I thought clubs in the Championship still have another week to submit our numbers.

They do, I assume PT means we are choosing to submit a week in advance?

Sorry you are right. I was getting ahead of myself and reading the Super League line.

We submit next Monday.

19th - 22nd October will be fun. Get your hard hats out.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/rugbyle ... 496f&ei=17

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/rugbyle ... 496f&ei=17

Martin Jepson has just bought the remaining Castleford Tigers shares from the Fultons making him sole owner.
He must know summat.

Maybe he thinks with the level of funding he is willing to put into the club that he can make an impact in the championship next year



Seriously though, he knows as much as every other club ownership - It`s a sealed bid process.

It’s a positive step for them to find someone willing to buy out the Fultons because they weren’t interested in making any investments into Castleford Tigers. That said, Jepson is not wealthy enough to rebuild the Castleford Tigers as a club with all that it entails. He will need to find wealthy individuals willing to work alongside him while putting large amounts of finance into the club and I’m talking hundreds of thousands if not millions.
Even then their future will be determined by the proposed stadium rebuild, if that doesn’t happen they’ll need a Matt Ellis sized new owner who loves the club enough to take it on and the massive project of rebuilding it from the very bottom upward

Do you have a link to a different article to view please than the one Cas have released?

Granted it is good news for Cas, he hasn't bought anything in addition to what he already has. He has an option, that requires him to find investors by 31st Jan 2025.

That said, before I'm mis-quoted on the otherside, it's a positive step for your club.

The report I read says he is looking for additional investors to allow him to buy out The Fultons. A deadline of the end of DEcember was mentioned iirc.

IMG will only take into consideration completed work when application submitted not that which is proposed.

It sounds like another of them famous Castleford statements of intent that ultimately lead to a lack of delivery. Nothing seems to have changed since the Dickie Wright days of Monthly updates on the ground development at the original Glasshoughton Site

The report does say agreed to buy which suggests not yet purchased. I hope they are successful but when the provisional IMG score was released for us it did not include any points for the new stand, yes you could see it but until it became fully operational it was not included. We have done many more things to the ground and club since, such as the advertising board which we have and can therefore impact our score.
I am sure our resident IMG specialist will tell me if I am wrong.

Yes agreed, this announcement seems like classic Dicky Wright tactics. Plus it is now season ticket sale time coincidentally

Is that the expert who claimed they were being generous by predicting Cas to score c.9.5 points last year..?

I don't actually know what IMG points people are suggesting will be missed out on here as its 'not in place' yet. This isn't about IMG points in the slightest

Excuse my cynicism but your club have long history of making promising statements of little substance. Just check out your press releases about Glasshoughton in the lead up the 2008 franchise announcement ditto 2011 again. MJ latest ludicrous boasts of been at almost 15 IMG points. I suppose if the Fans buy into it's good PR but your not going to fool the professionals at IMG. I'll give you one more season before the bodies start floating down the River and then theirs no hiding.

You're very welcome to be cynical. Not sure why MJ should be lumped in automatically with previous regimes or even what the issue with today's announcement is. 2 of the board have already been removed on Companies House. It's happening.


As for Grade A, well we will see next week. 'Ludicrous' though, I wouldn't go that far..

FWIW, if anyone has linked my name to that on Twitter..you'll know that I've been a defender of both Cas and Wakey r.e. IMG and the uphill battle we both face due to catchment. It would be a great achievement if we could both get grade A without the 0.5 point headstart every other team is given and the 1 point headstart that Leeds, Bradford, Catalans, TO and Salford have over us.

Mr Jepson hasn’t bought anything, he hasn’t got the money to pay the foultons in full, that’s why he’s looking for investors, I reckon he’s pretty confident in Cas keeping their SL place under IMG and has doubled down on his investment and looking to go all in once he has the back of others with money. I’m still pretty cynical over his motives, I know more about him and his companies than most, I still think he’s looking to make profit out of the land on Weldon road, we will just have to see how it goes, personally think he’ll use the s106 money (if it ever comes from axiom) plus the sale of the land do build a new stadium with joint ownership.

I'm not sure how the buy out would help the IMG score in any way right now.

It would indicate a confidence in the score but we'll probably find that out before any money changes hands.

It does of course help next year though firstly for the investment scores but the ability to improve things if they have money.

I thought they'd be in trouble with Toulouse improving their score but the changes they have made to stadium probably pull them back in.

Personally I'd be happy if we were both in. How will we continue our winning run against them if we can't play them.

Winning run?

Oh yes we lost the last one didn't we.
"START" our winning run

A.bit like all the Newmarket promises then
.

How quickly some people forget where we came from.

I still have the letter Tricky Dickie Wright submitted objecting to the proposal on the grounds we could share with Cas in their new stadium. That worked out well didnt it.