Castlefield Wilders.

Closely related to Joan.

and before that? 9 years wasnt it? definitely a comparable record to 4 time SL champions Bradford Bulls.
Maybe i should have been clearer,Remind me when the last time they contested a professional final, never mind won one?

2012: Grehan (left midway through season), Chase (if you can count him), Youngquest, Millington, McGoldrick (left midway through season).

2013: Chase (if you can count him), Millington, Webster, Hauraki and Carney.

Homegrown players: Owen, Shenton, Clark, Huby, Walker, Milner, Holmes, Massey, Thompson, Clare, Johnston (all played SL) plus all promoted youngsters.

So Smokey's statement about "surviving at the bottom of SL with teams full of substandard imports" is totally and utterly incorrect.

We're not merely surviving. We have been competitive and can be competitive - we had one bad season last year. And it's not because it's full of substandard imports at all. Perhaps if we had filled our team of substandard imports (or imports) a la other sides, we may have finished higher in the table?

2002.

1994 - Regal Trophy and Rugby League Premiership final.

But then that statement applies for the majority of rugby league teams outside of Wigan, Leeds, St Helens and Warrington.

Bradford have vastly gone downhill since their successes at the beginning of SL and FWIW, no one is questioning their value in terms of size compared to someone like Cas.

Only Hull, Hudds and Catalans have managed to reach a major final outside of those teams (and Sheffield and London once). That's not for the sake of saying we could have been there. We missed out 2011 and in 1999 with CC and play-offs.

So nothing in the professional era then?

So to count, in the 16 seasons of fully pro RL, Cas have 3 play-off appearances, 0 finals and 2 relegations.

That isnt good enough. More is expected.

An often forgotten ' Fact ' , somebody has to finish bottom every year, also only one team can win the competition

The bottom line is yes it would be nice if all clubs could have shiny stadiums with good views and clean loo's, but they dont and currently SL has 4 west Yorkshire clubs playing out of old stadiums, but they are all just about fit for purpose, even Headingly ( nice grass ) , so theyll just have to carry on as they are

Then expect to be dissapointed then, because it isnt going to change anytime soon, the same group of clubs will make the finals and the same clubs will fill the bottom places

It will change, and does change, for clubs who get their act together. It changed for Warrington, it changed for Huddersfield, and it changed for Hull.

Given that there's only 2 major competitions in which a maximum of 4 different teams can compete, is it really?

And no it's not 3 play-off appearances. It's 4 - 99, 00, 02, 09.

And as I've pointed out - only Leeds, Wigan, Warrington, Hull, Sts, Huddersfield, Catalans, Bradford, London and Sheffield have made major finals over the past 16 years of Super League.

With one of the relegations, it really shouldn't have been a relegation as we didn't finish bottom of the league. But due to the structure of the league and the exemption of one side from relegation, we were the ones who had to make way. Needless to say that same relegation was also the one where a side broke the salary cap.

Yeah I wish we were more like Huddersfield

What? Play in a better stadium, higher up the table and in front of more fans?

A definate NO for me. I would rather see Cas Tigers play in NL1 than move out of Castleford. There are clubs in a worser state than both Cas and Wakey in SL at the moment.

Beg to differ Him, the stadium may be shiny with more seats and yes they have improved on the field recently but, regarding numbers of fans, you need to carefully pick your season.

2011: Cas 7156 Hudds 7091
2012: Cas 6633 Hudds 7709

Bearing in mind the "success" of Hudds, these are not exactly startling differnces.

The atmosphere at Wheldon Road is far better than tha Galpharm (John Smiths Stadium)

1 out of 3 ain't bad.

Yes

Wow
Thats ten sides clubs.

It was a relegation because you finished in a relegation spot, one which you knew about at the start of the year, you didnt make way, you were relegated. Wigan finished 3 positions ahead of you in the league table, you werent relegated because wigan broke the salary cap.

If it were, more people would attend.

Head says of course.

Financially you make an asset work.

But you can understand that fans see that as a first step towards merger.

If anything I actually think it would make that less.likely in the short term as a joint stadium a both should be better off.

But in the face of expansion and/or contraction unless both teams started operating at the top of Sl the question would always rear up unless they started to perform at the top of Sl.

No one asks Saints and Wigan to merge but then Wire and widnes were told to merge and refused and glad they didnt.

Yet there is one succesful merger in the top flight Catalan.

Whichever way it goes it has to be fan led.

Not sure about your point Smokey.
If you read my other post, I mention that Cas will never be able to fill a 15000 capacity ground.
Bearing in mind the size of the town, they do well to average 7-8000 fans most seasons.
Even if they had prolonged success, there wouldnt be a major change due to the proximity of their local rivals, so unless Wakefield and Fev ceased playing RL, Cas will not significantly improve their attendance figures.
Their attendance has more to do with the size of the town and the proximity of its local rivals than the current state of WR.
Ok, there may be a small increase in supporters in a new state of the art ground, but IMO nothing substantial, and yes, I prver a visit to WR over Hudds every day of the week.

Do only people from Cas watch Castleford? This gets trotted out all the time.

The borough of Aston has 28,000 people living in it, yet they have a 42,000 seater stadium and a football team averaging 35,000 a game.

No. Cas Tigers have support from surrounding areas like Selby, Garforth, Normanton, Pontefract, Knottingley and Kippax.

If that is true (and im not saying it is) then they have no need for a new stadium, and wont be an SL side for much longer.

If it isnt the stadium, and it is just intrinsic to Cas that they attendance's will always be limited then they wont survive as a fully pro side and will need to drop down to lower leagues

At the begginning of the SL era - Cas Tigers only averaged about 3 to 4 thousand. We now get 7,000 plus. Facilities at Wheldon Road do let us down but even if we moved to a new stadium and had a bit more success I still think we would only average about 8 or 9 thousand. I would be happy with that figure though and so would a lot of supporters from other clubs.

8 or 9 thousand isnt enough.

Thats not me saying that, thats SL chairmen who will tell you, you cannot operate at a full cap with less than 10k averages.

So if Cas' potential is 8 or 9k with a brand new facility, then they arent a sustainable SL club even now, never mind in the future.

I agree, they probably wouldn't be able to operate on full cap but, there are many others who will struggle and some with attendances much lower than that of Cas.
Cas will suceed by producing larger numbers of their own players (as thy do now) and by "maximising their revenue streams" (i hate this phrase, but it is appropriate).

Looks like we will be having a 7 team SL them.