Re: Ground Improvements : Sun Dec 01, 2024 8:07 pm  

PopTart wrote:

I agree. The fact that this is one of the most liked post in ages shows you are not on your own.
I was in support of new ground if it was the only way forward but I much prefer to stay at Belle Vue.
I've been watching rugby here since the 70s. I want to keep doing it and luckily I am now doing it in a progressively more modern stadium.

Totally agree PT, Newmarket if it had come off I would have been there. But Belle Vue is where my heart is and I've never lost the excitement and expectation of walking down Doncaster Road to watch Wakefield play. I hope to do so for a few more years watching the club grow.

Re: Ground Improvements : Sun Dec 01, 2024 9:49 pm  

Just to clarify a few things.

NM was actually a last ditch thing that Ted cobbled up, and to be fair he had very little option.

The original scheme was to have been Thornes Park. Forgetting the fact that it turned out that the Council didn’t own the land, i personally think that one would have been a total winner. In many ways Thornes is better placed than BV.

I was a fan of Thornes. I was not keen on NM. Ted was, but the SWAG group was split. Not bitterly, just in preference. I don’t know if NM would have worked, nobody does, but for me it was to far out. Had it been in Stanley proper then yeah it would have been ok. But it was effectively in the middle of nowhere.

In the intervening 20 years Salfords experience has proved that to be a bad thing, but at the time it was nowhere near as obvious as it is today. That said, HKR ground was once considered a white elephant, but it’s doing ok now.

Truth is that on field success is a huge part of the success of any stadium.