I can easily explain that it's Northern and it's genuinely working class. For all the woke talk in the South by which I mean London regarding inclusiveness, the two things they despise the most are northerners and the working-class in general, both of which we possess in spades. This is not a political thing, it goes far deeper than that. Added to that, our own 'Northern' politicians are even worse possessing a kind of inverted snobbery stroke embarrassment regarding the most 'Northern' of games, just look at Box, you could see he despised our oafish game with a passion, only paying lip service to Cas to garner votes.

Sammy Davis Junior once said after converting to Judaism that as a black midget Jew the only way was up, he really should have added being a RL fan for true pathos

We tried that about 15 years ago and we got about 30 donations or something like that. It's a great idea in theory but to get most Wakefield fans to part with a £100 would be the equivalent to parting the Red sea. If you raised 10k I would be utterly amazed, sorry to dampen your spirit but if you're hoping that the good folk of Wakefield will chip in, forget it would be my advice.

I'd chip in on that.

For you - and a very limited number of other people - that may well the case; but 'the masses' clearly don't agree, and never will. Football is the big draw, and RU has the oval ball market sewn up - RL will never, ever come anywhere even close to competing, hence the only 'investment' we ever see is rich fans looking for a plaything, and Sky filling up space when there's no footie.

Sad but true - RL is a niche, Northern sport, that has been ground underfoot by the much more 'establishment' version of the game.

Anybody remember when Rugby League, Rugby Union, Football, and yes, even cricket, were SPORTS and not high-flying business commodities quoted on the stock exchange and in the ownership of mega-millionaires? it seems that the lust for more and more profit has eaten into the game that all of those who post on here love, and the sports have become a form of super Monopoly and nothing else........SAD!!!!!

I support a football club not a million miles from Wakefield that was taken over a couple of years ago by a Chinese/American group of "Investors"
It has become quite clear to supporters that the investors have nothing more in mind than to take as much money out of the Club for themselves by signing promising youngsters then selling them on in a couple of years time and pocketing the profits without any respect for the feelings of the fans and the heritage of the area or the club. Success on the field seems obviously of second importance to the new owners than swelling their pockets.

RU don't have everything.
They have the money and the International brand.
We need to sell our game as the club setup and show that it has mass appeal.

The value of an investor is that they'll bring someone with knowledge.

For me the strength of RL which also happens to be its weakness is that lie football it’s tribal. At club level union has nothing to compare with the great rivalries of RL. Even a modest derby like Cas v Wakefield is beyond them.

Problem is it doesn’t transfer into the national let alone international sporting arena as well as it should.

The main reason for me is that we have never truly consolidated the heartland and until we do we won’t grow, the roots are not strong enough.

We need to be more confident in what we have, the M62 corridor is bigger than Wales and Scotland combined, it’s a country in its own right. If Northerners were as proud of the North as they claim we wouldn’t need to expand in the same way the NRL doesn’t need to, it does so because it can because it remains strong where it always has been strong.

When Aston Villa went up into the premiership I don't know how people get to know these things but the Barnsley owners then became the richest owners outside of the top league, and probably richer than half of those in the premiership, but to be fair to the owners they have never made a secret of what their intentions were from the start and that was simply to make a profit and not pour it back in, hopefully nobody comes knocking from tomorrow for the next month, not sure if your aware redders but that same rumour mill says they've got £6million to spend in this window

aye I'm same as you I'll believe it when I see it

6 million, you might get the left leg for that

Quite right wayne, lad. The owners of Barnsley FC have, as you probably are aware, already been the owner of a quite successful French football club ie Nice, and asset stripped the club, left it floundering and now abandoned it. Chien, Conway et al have absolutely no regard for the club and what it stands for other than it being a cash cow and increasing their billions. The sad part of the new Barnsley ownership is that one of the owners is the son of the former owner, Patrick Cryne, and he seems to have bought into the "buy to sell ethos".
Anyone who "invests" in Wakefield Trinity from outside this area would treat the club in a similar manor. I'm sure that anyone wishing to "invest" in RL would certainly put Trinity at the bottom of their wish pile.

Its not in the too distant past that we had people taking money out this club by way of inflated salaries.

And nepotism.

Nice word Wollo and I’m afraid was true.

I think anyone thinking of investing in a RL club, with a view to making a profit, especially at the likes of Wakefield, would be extremely naïve. I would imagine MC and other investors would be glad to break even!

Just seen an article where HKR are buying their ground and adjoining land back from the council for £1.9 million.
No other details.

i think from what we have seen and heard from MC over the last few years that he quite clearly has Trinity's best interests at heart and truly loves the club. He's appears to be quite willing to stand a few minor financial losses, and I think this is quite common in RL in general, and to an extent in AF clubs, but overall I think investors in the latter are in it for the money.

Nobody has ever made money from owning RL club directly that’s for sure. However indirectly well that’s a different story. All sports or riddled with chancers and hangers on who operate on the fringes, rarely are they the people who actually run the clubs.

Ted Richardson employed his offspring that’s true, Glover used the club as some sort of personal members club, yet both will have lost money.

I think the true test for any investor is not to break even but to know that all the money you lost went to the right places. So far MC seems to have the edge by some way.

Sadly not - I work with PE a fair bit, and I can tell you with certainty that investors are looking to *make* money; the most common way being to buy an asset, increase its value, then sell it on. I see no possible way that could happen in any meaningful way with a RL club, in particular ours, and especially now that the possibility of a new stadium being gifted to the club has died a slow and painful death.

I meant an investor in a RL club, which I suppose is a contradiction in itself because as you say there is no profit to be had.

In pure business terms investing in a RL club at any level is such a poor choice as to be almost suicidal. Thank the lord there are still a fair few of these masochists about or the game would be dead by now. Yeah some take the mick whilst some are utterly destructive but most club owners are on a hiding to nothing and do their level best and certainly can’t be accused of being in it for the money or in our case not even the glory!

£1.9 million is bloody cheap for the land, never mind including the ground. Do you have a link to the article.

It’s not as straight forward as that. The land is already owned by various bodies including the club and council. I think this is more of a restructuring to allow all involved to develop the site better, the site apparently has numerous interests owning bits of it meaning development has been restricted. HKR’s part is probably quite small but will be very useful to them.

Makes more sense now, which is why I asked if there was a link.
With the lack of future certainty around the next TV deal for SL, it would be a very brave man (or woman/other investors) to pump millions into a RL ground.
Although things seem to have gone very quiet on the additional N. American sides coming into SL (and Championship etc), IF there is any kind of grand plan to include additional expansion sides, without actually expanding the numbers in the top flight, clubs like KR, Cas and Trinity would be very brave to embark on huge investment if there is any chance of them being replaced by a plastic N. American club at any point in the near future.
It's absolutely ridiculous that our sport doesn't have a decent strategy for the future of the game.

Quote ="wrencat1873"Makes more sense now, which is why I asked if there was a link. With the lack of future certainty around the next TV deal for SL, it would be a very brave man (or woman/other investors) to pump millions into a RL ground. Although things seem to have gone very quiet on the additional N. American sides coming into SL (and Championship etc), IF there is any kind of grand plan to include additional expansion sides, without actually expanding the numbers in the top flight, clubs like KR, Cas and Trinity would be very brave to embark on huge investment if there is any chance of them being replaced by a plastic N. American club at any point in the near future. It's absolutely ridiculous that our sport doesn't have a decent strategy for the future of the game.'" You set me a task there but I finally found it, explains it much better than me https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... rk-3690677

Quote ="wrencat1873"Makes more sense now, which is why I asked if there was a link. With the lack of future certainty around the next TV deal for SL, it would be a very brave man (or woman/other investors) to pump millions into a RL ground. Although things seem to have gone very quiet on the additional N. American sides coming into SL (and Championship etc), IF there is any kind of grand plan to include additional expansion sides, without actually expanding the numbers in the top flight, clubs like KR, Cas and Trinity would be very brave to embark on huge investment if there is any chance of them being replaced by a plastic N. American club at any point in the near future. It's absolutely ridiculous that our sport doesn't have a decent strategy for the future of the game.'" You set me a task there but I finally found it, explains it much better than me https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... rk-3690677

Apologies - I misunderstood the original post.

I think there are many good reasons to invest in a RL club - but as you say, profit isn't one of them. MC's motivation however, appears to be pure; he seems to have wanted to stabilise an extremely badly run organisation, and ensure it washes its own face - both of which he has self-evidently achieved. I'm sure he also has aspirations for on-field success, which hasn't quite come off yet, but is much more likely to from a position of financial and organisational stability.

Easy to take all of the above for granted - but we shouldn't; I've seen businesses in a bad (but much less bad than WT at the time) go under - and the fact that he prevented that, then turned things around to such an extent, is quite an achievement.