Hightown Tiger wrote:
I think some people are being a bit too optomistic with talk of new stands, new roofs on every stand, turning the pitch 90 degrees etc. It's all going to cost money which we have little of, and time.
The best way as someone mentioned is to take the Hull KR approach and try and upgrade a stand at a time....
The club are clearly wanting to make the Wheldon Road end the place to be for home fans, so for me this is the priority in the close season. The best way I can think of to sort out access issues, is to fence it off from the corner of the Princess Street stand, and again fence it off at the side of the main stand. The downstairs room under the tigers restaurant suite (I don't know what it's used for these days) should be a new Wheldon Road end members bar, the NRL clubs make a lot of money from members clubs (I know we aren't in the same league as them!!). However, simply sticking up a metal fence and making it out to be some sort of exclusive stand won't wash. They need to make supporters want to pay for Bronze/Silver memberships by improving the facilities. Sticking a new bar there sorts out some of the difficulties of having X number of people coming from the Tiger bar/other areas right before kick off. Of course you could also have turnstiles between the Wheldon Road area and the main stand area so it's not completely blocked off. I imagine converting this room into a half decent bar wouldn't be the most expensive thing in the world. Surely there are supporters among us who can decorate, do a bit of plumbing etc who would be willing to provide some free labour if the club provided the fixtures and fittings. The club might also want to look at demolishing that bit of terracing at the side of the main stand in order to have a bigger 'open concourse' area, and also in anticipation of doing some work on the main stand/extending it. There's not much the club can do about the pillars unless they have an expensive stand alone roof which doesn't need supports, maybe they could replace the roof and cladding similar to the way Wakefield have done.
The main stand is also a priority, what people are forgetting is if you completely rebuild this stand, work will overlap into the season. Even if they started work as soon as the season has ended, you could be talking the following summer before it's ready (maybe even longer) which means the club would have to play at a different ground=lost revenue. Again, it would have to be done in stages...I think it makes sense to move the corporate boxes here long term. In the short term (1-2 years) if the club are serious about staying at WR and manage to secure some funding, they could build new offices/changing rooms behind the existing structure. It's clear the roof needs to be replaced in the short term future.
Which leaves the Princess Street and Railway End, it would be lovely to have these nice and refurbished with super dooper new roofs but the club have to be realistic, any available funding needs to be spent on corporate facilities and improving the stands which are used the most by supporters (main stand, WR end).
In times gone by (hovis time) communities used to rally round and help build these kind of facilities, not just in financial terms but labour too. If the club are serious, open and honest then I'm sure within a database of perhaps 5000 Castleford fans there are plumbers, architects, electricians, engineers, decorators....people who own businesses who can provide scaffolding, maybe there are supporters who own small firms within the construction industry who may have contacts, or someone who owns a small carpet business and will give a reduction on new carpet. These people must be out there.
The club just have to tell it straight, don't give us another long term dream and then in 3 years time after nothing has been done say the club need to look at building a new ground at Glasshoughton/Whitwood etc. Or maybe
Like the sound of a members bar for the wre, used to always stand there but moved to the railway end for a number of reasons, one of them being the supporters bar, think a railway end bar would encourage more people to use the stand and more beer would be sold leading to greater revenue for the club.
