On parachute payments, their had been talk of this on the Wakey board a few weeks back, saying the RFL had offered them a sweetner to take the hit. But as I posted then when they were kicking off about it. Why would the RFL pay someone off when in reality they could drop them without a penny? They will lose some of 700k given to suppport Cru they wanted back so hardly mega rich either.

You can't have a system where a side has what a few months to re budget (P&R) without payments yet then have one where you have 3 years to bear it in mind a and award them! Plus if we are being 100% honest Wakey / Cas & Salford were always considered the most at risk heartland sides (never going to drop an expansion team) so it would be very, very poor mangement if they never gave this a thought in their planning.

unless the rfl have changed the rule and no one can find it then thats what it must be judged on surely?.

Can't see that happening. Would basically allow them to buy their way to winning everything for 3 years before strolling back up to SL. Would still be the 'yo-yo' scenario that the RFL claim to dislike but spread over 3 years instead of one.

Well the parachute payment did n`t do us any harm in `06.

tongue in cheek there barty

That's exactly my worry. We currently have a very competitive Championship, that would be unbalanced by one team getting a significant financial advantage. We do have a salary cap, but what would the 'relegated' team spend their 'parachute payment' on?

?
I was talking about the relegated team being given a higher salary cap than the other teams in the league.

But I don't think the relegated team should get a parachute payment after 3 years (or 12 in wakeys case) of SL sky money and having all of that time and money to sort out their stadium.

If they are putting them into our league then they should have the same rules as us, fax, fev etc. No parachute payments, no extra large salary cap or larger over seas quota. They need to learn to adapt to the Championship on their own and not with exemptions and extra money as a 'please don't sue us' gift from the RFL.

there will be no legal action as I bet as last time the RFL will put a no legalities clause in the bid, that plus any club having the dangly bits to actually take any action would never have a chance of SL again.

Of course Fred...... However I can see a few vapour trails in the sky.......

I heard the whooooshes as well

With regards to the stadium, cas have outline planning permission and plan to submitt full planning permission before christmas (and there are no objections to the site), wakey dont even have outline planning permission and wont be able to get it till after the public enquiry which will take about a year. Cas should start construction in april.

Cas are financially stable (and in the last year have increased our income from sponsorship significantly) and even made a small profit in 09. Wheras wakey, quins and crusaders have all had financial difficulties.

Cas have higher attendances than quins, wakey, salford and crusaders and are about the same as catalans, despite dropping 900 off our attendance last season due to poor form, the recesion and most of our normally well attended home games being on sky.

With regards to youth development cas played 11 home grown players last season (including two who have just played in the academy series win over the aussies, 1 being the captain and the other scoring 3 tries in two games), and another playing for england in the 4 nations,we have since lost two, but brought one home grown player in, with 4 or 5 poised to make there debuts this year. This is far better than wakey, salford or crusaders.

Salford and wakey both have 9 (iirc) overseas players wheras cas have stuck to the rfl guidlines and only have 5.

Personally i prefered p+r but if we are using the franchise system cas should be ahead of salford and wakey (and quins and crusaders for that matter).

I would imagine it would be fev.

Apart from the stadium, Wakey's franchise application will probably be better than, if not equal to: Salford, Quins, Cas, Crusaders and any Championship clubs. Its the stadium that matters, and that is what worries me.

when the documents for FPP go in,do they go to local or national government ?.

dont know why you've included quins and the WC's in this.

Local.

What ways do you think that wakefield application will be superior to castleford-

cas have better- crowds, finances, youth development and less reliances on overseas investment.

so you expect it to go through without any problems ?.

WHY has it taken 3 years to obtain planning permission/start building when ALL the relevant teams have known since before the last farcical round of applications that having an up to date stadium would be high in the criteria list, Saints got the message why didn't the others?

Complacency, and a feeling of untouchableness Fred.

Yes there have been no objections, the council support it and there is very little housing near by, its mainly an area of entertainment and shopping, and these businesses support the ground as it will increase there revenue streams.

Not at all, our main source of funding is the sale of our ground, this ground is next to an old chemical factory, the factory had a 'blast zone' that restricted housing being built nearby. A company bought the factory for housing and intended to do the neccersary work to clear this blast zone, but then went bust with the recesion, cas have been waiting a couple of years for the blast zone to be cleared (something we have no control over) which it now has been so we can sell the ground. Basically cas would already be in a new ground if it were not for the recesion, the club has done everything in its power to get the ground built but outside influences have held us back.

IMO Cas are the safest of the 3 who are fighting against the drop......... Crowds, cash etc are better than Salford and Wakey - I think Wakey should be the most worried of the 3.

I agree with all that leytherjay, but i do like Wakey don't know why really, so hope they are ok, i don't dislike Cas or Salford by the way.

Still happy with the wife Ian ?