Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Wed Oct 22, 2014 5:23 pm  

Theboyem wrote:

You said that about 4 years ago as well......

Sorry but it is difficult to have any positivity about this anymore. A case of same old same. It's not a go at you or any of you involved but my expectation of seeing anything come out of this is zero.

Can't blame you or anyone for feeling that way, I sometimes feel that way myself but we either just lie down and accept that we are not going to get anything or we carry on with the campaign.

As TRB as eluded to there are things going on that have to remain confidential, at least for the time being and our aim is to get something, be it at Newmarket or Belle Vue that we all can be proud of.

We may end up with nothing, but if that is to be the case, which I doubt, it won't be because we did not fight. If we accept that we are going to get nothing that is what we will get.

Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:01 pm  

Fed up with people saying "there are things going on behind the scenes but they must remain confidential" who or what are you protecting? We know there is no money to build a new stadium and probably not enough to even buy the existing ground. The club have been shafted time and time again be politician's and business people promising things for their own ends we ought to see more leadership and openness from the club. It may get us nowhere but at least we will know the real situation and not be
conned that if we don't ask too many questions and are patient Santa Claus will come down the chimney with a brand new stadium in his sack.

Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:39 pm  

ball-in-hand wrote:

Fed up with people saying "there are things going on behind the scenes but they must remain confidential" who or what are you protecting? We know there is no money to build a new stadium and probably not enough to even buy the existing ground. The club have been shafted time and time again be politician's and business people promising things for their own ends we ought to see more leadership and openness from the club. It may get us nowhere but at least we will know the real situation and not be
conned that if we don't ask too many questions and are patient Santa Claus will come down the chimney with a brand new stadium in his sack.

Enough already! You trust us, or come and do the bloody job yourselves! We give our time, we tell you what we can when we can and we are asking you to support us in our efforts! If you lot are anything to go by then you deserve nothing! Fortunately you have people who believe that we can still achieve something out of all this! Be grateful, because if it wasn't for this small group of dedicated people then you would all end up with what you seemingly desire and expect - nothing!

I am on holiday 1,000 miles away, and I can tell you we have something to play for! Giving up now would be the most stupid thing in history! Please, please, have some faith! And yes, faith means believing without knowing!

Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:49 pm  

Tigerade wrote:

Children in the area ARE actively involved in sport though - they certainly are in Castleford. Facilities are superb at Cas High School were several teams compete every year in the Wembley finals and Airedale High don't to too bad either.
Will the addition of a couple of all-weather pitches off the M62 for football have that much effect on sporting excellence in the WF area? I don't think so.

You miss the point!

The facilities are there due to demand, the demand is there due to aspiring young Rugby League players, the aspiring young Rugby League players are the due to the existence of Castleford Tigers.

What if there were no Castleford Tigers!

15 or 20 years from now who would the young kids of Castleford identify with, who would inspire them to pick up a rugby ball, who would they pretend to be when they were playing in the street against their mates.

Substitute Wakefield for Castleford
That's the scenario Wakefield is facing!

Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:54 pm  

Theboyem wrote:

Yes it is fair to say that sporting facilities in schools and colleges in the area have improved massively in the last few years to a point where many have their own top quality facilities and/or links to professional gyms and health clubs giving students access to a wider amount of kit than ever before. The change to academies has also aided this investment. I would say that it would be the community clubs that would benefit the most from a new development but they don't require a massive stadium to be built, just the basic facilities. I would have thought that would make it cheaper for them to use and a more viable option than the costs a large multi-purpose stadium build would incur.

Don't know which schools in and around Wakefield that you're refering to?

Outwood have a new £4M sports hall but their all weather is not 3G and isn't fit for purpose when coaching Football and Rugby.

Other than that I can't think of any other Wakefield City centric schools that have anything but delapedated Victorian standard facilities, the odd tennis court sized 3G apart.

Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:40 pm  

TRB wrote:

Enough already! You trust us, or come and do the bloody job yourselves! We give our time, we tell you what we can when we can and we are asking you to support us in our efforts! If you lot are anything to go by then you deserve nothing! Fortunately you have people who believe that we can still achieve something out of all this! Be grateful, because if it wasn't for this small group of dedicated people then you would all end up with what you seemingly desire and expect - nothing!

I am on holiday 1,000 miles away, and I can tell you we have something to play for! Giving up now would be the most stupid thing in history! Please, please, have some faith! And yes, faith means believing without knowing!

TRB has said it all above but if people are not prepared to trust us I for one can find something else to do with my time. Alternatively if you think you know what needs to be done then come and take over from us, I'm sure we'd be happy to hand over to you.

Oh, and by the way, if you want you can complete the application to have Belle Vue listed as an Asset of Community Value, it should be reasonably straightforward as I have done most of the spade work for you.

Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:12 am  

The Avenger wrote:

Don't know which schools in and around Wakefield that you're refering to?

Outwood have a new £4M sports hall but their all weather is not 3G and isn't fit for purpose when coaching Football and Rugby.

Other than that I can't think of any other Wakefield City centric schools that have anything but delapedated Victorian standard facilities, the odd tennis court sized 3G apart.

Both Horbury and Ossett have invested in their sports facilities in recent times as part of their refurbs and others have likely done the same to differing degrees. Whilst they don't have all weather pitches most have large grassed areas fine for coaching RL and they will use this everytime, they are not going to be paying out to use some other facility, they just haven't got the money thanks to the government cuts.

The same would apply for local clubs. Many would probably love to use 21st century 3G facilities but will use their own ground and facilities purely down to it being cheaper for them to do so. I don't know the figures but with rising insurance costs, rate and rental costs and the amount of kit needed i would imagine it isn't cheap to run an amateur club these days. Is anyone actually signed up to use them?

My question and worry would be how much would the trust be charging for the use of the facilities at NM? They can't just let them use it for nothing, they have to make enough money to pay its way and that won't be cheap on a large complex like the one initially planned. Do the figures stack up or will it end up becoming a noose around its neck, racking up the debts until it is no longer viable? Would a basic plan of a couple of basic pitches up there with changing facilities etc and a refurb of BV be a better option all round? That would be my choice now.

Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:30 am  

Theboyem wrote:

Both Horbury and Ossett have invested in their sports facilities in recent times as part of their refurbs and others have likely done the same to differing degrees. Whilst they don't have all weather pitches most have large grassed areas fine for coaching RL and they will use this everytime, they are not going to be paying out to use some other facility, they just haven't got the money thanks to the government cuts.

The same would apply for local clubs. Many would probably love to use 21st century 3G facilities but will use their own ground and facilities purely down to it being cheaper for them to do so. I don't know the figures but with rising insurance costs, rate and rental costs and the amount of kit needed i would imagine it isn't cheap to run an amateur club these days. Is anyone actually signed up to use them?

My question and worry would be how much would the trust be charging for the use of the facilities at NM? They can't just let them use it for nothing, they have to make enough money to pay its way and that won't be cheap on a large complex like the one initially planned. Do the figures stack up or will it end up becoming a noose around its neck, racking up the debts until it is no longer viable? Would a basic plan of a couple of basic pitches up there with changing facilities etc and a refurb of BV be a better option all round? That would be my choice now.

The idea is that whilst the Trust will own the facility and the club lease it, the club will effectively run it, for the majority of its operational time. Therefore there should be minimum input required to operate the Trust as the governing body - we are all free!

Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:36 am  

Sandal Cat wrote:

TRB has said it all above but if people are not prepared to trust us I for one can find something else to do with my time. Alternatively if you think you know what needs to be done then come and take over from us, I'm sure we'd be happy to hand over to you.

Oh, and by the way, if you want you can complete the application to have Belle Vue listed as an Asset of Community Value, it should be reasonably straightforward as I have done most of the spade work for you.

Foot-stamping in response to people's cynicism isn't very helpful; especially when the cynicism is aimed at everyone other than the volunteers doing the hard work.

It would certainly help if more information were forthcoming - there are a lot of oblique statements and platitudes in response to genuine questions, but no hard facts; and you're not helped by the fact that the bigger players in this are maintaining a stoney silence - Sir Rodney Walker and the club itself are absent from any discussions for example, which seems strange. The only protagonist to have made their position clear is WMDC, and Cllr Box was unequivocal in his dismissal of the whole project.

You can't blame people for surmising that things don't look good.

Re: The City of Wakefield Community Stadium : Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:51 am  

TRB wrote:

The idea is that whilst the Trust will own the facility and the club lease it, the club will effectively run it, for the majority of its operational time. Therefore there should be minimum input required to operate the Trust as the governing body - we are all free!

It can't though be cheap running a proposed development the size of NM. If Wakey are only paying a peppercorn rent as has previously quoted then where will the rest of the running costs come from given many of the potential users haven't got a spare two bob to rub together as i've mentioned above? I hope our business model is just 'build it and they will come', thats a sure fire way to ensure the financial problems stack up.