Every town has it's run-down areas and the programme highlighted those in Barrow. Unless Halifax doesn't of course.

The reality is that the Lake District is only 25 minutes away, there is very little crime in the area, a fantastic coastline, an ancient Abbey and a proud industrial tradition. Barrow Raiders doesn't just represent Barrow, but the whole of South Lakes and some of Morecambe Bay as well.

I'd prefer to live in the sewers with rats than in Barrow.

Vile place

Fair enough. I looked on the evening mail website around the time fax played at craven park. One of the headlines was 'Corrie star opens new shop', I clicked the link to see Kirk form corrie standing outside a Poundland store!!! IMO that doesn't make Barrow look particularly attractive.

That said everywhere has it's poor areas and you could send a camera crew into any town in the land and make it look like Basra!

Halifax certainly does have run down, depressing areas, and I bet Halifax has more crime than Barrow too.

There are 2 distinct part to the lake district, the wealthy all around windemere etc and the poor areas such as whitehaven, barrow and workington.

You say Barrow raiders represent the south lakes and morecambe bay, how many people do you think travel from these areas to watch you play? Genuine question, although I doubt it's very many.

Barrow is certainly no poorer than large swathes of Yorkshire, Calder included.



I'm not sure if any surveys have been done, but my point really was regarding catchment and how the RFL would see it.

I know we have plenty of fans in Dalton, Ulverston, Askam and Millom. Some also travel fron Kendal and believe it or not a few still travel from Carlisle (we 'merged' with them in the late 90's if you remember).

I've got no figures to back this up but I would suspect Barrow was poorer than Halifax, I suspect house prices in Barrow would be less than Halifax, although the nearer the lakes you get obviously they increase.

The thing is with Halifax we can be in Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and other major cities and towns within the hour, giving the people of Halifax more job oppurtunities, the same can't be said of Barrow.

Although HBOS probably is the major employer in Halifax at the moment this could all change within the next year or 2. If HBOS was to shut in Halifax then the workforce could potentially travel to other nearby towns/cities to work. I don't know who the major employer in Barrow is but if they were to close then people would struggle to find work moreso than in Halifax IMO.

I agree about your catchment area though, whilst Haven and Workington are both also in Cumbria there is still a relatively large distance between Barrow and the 2. We however have Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield and plenty more clubs all close by.

If that's the measure of the way things are going to pan out, we (at Leigh) should be fine - we only seem to be playing at about 5% at the moment!!

BAE Systems is the biggest employer (the shipyard) where most of the country's Submarines are built as well as surface ships and tanks/guns etc. There are around 5,500 employed ranging from Welders to Design Engineers. However, the numbers are increasing yearly although they will probably never get back to the 13,000+ employed in the late 80's/early 90's.

Of course it would be difficult to find jobs for 5,500 people, but most of the 8,000 laid off in the late 80's/early 90's have found employment of some description.

Catchment for Barrow RL is probably at least 100,000. If we get our ground sorted, or even plans to get it sorted, we could be in with a shout of a franchise. You have to remember that there is no way the likes of Wakefield, Salford, Celtics and Cas are going to have a stadium built in time for 2011, so a plan with some financial assurances willprobably be enough.

Oi this is the Widnes board you bunch of tarts.

HA HA!



Oh stop complaining Moaning Minnie!

Are you planning to improve it? As I mentioned earlier has sharing with the footie team ever been mentioned or even hapened? I'm not trying to wind u up if it's a sore subject, we at fax know the footie fans don't think a great deal of us!

I believe plans are going to be announced in the next couple of months regarding the complete re-development of Craven Park. This would involve demolishing every side (except the new-ish grandstand) and rebuilding from the ground up. The 'footprint' will easily accomodate a capacity to meet with SL requirements.

Of course money is an issue, but there's been a lot of work being done in the background and there is funding/grants etc out there. Watch this space.

Groundsharing has been on the cards many times and it really splits opinions. There is a new Marina Village Complext being built and a joint stadium was on the plans. However it only had a 5,000 capacity and the council wanted both the Raiders and Barrow AFC to sell up and put ALL THE PROCEEDS into the new stadium. As far as Barrow RL are concerned, selling the family silver like that is never going to happen.

I think once Craven Park has been redeveloped, Barrow AFC will be invited to groundshare. It's up to them if they want to. Whatever happens, Barrow RL will still own their stadium (the land is worth £5M+).