: Thu May 21, 2009 12:20 pm  

Prince Buster wrote:

Castleford have been given the opportunity to join in at Stanley with the Wakefield stadium project and they have refused.

Well, I would recommend that Mr Lewis and his globe trotting expansion team pop down again and do a godfather on them........make em an offer they can't refuse.
Surely, if the RFL made it clear a merger wasn't on the cards for at least 20 years, the benefit to the community out weighs the moaning of a few "die hard" fans.
Move forward and you have a chance of survival. Stand still and you're dead clubs walking.
St Helens, Salford and Celtic will dodge the new stadium bullet, but one of, or both of you wont.

: Thu May 21, 2009 12:26 pm  

[quote="gutterfax"]Well, I would recommend that Mr Lewis and his globe trotting expansion team pop down again and do a godfather on them........make em an offer they can't refuse.
Surely, if the RFL made it clear a merger wasn't on the cards for at least 20 years, the benefit to the community out weighs the moaning of a few "die hard" fans.
Move forward and you have a chance of survival. Stand still and you're dead clubs walking.
St Helens, Salford and Celtic will dodge the new stadium bullet, but one of, or both of you wont.[/quote]

Why??

And how would the the RFL/Superleague justify that without being hit with a rit???

: Thu May 21, 2009 12:40 pm  

I couldn't give a rats ar$e if we share a stadium, as long as it gets built and Wakefield Trinity play in it for years to come.

: Thu May 21, 2009 12:46 pm  

Like so many others I don't want to see the two clubs merge under almost any circumstance.

I wonder if the financial incentive, that HullFC and Huddersfield benefited from, were still there would Castleford be more willing to merge with Wakefield? I think the incentive was £1 million or £1.25 million and a cherry pick from two squads of players.

I wonder if the thought has ever occured to the SLE member clubs and the RFL, who want room for expansion, to make a renewed offer to clubs to merge.

I doubt that either Governing body want to lose the support, community links, sponsorship and most importantly the youth development that exists alongside all current SL Clubs. Rather than risk losing all by excluding a club in the next round of franchising it's conceivable that they might reintroduce a financial carrot.

SKY TV would probably contribute towards a merger fund either directly or by way of increased TV money. It would suit their mandate for spreading the game and selling more dishes etc.

What if the figure on offer were £5million to a merged club?
Could any board of Directors afford to ignore that sort of money?

Would The Directors of Wakefield and Castleford suddenly find some common ground (forgive the pun).

They may see a merged club in ONE stadium with £5million in the bank as a solution to the immediate threat of one or both being kicked out in three years or the longer term threat that only two West Yorkshire clubs will survive the further expansion into Europe, Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

: Thu May 21, 2009 12:49 pm  

Dead Man Walking wrote:

Wakefield and Castleford will never merge.

lets hope so .....but i think in time it could happen

: Thu May 21, 2009 12:52 pm  

TFC wrote:

I couldn't give a rats ar$e if we share a stadium, as long as it gets built and Wakefield Trinity play in it for years to come.

I would say thats the right approach for any forward thinking person to make.

However try and tell that to our Cas cousins. Perhaps if they looked beyond the bullsyh te their CEO spouts out and approached the matter in
a positive way, they may also realise it could benefit them.

: Thu May 21, 2009 12:54 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

Says who?
Castleford and Wakefield sharing a stadium is no pointer to a merger. Tell you what, why don't you both keep your heads buried in the ground and wait for Barcelona, Paris or Johanesburg to replace you
A 12,000 seater stadium full for 26 rounds of SL, offering service opportunities to the Local community is better that watching both of them die....which believe me, will happen. I like Hell View and the Jungle, but let's face it, they are both fit for Bulldozing at best.

You miss the point.

Comparing Wakefield and Cas to Milan as Milan dont have a franchising sytem deciding which league they play in.

Lets say they did go for a joint stadium -- Barcelona,Paris and Johanesburg are still going to be waiting to replace teams (by your logic),so how would Super League create the space - encourage the two teams playing in a joint stadium to merge.
A joint stadium will over services to one community only - either Cas or Wakey.
Just what do schools and hospitals have to do with it?The clubs arent getting any money from central or local government.


But i grant you one thing -- the only way the clubs will ever consider a share - is if there are cast iron guarantees that merging will not be pushed and the criteria for a franchise will not change to adversly affect either clubs future applications.But would you trust the RFL??

: Thu May 21, 2009 1:19 pm  

The Clan wrote:

Like so many others I don't want to see the two clubs merge under almost any circumstance.

I wonder if the financial incentive, that HullFC and Huddersfield benefited from, were still there would Castleford be more willing to merge with Wakefield? I think the incentive was £1 million or £1.25 million and a cherry pick from two squads of players.

I wonder if the thought has ever occured to the SLE member clubs and the RFL, who want room for expansion, to make a renewed offer to clubs to merge.

I doubt that either Governing body want to lose the support, community links, sponsorship and most importantly the youth development that exists alongside all current SL Clubs. Rather than risk losing all by excluding a club in the next round of franchising it's conceivable that they might reintroduce a financial carrot.

SKY TV would probably contribute towards a merger fund either directly or by way of increased TV money. It would suit their mandate for spreading the game and selling more dishes etc.

What if the figure on offer were £5million to a merged club?
Could any board of Directors afford to ignore that sort of money?

Would The Directors of Wakefield and Castleford suddenly find some common ground (forgive the pun).

They may see a merged club in ONE stadium with £5million in the bank as a solution to the immediate threat of one or both being kicked out in three years or the longer term threat that only two West Yorkshire clubs will survive the further expansion into Europe, Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

TBH Clan
Im not convinced it will happen in the next 25 years.

I dont believe we will see a self sufficient team in Scotland/Ireland or Europe(except France) in the forseeable future.

These counties need 50 years to develop the grass roots and have there own competitive and meaningful league.When they have developed the game at grass roots,then we may see a team.

The structure is only as good as the foundations its built on -- which is why i thought Celtic coming in to Super League was farcial.
If we continue as a sport to bring clubs into our premier league that have no foundations and alienate the clubs that do, how long before the grassroots and amateur scene dries up in areas like Castleford/Widnes/Halifax.

In my eyes most people that follow/support the game have grown up with it around them,either playing or watching their local team.We dont develop support at clubs like Quins and Celtic because the roots were not put there first.

: Thu May 21, 2009 1:35 pm  

Prince Buster wrote:

I would say thats the right approach for any forward thinking person to make.

However try and tell that to our Cas cousins. Perhaps if they looked beyond the bullsyh te their CEO spouts out and approached the matter in
a positive way, they may also realise it could benefit them.

i'm sorry but your post reeks of desperation - deep down i believe wakeforld RL needs cas to go on a joint venture in terms of a stadium much more then cas need wakey.

i firmly believe and have done for a long time our stadium (although taking a lot longer than envisaged) is going ahead and is only a matter of time before we see things progress quicker and for the species a brick being layed so to speak.

i think it's humourous that wakey fans such as your self spout about only one stadium and cas should join ours etc etc you have nothing yet (you say same about us) and its desperation to get us on board!!!

: Thu May 21, 2009 1:37 pm  

TURFEDOUT wrote:

Just what do schools and hospitals have to do with it?The clubs arent getting any money from central or local government.

Sorry, I was generalising. The point I was trying to make (badly) was that a stadium that gets used 26 times a season (more for play-offs) and offers something to the community, whilst clearing the development debt, has got to be better than 2 stadiums, used 13 times doing the same other stuff in an area that compares to some London Boroughs. It just seems insane.
The same goes for Leigh and the Goons....why build the new stadium that will lose money in the long run, when there is a state of the art one nearby?

I would never say that merger is the way forward....just common sense dictates that you will both be in the same situ in 2 years and one of you in danger of going down.