Re: Mergers : Thu Aug 30, 2018 5:47 am  

wrencat1873 wrote:

The cold hard facts are that as you've said so many times, attendances are no longer important.
Modern sport is all about filling tv screens.

Indeed..... And Wakefield are about as much of an attractive drawcard as a re-run of crossroads.
A Calder club, ayimg in a new shiny stadium and fed by multiple Clubs inclining Cas, Fev and wakey would be a great superleage club, whilst those feeder clubs would continue to play in a secondary comp that runs after the SL season..... 22 games a season for the SL sides and say 11 for the feeder clubs..... With all the income filtering down to the feeder clubs.... The grass roots of the game would continue with kids progress g to. Academy level..... Then maybe to the 2nd tier...... Then maybe to The SL level...... SL Licences would enable the cash to be spent on development and not survival...........lets face it, wakey are never going to win SL on their current fiscal model, so why should we keep giving them 1.8 million?..... If you're not able to compete you shouldn't be in the game...

Re: Mergers : Thu Aug 30, 2018 7:30 am  

Call Me God wrote:

Indeed..... And Wakefield are about as much of an attractive drawcard as a re-run of crossroads.
A Calder club, ayimg in a new shiny stadium and fed by multiple Clubs inclining Cas, Fev and wakey would be a great superleage club, whilst those feeder clubs would continue to play in a secondary comp that runs after the SL season..... 22 games a season for the SL sides and say 11 for the feeder clubs..... With all the income filtering down to the feeder clubs.... The grass roots of the game would continue with kids progress g to. Academy level..... Then maybe to the 2nd tier...... Then maybe to The SL level...... SL Licences would enable the cash to be spent on development and not survival...........lets face it, wakey are never going to win SL on their current fiscal model, so why should we keep giving them 1.8 million?..... If you're not able to compete you shouldn't be in the game...

Again, more utter rubbish.

If you venture up to this part of the world, you will find that there is no appetite whatsoever for the "Calder" merger that you keep banging on about and the secondary competition that you suggest is a total non starter as it would have about as much interest from fans as going to an "A" team game.
Also, if we shrink the semi professional model and the number of SL sides, the chances of progress for youngsters necessarily reduces and more critically, there would be no more interest from media and sponsors in a reduced top flight.
We already have too many repeat fixtures. Trinity themselves will Huddersfield 5 times this season and although you will probably point to the 3 losses (probably 4 after Friday night), I'd rather watch them play Toulouse or Batley for 2 of them.

There was an argument for reducing SL to 10 clubs to "improve quality" but, the fixtures, especially when factoring in cup games and play offs would, even for the most passionate fans, just become boring repeats

[PopTart]

Re: Mergers : Thu Aug 30, 2018 10:54 am  

Call Me God wrote:

Indeed..... And Wakefield are about as much of an attractive drawcard as a re-run of crossroads.
A Calder club, ayimg in a new shiny stadium and fed by multiple Clubs inclining Cas, Fev and wakey would be a great superleage club, whilst those feeder clubs would continue to play in a secondary comp that runs after the SL season..... 22 games a season for the SL sides and say 11 for the feeder clubs..... With all the income filtering down to the feeder clubs.... The grass roots of the game would continue with kids progress g to. Academy level..... Then maybe to the 2nd tier...... Then maybe to The SL level...... SL Licences would enable the cash to be spent on development and not survival...........lets face it, wakey are never going to win SL on their current fiscal model, so why should we keep giving them 1.8 million?..... If you're not able to compete you shouldn't be in the game...

So...
1) Why do you think Cas, Fev and Wakefield fans will all turn up to watch a combined team? There is no evidence that this mythical team will be any more supported than any of the current ones.
2) If you only want teams in Super League who can win the Grand Final, the evidence would suggest you have a league of two...............of the four teams that have won, Bradford are in League one so it's going to be quite hard for them and Leeds are struggling in the Middle 8. You could include Hull, Warrington and Cas as they have made the final before but each were beaten pretty well so I'm not sure that fits your point.

Right now Wakefield don't look like winning the Grand Final but I think most people would agree we are competitive.

Re: Mergers : Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:55 am  

A Calder merger is a non starter.
Firstly there is no area or region called Calder, nobody identifies with an area called calder. (there is Calderdale, Halifax) the Calder runs through Wakefield but it runs into the Aire just before Castleford. People in Castleford Knottingley etr refer to the river Aire, Featherstone as no river whatsoever and is no where near either river. any merged team would have to use the district name i.e. Wakefield, and that will not go down well. It's not like hull and hull kr merging into one "Hull" Club, or one Manchester club.

Secondly people will simply not support it on any level.

A shared stadium is viable and us an ideal solution for Wakefield and castleford, but a stadium in either town is a no go'er as Wakefield fans would boycott playing in Castleford and vice versa, Featherstone stadium is pretty small but superior to both BV and Weldon road, so they do not need to be involved unless by pure choice, POR is partially redeveloped a new main stand if around 4K will take the capacity over 10k and all 3 could use that as its central. Or Castleford Wakefield should look at a new site smack in the middle at say Normanton, altofts. Normanton as a Fev wakefield Castleford split fan base so like cal support guaranteed for all clubs, and is closer for some fans fans than the current grounds.

Re: Mergers : Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:22 pm  

Joff wrote:

There are three clubs about 50 feet away from each other all competing for the same: bods on seats, sponsors and TV money.

Surely it makes perfect sense that these 3 clubs COMBINE and create a truly proper super club called CALDER UNITED RLFC and play at the new Castleford Stadium??

The 3 clubs right now are about as useful as one of these....

And which new Castleford Stadium would that be then??? It doesn't exist at present, any more than Wakefield's new one does, and until I see bricks being laid for either of them I won't believe either will happen anytime soon.

Re: Mergers : Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:39 pm  

Call Me God wrote:

Indeed..... And Wakefield are about as much of an attractive drawcard as a re-run of crossroads.
A Calder club, ayimg in a new shiny stadium and fed by multiple Clubs inclining Cas, Fev and wakey would be a great superleage club, whilst those feeder clubs would continue to play in a secondary comp that runs after the SL season..... 22 games a season for the SL sides and say 11 for the feeder clubs..... With all the income filtering down to the feeder clubs.... The grass roots of the game would continue with kids progress g to. Academy level..... Then maybe to the 2nd tier...... Then maybe to The SL level...... SL Licences would enable the cash to be spent on development and not survival...........lets face it, wakey are never going to win SL on their current fiscal model, so why should we keep giving them 1.8 million?..... If you're not able to compete you shouldn't be in the game...

This is the same old drivel that’s brought up every couple of years there’s a daft merger thread that appears. “On our own we can never hope to win anything or be a top 4 club”. I’m so glad Darryl Powell and all
Concerned with the club has proven that to be to total BS. As much as the thought horrified me, if we can Reach a GF and win the league by a record amount of points, be a regular in the top 4 and reach a CC final all in 4 years then so can Wakey.

Re: Mergers : Thu Aug 30, 2018 1:13 pm  

Call Me God wrote:

Indeed..... And Wakefield are about as much of an attractive drawcard as a re-run of crossroads.
A Calder club, ayimg in a new shiny stadium and fed by multiple Clubs inclining Cas, Fev and wakey would be a great superleage club, whilst those feeder clubs would continue to play in a secondary comp that runs after the SL season..... 22 games a season for the SL sides and say 11 for the feeder clubs..... With all the income filtering down to the feeder clubs.... The grass roots of the game would continue with kids progress g to. Academy level..... Then maybe to the 2nd tier...... Then maybe to The SL level...... SL Licences would enable the cash to be spent on development and not survival...........lets face it, wakey are never going to win SL on their current fiscal model, so why should we keep giving them 1.8 million?..... If you're not able to compete you shouldn't be in the game...

I think I can manage to agree with all that. Makes perfect sense. Now to sell it to Yorkshire....

Re: Mergers : Thu Aug 30, 2018 5:00 pm  

Can we put this merger rubbish to bed nobody wants them they won’t work say for instance you merged Hull 10-11,000 average with Hull KR 7-8,000 average they wouldn’t become a super club all of a sudden I wouldn’t watch a merged team simply because it’s not my team what would happen is one if not both would start up again as separate entities so in the end you’d have three average supported clubs going nowhere instead of two decent ones

[Wanderer]

Re: Mergers : Thu Aug 30, 2018 5:11 pm  

fun time frankie wrote:

Can we put this merger rubbish to bed nobody wants them they won’t work say for instance you merged Hull 10-11,000 average with Hull KR 7-8,000 average they wouldn’t become a super club all of a sudden I wouldn’t watch a merged team simply because it’s not my team what would happen is one if not both would start up again as separate entities so in the end you’d have three average supported clubs going nowhere instead of two decent ones

Gateshead Thunder and Sheffield Eagles proving your point.

Re: Mergers : Sat Sep 01, 2018 1:16 pm  

The game needs a massive shake up if it’s not going to die. A competition that embraces the sport’s past and the brave new world.

Superleague needs the teams below - properly funded and supported by feeder teams in the lower divisions or it will wither and die. Time that selfish people stopped thinking about themselves.

Toronto
Toulouse
Catalans
New York
London
Coventry
Newcastle
Bradford
Leeds
St Helens
Wigan


Plus merged teams:

Merseyside (incorporating Warrington and Widnes)

West Yorkshire (incorporating Castleford, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley, Keighley, Hunslet and Featherstone).

Greater Manchester (incorporating Salford, Swinton, Leigh, Rochdale, Oldham and Halifax)

Humberside (incorporating Hull and Hull KR)

This will appeal to fans outside of the current base plus sponsors and tv.

This brave vision will save the sport from oblivion.

Heed my words.