Re: The Future Of The Club : Fri Jan 06, 2012 12:39 am  

stripes wrote:

Yes we were...even Salford have a new stadium now, what have we got?

A better academy, finished in the play-offs, bigger fanbase. Need I go on.

Re: The Future Of The Club : Fri Jan 06, 2012 7:35 am  

Fully wrote:

A better academy, finished in the play-offs, bigger fanbase. Need I go on.

Yes mate, because (as we have discussed ad nausea) none of that will save us when SL chooses to apply it's big blunt instrument of stadia criteria - specially contrived to ensure inclusion of favoured clubs and maximise the potential for eventually excluding everyone else.

Re: The Future Of The Club : Fri Jan 06, 2012 9:40 am  

smoking monkey wrote:

Yes mate, because (as we have discussed ad nausea) none of that will save us when SL chooses to apply it's big blunt instrument of stadia criteria - specially contrived to ensure inclusion of favoured clubs and maximise the potential for eventually excluding everyone else.

Spot on.

Both our clubs are involved in fevered attempts to get state of the art stadium developments off the ground and there's a lot of optimism and enthusiasm in both camps, but if you sit back and think about it, for the RFL to require any club to deliver a £15 million capital project in the middle of a global recession is totally unreasonable, let alone two clubs that are 10 miles apart and under the same Council; a Council that isn't funding either development to any substantive degree.

I'm sure their preferred option is for one project to fail within the licence period, so they can refer back to their threat to remove a franchise if substantial progress isn't made; at that point, they can offer the 'merge or bugger off' scenario, in the hope of creating a super(ish) club in the WMDC and making room for an expansion team.

It will be an interesting fly in the ointment if both clubs make progress on stadia in 2012!

Re: The Future Of The Club : Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:04 am  

I concur with Bren2K and smoking monkey

Re: The Future Of The Club : Fri Jan 06, 2012 7:07 pm  

Fully wrote:

A better academy, finished in the play-offs, bigger fanbase. Need I go on.

Make or break couple of years for Salford, and I think Man City's success will help them.

I worked in Manchester for a few years, and I remember that in Manchester it was cool to like City, because it had integrity, because they were the pauper to Man United's big money side. Those from Manchester support City, and those from outside support United. I don't think it is like that anymore, but the one thing I always got was a willingness to follow rugby, and in particular rugby league, because it had a certain working class integrity, but there was nowhere they could watch it where they would want to watch it. I know of some professionals in Manchester who talk now of "my Salford City Reds" and have started going to grand finals, and I know of City stalwarts who are sick of not getting tickets for City games.

In a nutshell, Salford could boom, provided they get it right on the pitch. The problem for them is they are going into this at a pretty low ebb.

The RFL will cut them plenty of slack. They won't do it for either of our two clubs.

Re: The Future Of The Club : Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:14 am  

Fully wrote:

A better academy, finished in the play-offs, bigger fanbase. Need I go on.

As other posters have said: Salford have a the trump card of being on the doorstep of the biggest city in northern England. While Manchester has NEVER got behind SCR (most RL fans I know in Manc support Wigan) the RFL will always be willing to persist with SCR in the hope they can "crack" the Manchester market.

Neither of us have his dispensation.

You can try to be as objective as you want Fully, you know as well as the rest of us- it's Wakefield or Castleford- one of us WILL go in 2015!

But if your so sure your stadium will be built in 2014 & ours will be rejected in March you have nothing to worry about! Just as I have nothing to worry about, as from my point of view you have no chance and we'll get the nod!

Re: The Future Of The Club : Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:19 am  

I disagree. The only benefit that Salford now have is that they are on the doorstep of BBC Sport. Stadium or not, if they're still getting averages of 3-5k home gates, squad doesn't improve and performances don't improve, I think they run the real risk of getting kicked out of SL.

If they don't kick on I can really see them falling behind London and Widnes in the process of the next three years and I think Halifax and Featherstone will have a more realistic claim to be included in 2015 than they did when Wakey were at risk last year.

As for stadia, we will get ours. I have no doubt.

Re: The Future Of The Club : Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:51 am  

Then you have nothing to worry about.

However I think you should keep in mind the "domino effect" that can occur when your nearest & dearest takes a step forward.
Cast your mind back to 07, when you were granted planning permission it cast huge doubts over our project, the added dimension of having another stadium (appear) to be built just around the corner makes a scheme with "hurdles" seem almost insurmountable. Fans jump on the "your screwed bandwagon", which leads to the media taking the same stance (as we all know how lazy some journalists are). Sponsors become harder to come by, players become reluctant to sign long deals- the problem is exasperated in many ways.

Before you know it the whole RL community is casting doubt over your viability as a SL club.

All of what you saw (and some reveled in) could very well happen to Castleford SHOULD Newmarket get the nod.

Quick question (& answer honestly) do you see 2 stadiums being built?
Most, myself included, have maintained that only 1 stadium will ever be built, would you say you subscribe to this notion?

Newmarket is far from sorted & has never been plain sailing, but as I see things there are a lot less problems to overcome.

Re: The Future Of The Club : Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:53 pm  

TrinitarianWF2 wrote:

Then you have nothing to worry about.

However I think you should keep in mind the "domino effect" that can occur when your nearest & dearest takes a step forward.
Cast your mind back to 07, when you were granted planning permission it cast huge doubts over our project, the added dimension of having another stadium (appear) to be built just around the corner makes a scheme with "hurdles" seem almost insurmountable. Fans jump on the "your screwed bandwagon", which leads to the media taking the same stance (as we all know how lazy some journalists are). Sponsors become harder to come by, players become reluctant to sign long deals- the problem is exasperated in many ways.

Before you know it the whole RL community is casting doubt over your viability as a SL club.

All of what you saw (and some reveled in) could very well happen to Castleford SHOULD Newmarket get the nod.

Quick question (& answer honestly) do you see 2 stadiums being built?
Most, myself included, have maintained that only 1 stadium will ever be built, would you say you subscribe to this notion?

Newmarket is far from sorted & has never been plain sailing, but as I see things there are a lot less problems to overcome.

Good thats sorted Wakey will survive and Cas will be in NL1 im really glad for you, now troll along

Re: The Future Of The Club : Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:02 pm  

LCC will make sure Newmarket doesn't happen.