

I feel for you and I'm sure many of my Rovers "brothers and sisters" do too.

Keep the faith and It should all come round again soon, even though it may involve a few years outside of the super league.

Good Luck.

Well, thats not exactly true though is it? Its so typical of us to just shug our shoulders and say "its not our fault" - it happens all the time. Its not our fault:

"Thornes Park fell through"
"We have a crap ground and away fans wont come"
"We owe the tax man and he wants his money"
"We can't attract good players"
"The bank called in its debt over the Sainsbury deal with Ted"
"We lost our best 2 players last year"
"Newmarket was called in for Public Enquiry"
"There's a reccesion and cash is tight"

At some point somebody has to stand up and take responsobility for the running of the club. Yes, we don't have the best hand of cards to play and we dont do too badly on the playing front as a rule, but something is fundamentally wrong with the club. We can't even nearly balance the books each month, something is wrong.

On top of the Sky money we receive and also the general income from a minimum of 5,000 x £20 (OK, not exactly this when you take into account season tickets etc) but thats £100k every 2 weeks for 8 months or so of the year - all this money has gone! Add to this the sale of players, other revenue streams & sponsorship etc and we still don't have enough money without "borrowing" from the tax man??

Something doesn't add up here.........

sorry didn't know you have to have a degree in english to be on here. if you would like to learn a bit about coaching i could arrange a session for you on a sunday morning, we could see if we could add you to the list of players ive brought through as a junior. jamie langley, ben westwood, ben cockayne, rich blakeway. i forgot kieron hyde and james davy out of the current squad. it slipped my mind ive just found my grand final winners medal for coaching the accademy. oh i forgot the junior yorkshire and england camps. kiss it the clubs little lap dog.

If Yorkcourt decided to pay the money owed for the balance on Belle Vue before the winding up petition, and they may decide that it is better to greater improve the prospects of a franchise so they can charge us more rent at Newmarket, wouldn't that mean that administration wouldn't happen and the same board would continue?

Also, why would anyone want to buy the hospitality "suites" for many thousand of pounds when they could just pile up three portakabins and achieve the same effect?