No it was designed with making money in mind , both for the people who designed/built it and for the people who run it

If it had been designed for sports fans it would have been in Birmingham at the NEC

Playing in an exhibition hall?

I think Elland Road is owned by Leeds City Council (though I stand to be corrected on this). whether it was acquired before/after United's financial problems I'm not sure.

Either way, in the current financial climate there is no way RL can acquire a large stadium for its own use. It could saddle the Sport with a debt that potentially could bring the entire game to its knees.

Hell of a big ' beer tent '

Great idea

Typical W1g4n Liverpool fan

Living in the past

Don't see the point in us getting a stadium as there are not enough games we could play there that would fill it. There is no point in moving games to smaller venues to accommodate.

Would a possible solution not be to maybe buy some shares in a stadium or set up deals that can get us a few games there a year? Rather than have a ground that won't be used at all. Play a few internationals there every year, possibly Championship finals, semi-finals and WCC there. 5 very different events at the "Home of the RFL". Would have to be a good stadium though, not something like Elland Road which is a dump.

Hopefully if Leeds United every get slightly good again and do eventually get this new ground they were on about years ago, the RFL could do a deal with them.

From Wiki-

[i...Ridsdale, the figurehad of the PLC, resigned in March 2003, leaving his 'dream' in financial tatters and the PLC was soon to follow in March 2004.

Later that year, Elland Road was sold on a 25-year lease deal with a buy-back clause to raise the required funds to pay the latest instalment of a loan to Aston Villa shareholder and former Watford chairman Jack Petchey. It emerged on December 27, 2006 that the stadium had been sold to the British Virgin Islands-based Teak Trading Corporation Ltd. some 15 months before...[/i

So Leeds United dont own it and at one point did sell it.

a) location - North East Lancashire/North West Yorkshire/Huddersfield (the birthplace)
b) capacity - 60,000
c) type of stadium - All seated (mainly so it could incorporate other events i.e. bands etc), Sliding roof, Close up to pitch, Bowl style(keeps atmosphere in)
d) other marketable events/uses - Gigs etc
e) funding - Lottery?

or if the RFL have their way......

a) location - Southern Wales/South of France
b) Capacity - 500, 000
c) Type of Stadium - All open terracing, 2 miles away from the pitch
d) other marketable events/uses - Expansionist rallies/forums
e) funding - northern rock (or....we'll think about that later)

Blackpool.

i was talking to 'the old guys' in my local a while ago and i remember them saying that they where going to build a national RL stadium in blackpool...but they picked wembley instead

I think a national RL stadium would be a massive boost to our sport and a cash cow as is Twickers for Union.

I've posted this before , but Twickers generates £25M per year from corporate hospitality alone for the Rugby Union. That does not include ticket sales or sponsorship or TV money, corporate hospitality alone!

The RFL's total income is around £12M per year.

Aside from the events that could move there straight away the administration of the RFL would move there saving on existing costs too.

So we have a total income of 12m per year, and we are going to pay for a national stadium for RL how.

Lets keep on using Wembley and use the money to grow the game shall we. Once we start selling Wembley out against france and wales never mind the Roo's and Kiwis then we can maybe just maybe build our own stadium.

spot on..

Well it won't be this week anyway, I'll give you that.

There would obviously be a number of parties involved in the funding, local, national and European government, Sport England/lottery and banks.

RL has a major advantage in that there would immediately be events which could be scheduled in a national stadium to finance loans for the construction.

I know it would not be easy to achieve and in the current climate is probably a non starter but it should be on the agenda.



Ah, that would be never then.

I see a contradiction looming for those flatcappers who want a national RL stadium in the North of England. To build a RL stadium would require growing the game to create the greater marketability needed to drive higher revenue which of course requires expansion ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That depends on which is the chicken and which is the egg.

if we build it, they will come.

If we build it, we'll go bust.

Yeah, because Twickenham has proven to be a real millstone round the RFU's neck hasn't it?

Sorry?

Twickenham – national stadium of a sport associated for the past 100+ years with the ruling elite, hosting every year an international series in spring and another in autumn, in the capital, within easy reach of the corporate entertainment market.

Proposed RL national stadium – somewhere up north, confirming the prejudice that the corporate world already has of RL as a minor regional sport, difficult to reach from most of the country, out of sight and out mind of the national capital, for a sport with maybe three international matches a year and no entry into, or history with, the lucrative corporate entretainment market.

And you think they're somehow comparable?

We should stick with the national stadium we already have, and utilise it properly rather than indulging in pipe dreasm.

That is a very bleak and hopeless summary TB. You seem to be of the opinion that things will never change. One thing is for sure, with visionaries like you RL will always be a second class poor relation to Rugby Union.

Feel free to point to any factual inaccuracies you feel there are in it.

You may call it 'bleak and hopeless' – on the other hand, I'd say that any talk of emulating Twickenham's £25m corporate revenue in a RL only stadium in the north – or any stadium outside the capital – is pure fantasy.

Especially when we can get Club Wembley members to actually use their free seats and corporate entertainment facilities at RL's current showcase event.

Just shows how much the draw of international rugby at Wembley has been sucessful over the years.
We played the aussies in 1990 infront of a crowd of 54,500 and in 1992 infront of 73,631.
The most recent international at wembley was 1995 where 66,500 watched England vs Australia final.
The group game in the same year attracted 41,000 also at wembley.

Think the above shows that Wembley is the home for international RL but should only be used for finals or semi's now.
Can't see the argument for "lets keep it in the north" when 73,631 went down for a world cup final.
Wonder if it would attract that many now. I hope so!