Happy new year

hope a great year for both fax and town and the stadium.

Like Town never had their rent paid by HRLFC then?????

stop the squabbles children.
well done town for breaking attendance record today for their league with 4023.
they are pulling in the fans so fax can too.

I went to the Town match today & had a cracking day out, first time I've watched them for years. Great atmosphere at the match.
Shame about the Town fans that caused the rumpus in the Pump room before the game and the local lad who took a glass to his forehead, it was a bit like the good old days for half an hour or so watching what you said and who you looked at with a pretty large police presence.
I'm chuffed to bits that so many casual followers such as myself turned out in such numbers, the lads played some really nice footy and by the time the rugby starts and the playing surface isn't quite as good as it is at the moment they'll have the title sown up and be able to have a trophy cabinet of their own too.
My sides nearly split on leaving the East stand to walk into town after the match, two lines of about a dozen coppers in each line preventing the home fans from meeting up with the visiting fans at the bottom of Hunger hill and a police van blocking the road outside the Shay hotel and an elderly man asked a bobby if they were expecting the Taliban, quality end to a quality afternoon's entertainment !!!

Eh, never said otherwise. I will always admit (whilst be embarassed) to Town's faults over the years unlike you and your mates.

Sadly the thread has moved on to the Pub Football Team who frankly I have no time for. Getting back on track the RFL have to make this decision far more transparent than last time. Halifax, Barrow, Widnes have all as much right to be in SL as Wakey, Cas, Salford, Quins, Crusaders etc. Wakey are favs for the drop but there must be reasons publically stated why anybody does not get the SL Ticket. Some are ground issues and others have question marks over other areas. But for example if Wakey,Cas or Salford are picked over Fax for example I would want to know why and what Fax have to do next time. I am sure if Cas, Wakey and Salford are dropped the fans also would want to know why over Widnes or even Fax, Barrow (Or Toulouse!). The RFL also has to do something with the Championship and the clubs. We fans are not happy and yet the RFL just seem content to do little.

Pub football team who attracted the largest crowd seen at the Shay in years? A factual crowd as well, not one fabricated by the club.

Pub football in Halifax is alive and kicking.

Pub football in Halifax is alive and kicking.'"

Sorry for the late reply, been on nights then away for new year.

How far do you have to go back for fax's crowds to match those of cas though? when were both in sl cas had bigger crowds as i recall, the highest i can remember fax having was about 5k, cas have averaged about 7 k whilst in sl. Any further back than the start of sl is rather meaningles, if you go back far enough oldham, rochdale, swinton and bramley all had good crowds.Even if fax double crowds upon promotion your still going to struggle for money, even with sky money you need crowds of 10k to brake even and spend full cap, so crowds of 5k would mean you would have to have one of the cheapest squads in the league (cheaper than everyone bar quins really), and if your getting hammered every week in your first season or two your crowds will be affacted.


Unfortunatly having rl players coming from your area does not alway translate into those players playing for there local club, if we are talking about a similar geographical area, the following players come from within 5 miles of the cas ground- shenton, owen, burrow, orr, ellis, thompson, huby, ferres, langley, lynch, boyle, massey, watts, bibb, wood, southernwood, arundel, cockayne, westwood, kirmond, t.briscoe, westerman, milner, holmes and davies, all of whom played sl or nrl last year 4 of whom played for england, with a further 2 playing for the england academy.

Whilst sl money would give you more of a chance to compete for juniors, that money also needs to build a competative sqaud, cas spend well under full cap, and we have bigger crowds to support spending more than you could, cas spend alot more money on youth development than many of the teams in sl as we need to to fight off leeds, bradford, wakey and hudds. We could choose to spend more on our first team instead, but we have decided to invest in youth as clubs that do become more succesful in the long run and it satisfies one of the most important franchise criteria, it will be even more important now the number of imports is coming down and the price of those imports going up.

How fast do you think you could develop juniors? hull kr have hardly any after 4 seasons and there from an rl hot bed aswell, at cas we started spending alot more on youth development in 2004 and it wasnt until 2007 that we started benefitting from it. It would be unlikley that you could bring anyone through from scholarship level in one franchise period and even if you can do very well and bring a few through, you need 10 homegrown players in your squad now, where could fax get these from in time?

You games day corporate sales should be bigger than those of cas as we have little in the way of such facilities until we move into our new ground. In sponsorship however cas have made massive strides forwards in recent years, with a year on year increase this franchise period, and are play off contenders which makes us attractive to sponsors, if promoted would be whipping boys for at least one season more likely two, which makes sponsorship more difficult. Cas also get to keep all money made from the ground, which although i dont know the exact details i cant imagine you do, and we dont have to pay rent which will lessen the amount of money you can spend.

You did have a good year in 98, but you wouldnt be able to spend proportionatly the same compared to other teams as you did that year, you spent most of your time in sl nearer the bottom of the table. Cas have on average finished higher and have been 80 mins away from old trafford and wembley in the sl era.

If you could get a sugar daddy to set up good youth development, cover the 100's of thousands of pounds loses you would have to run up to build a competative squad on crowds of anything less than 6k attendances then you would be a good bet for sl. At the moment you dont however and i could see you going bust trying to compete in sl, look at how wakefield have done finacially in the last few years. They built a competative squad on a similar level of support to what fax could hope for, and have nearly gone into administration twice in a year despite using half the money from selling there ground to pay off debts and having about 400k in transfer fees for brough and atkins.

I'm not saying the franchise system is right or that the cards you have been dealt are fair, but under franchise system the rfl are going to pick a team that is financially stable, with crowds around 7k, has a play-off contending team and good youth development. Rather than a team that would get crowds of about 5k, be less finacially sound, would be in the bottom two for a season or two (at least) and would have to basically set up a youth development program from scratch.

Cas own alot more land than the stadium site itself, that whole area (including the old hicksons site) is having hundredds of houses built on it as well as new amenities, unfortuantly this development has also been held by the blast zone, as have many others. Now its cleared you can expect cas to change alot in the next few years.

Without a sugar daddy you cant, but the rfl wont promote a team that will struggle just to be fair.

Glasshoughton is part of cas mate, same as cutsyke, airdale, redhill, lock lane, townville, smawthorne,the potteries, whitwood and hightown. The new stadium will be as close or closer for more people in cas.

Er what like Crusaders???
oh they are exempt from every rule going I forgot!
Take a look at last years SL table and you will see a lot of teams that the RFL love to death because of where they are yet they were near or at the BOTTOM!
You have not exactly set the world alight since you went up have you?
What you saying that you should prejudge a club and how well they will compete before you let them in?
Take a look at Blackpool FC in football to stick two fingers up to that one oh and Bolton, Blackburn, West Brom and even Wigan Athletic!

Its an old mine near Cas.
Yer but it aint in the town centre like Wheldon Road is it?
Not saying its out in the sticks but its not like where you are now its a drive for a lot of people.

We all know that expansion clubs have differant rules applied to them, is it right? no but thats the way it is.

since we've got back up we have finished in the play offs once, and just missed out in another season, more than many sides have managed and a promoted side will alway find it harder, very few teams have managed to reach the play off the year after promotion. And whats more we have done it by building a core of home grown players.

You have to think about how well a club is going to do before you let them up, thats what franchising is, if not you could end up promoting a club just to see them struggle and go bust, which isnt fair on the club or the sport.

Football and rl are differant sports, and blackpool may end the season at the bottom as the football season is only half way through.

Wheldon road isnt in the town centre its near it. And most of the people in castleford dont live near the town centre, which is itself quite small. Look at a map of castleford, the new ground will be as near or nearer for most of our supporters, for myself it will be a 20 minute walk instead of a 30 minute one. Out of town supporters who have to drive will find it alot easier to get to and to park at as well.

I thought they couldn't build homes on the old hickson site due to the chemicals from the old plant? I could be wrong but I am more than certain I have read that unless it has been overturned..?

They can build on it, they just have to make sure some areas are cleared of any chemical residue as i understand it.

Like Kirklees did with the Galpharm site which I think was previously an ICI site

Yer yer but if you were on our side of the fence still how would it make you feel? My guess is a little bit angry like us and the other clubs outside SL who have some ambition like Barrow, Widnes, Featherstone and Leigh namely.
Waiting for one man and his sidekick to be 'judge and jury' on whether you are 'good enough in their eyes' to enter the promised land???
You find this acceptable?
How were they to know how well you or Hull KR would go they could have used your argument and said oh they might struggle so lets not let them in.
As for football it is a sport just like RL which is still classed as one but only just though imo!
You are like most SL fans once you are in you swallow anything the boffins from above tell you 'cos its a closed shop to keep the rabble out eh???
Good luck as I said I like Cas a true RL town but please don't tell us about how the RFL are running things for the good of the game, that is an insult, it is run for the good of the Fat Controller so that he does not lose face, or should that be big fat face?

No it still is a chemicals works is it Syngenta now, it was a spare land as far as I know. Not the same as that is on the other side of the RL ground in Castleford anyway.

It would make me feel p*ssed off, as it did when the rfl let wigan cheat in 06 or us getting relagated depsite not finishing bottom. I never said i found it acceptable, a fair open franchise system i could accept (though not like) but we havent got that at the moment, i wish we did but i can do nothing more about it than you can.

Us and hull kr are a differant kettle of fish, kr had rich backers. We had crowds of 5 k in the lower leagues, a history of financial stability and a very good academy set up, all things that are essential if you dont have a rich backer. And to be honest i'm of the opinion that kr should be one of the clubs most under threat as they have poor youth structure, an over reliance on overseas players and massive debts.

You seem to be mistaking me with someone defending the franchise system, when if you read what i put i'm not, i'm telling you how it is, not how it should be.

That's what they said to the chemics and Viking man and look how they turned out (Mutant).

Fair enough mate, thats the trouble with franchises its a bit like blowing in the wind and as we know the wind changes.
I think a much better system is to have like football and the Conference League (now Blue Square Premier) where they have a set standard and give their verdict at the start of a season so clubs and their fans know if they can or cannot get into the football league based on mostly ground and their capacity/minimum facilities. If you start looking at other things where do you stop?
Have a good season not sure who will do what next year its all very quiet in the world of RL, sign of the times really.