MC says after some decent meetings in the last week or so with WMDC the fight for Newmarket is as strong as ever,currently exploring how to raise around £10million which would be min. for ground to go ahead. The only thing stopping build is money,has planning permission is in place and has long been there. Trinity are currently exploring ways to raise the £10 million which would be sufficient to build a stadium with a 12.000 capacity to meet basic Super League standards. MC has also issued a rallying cry to fans to get down to watch Wakefield Trinity as average crowds need to be 6500 for new SL standards.

I think this average crowds needs to be 6,500 is a joke of a requirement. Do we really think that we can get 12 clubs in the entire world of European rugby league to meet this? Certainly currently struggle with us Salford and Huddersfield, probably Widnes too. How many of the Championship clubs could meet this criteria if they were in SL? Maybe Bradford but that is it.

RFL should look at themselves if there not happy with attendance across the board. Poor marketing, poor refereeing, debacles like Bradford, disciplinary inconsistencies, the state of the amateur game, and poor leadership.

Well lets hope then that this happens.

How about regular bucket collections at games and maybe events in Cats bar to start with.

Yes, I too think the average crowds figure is a litle high. Last year I was keeping a weekly log of our crowd to work out the average. Cant remember exactly but by round 23, we werent far of 6000. It was the play off re areanged play off games that affected this.

My solution for that would be to review Thursday and Friday games.

About champoinship clubs hitting the mark, without bigging them up, Hull KR are averaging 7000+

I don't understand the 6.5k crowd standard.
What happens if you don't?

What happens if you are on Sky on Thursday and that knocks your crowd down? What happens when you refuse the Thursday game?

It's a good target but not a standard.

What's not to understand about it, its like the covered seating figure its there for a reason !!!

That reason is, we do not meet it but other teams in the lower league do meet it. Hence its quite a simple way for the RFL to manipulate the league to have it consisting of their preferred clubs.

For instance if London were still in SL the 6500 would not be mentioned they would conjure up some other criteria we do not meet.

It does make you wonder, they bring in recommended crowd figures, put us on SKY, did someone mention 10 times this season, crowds are always down when the team or on TV. So 6,500 would be a tall order for us.

From what MC has said, it's not a rule put in place by the RFL, more an agreement between the owners of the 12 super league teams

i think our average crowd last season was just under 4,900. MC says if regular punters could talk to a mate and get them to come down to match days rather than watching in the pub or at home on Sky, and also lapsed supporters to be cajoled into watching again,the figure of 6,500 is achievable.

I've been exploring how to raise 10 million quid for all of my adult life - hasn't happened yet.

I guess it's *slightly* easier to raise money when you're offering something in return such as community development (government investment) or marketing opportunities (business investment)

It's dangerous though, because it encourages season ticket deals that become unsustainable, like at Bradford and us in the Glover years. They'll knock out cheap membership deals and incorporate all those people in the gate, whether they attend or not, and start including mass pre-match dances.

Initiatives to help away fans is a good start. How about a simple one: cross-Pennine games on Sundays only.

That's going to take alot of bucket collections...

Just wonder if Toronto had shifted 5k season tickets whether the figure that seems to have been plucked out of thin air would have been 5500?

Funny how WMDC aka Box have meeting that leads people to express some optimism, let me think ... oh yes are there some local elections coming up.

I've always said SWAG should put up candidates against them in key seats - imagine the publicity if we won!

You could stand for whatever the local governments version of the House if Lords is



Also if we ever needed the players to step up it's now. A CCup victory wouldn't half raise our profile and make the point - come on lads!!!!

Good point Vasty.

I think even a Challenge Cup final appearance would do the profile no harm, let alone win it.

1979 was a long time ago.

Would it be possible to encourage one of the major hotel chains to incorporate a hotel into the stadium build, say a Travelodge or similar, for a "fee". There aren't any off the motorway junctions that side (nearest is at xscape) and the site is nicely between Leeds and Wakefield just off the motorway network.

Bit far fetched I know, and the planning permission we have probably wouldn't allow it, but then anything seems to happen on this site!

Yorkcourt have outline consent for a hotel on the Newmarket site and have submitted a reserve matters application and are awaiting the decision.

Phill will be ideal to take on Box in the local councils

Is that another separate application or would that one actually count towards the trigger point??

Just read The League Weekly,quote (How the malign leadership of Wakefield Council and specifically Labour council leader Peter Box has deliberately tried to damage Wakefield Trinity probably belongs in courtroom.)

Newmarket is still a goer and could be financed a number of ways + plenty of room for community sports pitches. Gyms ,bowling , reclaimed stands the options are endless.

The issue with any stadium is funding. Newmarket is probably the best option because the planning costs are already done which makes the outlay less. There's still the issue of finding £10-15m to make it a reality though

Personally I'd be looking to expanding what can be offered to be able to maximise potential funding streams. Providing classrooms and accredited learning will mean you can assess education funds, providing arts installations or museum space means you can access Arts funding, providing green space and Nature Walks means you can access environmental funding, providing sports facilities for children means you can access sports funding, providing different sports (eg football and RU) means you can access funding from their governing bodies.

It's one hell of a process though, i used to do it on a smaller scale for my previous employer and it took a lot of work. Lottery funding was always a good way to start as they used to signpost me to other useful funding streams

I'd certainly be looking at opportunities around education; there are several MAT's in the District that may well be interested in conversations around sports and physical literacy and, given the egregious decision by the government to reduce funding for schools, would likely welcome the opportunity to have access to facilities and expertise, whilst not having to invest in the infrastructure, or the staffing, themselves.