Now I know HP wasn't the most photogenic of grounds....
but what a contrast from last night and the LSV and to now having just turned on SuperLeague at Castleford...what an utter dump!!!
It just galls me to think that someone, somewhere thinks that is the way forward for modern rugby league.

Our crowds in NL1 may not be great, but we have a lot to be happy about in our league...there some tough games and the competition is fierce. Plus there are some fine stadiums around to watch our lads play.

Its up to us as fans of all clubs to make the most of what we have.

But a dump with 7/8,000 Cas fans in it

and a 'dump' that they own

I can remember a time when it was irrelevant what the state of someone`s ground was like ...... This concept was instigated by the incumbant goons from SKY.......Good luck to all whose grounds are `nt seemed attractive to SKY..

I visited Cas last week when Fax were there and to be honest I`d forgoten how enjoyable it was to visit a "proper rugby league" ground.It may look a little rough around the edges but it`s a pleasure to watch the sport built for the watching of rugby.I for one would love these grounds just to be able to do themselves up. I wish we could have done that at the old Thrum Hall ground. But no the RFL dictates we need certain ground criteria so we leave behind our old clubs and move into souless moseleums ,where we have no control over prices ,we can hardly afford the rent and why do we need a 12,000 seater stadium anyway even if they allow any of us up into Super League are our clubs going to get anywhere near 12,000.One of the bigest downsides of moving down the Shay was groundshareing with a soccer club.It`s garbage.

In an IDEAL world Give me Thrum Hall, Hilton Park anyday with a good amount of money put in to bring its facilities up a bit.

population of cas.........aprox 40k


average crowd 8,000

you cant argue when 1 in 5 of the town supports the club


i'm a lover of new shiny stadia like lsv and donny, but theres nowt wrong with a good old fashioned ground with a terrific atmosphere

Ah. But will they own their new stadium? If it gets built. I dont think even Saints will own theirs.

On the ground subject, I was reading the League Express and an article from down under was saying that some teams were changing venues in order to get larger crowds so that they can keep the wages payed. I think it was Cronula and another.

You also can't argue when 1 in 1 have the same surname

It is Cas's biggest local derby to be fair and we always draw big crowds in the top league for our biggest local derby. I think you'd find if we'd been as competitive in SL as Cas have been this season we'd easily attract similar crowds.

If we play the brand of rugby we showed against Widnes for the rest of the season the crowds will climb a little.

played well and should get some more through the gates with performances like that.

Cas's real population when counting the suburbs/villages is circa 80k, still get great % through gates, but it would be interesting to see what they would be getting with only 1 year in the top flight in the past 17.
Two generations have been overlooked at Leigh, a challenge we need to address properly if we are to move forward.

No it wasn't, it was nicked from the Football League, who have had facilities criteria for entry from the conference for far longer than RL. THe idea in both cases is to protect the safety and business models of the clubs stepping into the higher league.

My apologies............ I still feel its irrelevant in RL, were we have n`t the same amount of central funding to subsidise top notch facilities for everyone within the RL community.
Cas are a decent side who IMO don`t play in a bad facility... its not wembley but very few are.
My original point was .......surely its the product on the pitch which is of paramount importance to the fans and not the brand new stadia...

Thought exactly the same when we went to Wakefield, I do miss HP but I think LSV in time will be just as special, maybe a little over priced but watching the game itself I get a better view and the surroundings are much nicer as well! Just need to sort under the sands out and get some life into them!

Agree totally, Well said

How strange just come across a letter this morning that I received in July 1999 from our Cof E at our club.It was in reply to a letter I had written to him (not sure what about as I can`t remember) But a passage from it makes interesting reading well at least some of the last lines do.

" We know of the challenges that face us and the move within the Super League to put pressure on clubs that do not fit "certain peoples" vision of the future. "
Signed Nigel Wood.



I`ll keep a hold of this letter the man was a mind reader.

Nigel Wood was at halifax in 1999, he took them into cva.Now look what job he has