Competitive team with stadium hope crowds will grow as will new sponsors etc. Competitive team playing in new stadium we will have average/above average SL attendances. A competing for a trophy team in new stadium and there's no reason for us to be a Warrington/St Helens type of club.
Up the Trin

The season before last getting hammered every match knocked us massively regarding support it was torture for even us loyal fans and did us lots of damage. Last season was 100% better but the finish took the shine off. I'm looking forward to this season more than I have probably since the 2004 season .

Yes I'm afraid 2014 and 2015 were disasters for the club. I reckon we hemoraged 30% of our fans though I'm not convinced all of those actually paid anything like full price to watch.

I certainly think there are a couple of thousand out there who could still be tempted back but it will take a Wembley or Old Trafford trip to do it. I think with a bit of titivation BV and the club as it stands could maybe restore the average number of home fans to between 5-6000 plus whatever the away support is if we had some good years.

Whether thats enough to survive and prosper I don't know - but as ever at some point the ground will cost us.

Thats what I said, at some point it will require an investment - what I'm saying is that if we were a normal business what we are doing now would work eventually but not in sport.

However IMHO there is still some mileage left in what we are doing now.

I must admit to no longer knowing anything about the culture and demographic of the city as it's over 20 years since I left Wakefield and 8 years since I left the UK.

That massively under qualifies me to comment but I would like to add a couple of observations to the debate:

1) we constantly refer to returning fans... I started watching in 75 and crowds were around 3.5k average... the last time we had significant crowds (av 10+) will have been the 1960s... those people aren't coming back! And crowds today are better than much of the past 30 years.

That means we have to attract new sections of the population or turn casual attendance into a genuine fan base.

And... 2) I think Vasty is correct when he talks about investment...had we the fortune to add Glover's, entrepreneurial investment of money and marketing nous onto Carters sound financial model and diligence we could(?!?) see a genuine affect. Notwithstanding the state of belle vue...

The club is doing all it can with the resources at it's disposal.
I can understand the frustration with the lack of promoting the club around town but if they spend money on this, the squad maybe weaker and not match upto the hype?
Same goes for beer in the ground, would you rather have crap beer and a decent team or great beer and a rubbish team?
Can have the best beer in the world but if your team is rubbish, there will be no one to sup it!
CC has assembled a really good squad, I'm happy that any spare money has been spent on this rather than having a 'roadshow' in town to promote the team, that people won't give a second glance to.
Massive progress has been made over the last 3-4 years and we all know that the ground is the biggest stumbling block that is holding us back to possibly going to the next level.

Nailed it.

Can't describe the feeling I get driving through Normy knowing I'm literally minutes away from the bright lights of the cosmopolitan metropolis and it's cultured folk.

Would imagine it would be quite exhilarating and exciting for someone from Kippax

And the rest.

Two poundlands ffs. Don't know your born.

Yep that's my take on it. On the averages, even taking out the couple of cheap ticket years we had, where we averaged nearly 8200 and 7600. Before the last couple of years, we were averaging from around 6000 to just over over 7000. I mean the drop was bound to happen after what we went through in a relatively short time.
Take Bradford a far bigger City than Wakefield . They went from averaging between 12k and 14 gradually down to 7k by 2010 after not having the success they used to have. They went the cheap ticket way after that and boosted their attendances but once they stopped and went through financial problems they were down to just over 6k. Conversely look what a new ground and a bit of success has done for Wire, just about doubled their attendances.

Reading this forum, I think everyone knows MC has a massive millstone around his neck and there's the ground too!

Still better than the food banks much beloved in Cas.

You know what you need to do to relieve your frustration - go on the VT and make a petulant post predicting that Wakefield the home of Poundland will finish bottom - then for added effect get your little buddy to back you up.

Nah you wouldn't do anything as oafiish as that, oh wait...........

Because there's no food banks in Wakey, eh Vasty? Good to see you've not changed and you're still a insufferable pompous know-it-all.

How do people cope with you on here? Do you still get aggressive and rant at people who don't agree with you? you sad colossal whopper!

Oh ye nearly... forgot how's the Greg Inglis like Lucas Walshaw getting on? Guffaw!

I see Vastman is still getting massive chomps ...



Anyway, back on topic. Season ticket sales, let's hope we have a mad rush in time for Christmas (I won't hold
my breath mind)

Won't last they will soon scuttle off back to their own little forum where they can create there own reality, where they never have to justify anything they post.

Shows the real difference between the two sets of supporters although there are one or two Cas fans brave enough to join the debate. Unable to take modest criticism the rest hide. We are at the end of endless mindless jibes and we stop and fight our corner.

Stand up Trinity fans and take a bow

Well, welcome to our forum Kippaxer.
You will get the same warm welcome that all our visitors get.

However, so far all I've seen is derailing a thread and trying to goad a Wakefield fan on the Wakefield forum.
I openly admit that I'm more tollerant of home supporters winding each other up than I am of visitors just coming on here for a virtual spat.
So consider this your warning. Play nice or we'll send you home with a note to your mum and we'll close the door behind you.

A little over the top but on the whole very near to the bone, I worked at Nestle on Wheldon road till it closed so have practically lived among them.
Two instances.
Prior to its closure I got talking to a young lass one Friday morning, it turned out she was 24, we had the usual chat, what's your plans for the weekend? etc. She told me she was so excited, she was going into Wakey for the night, her first time ever, I was pretty shocked at this so quizzed her a little more and she said it was her first time in Wakey ever and that included shopping. She'd never been into Wakey in 24yrs.
A second one, a lad I worked with and had a few nights around Cas with after the Wakey games lives on the edge of Cas town centre. He's 56, he retired when the factory shut, to this day (and it's four or five years since) he hasn't been out of Castleford, no holiday, no day in Leeds, no food shopping in Ponte, that is quite shocking, I've ribbed him about it and he's quite proud of the fact.

I bet they can both play the banjo though!

That sounds so wrong, that could be taken two ways, but on both sides, yes.

Nah not OTT at all, I accept there are exceptions to the rule but not many.

What gets me is not the local rivalry or the fact that apart from the 2000's they were more successful than us in the last 40 years. It's not even the place itself which has to rank along with Widnes and Middlesborough as the least picturesque places in the UK and I'm not pretending that Wakefield isn't anything but ordinary.

Nope for me it's the totally unjustified sense of self satisfaction they possess and IMHO that can only be the case because the majority of them are insular and wilfully ignorant. I think that's why Cas players don't travel well and why Wakefield is such a haven for them. I'm not suggesting the players are typical of the fans but when that's all you've known a move to Hudds or Leeds will be a huge shock.

Strange also because Featherstone which is basically just a street and should be worse if anything is generally far more enlightened though it's hardly Greenwich Village or Belgravia. As far as I'm concerned Cas folks self regard is all bluster until they gat a star above the badge, we have two and Fev have one.

I now await Castleford's first title, bound to happen now I've said all that

Nothing less impressive than seemingly clever people looking down their noses at those less so. Add to that the belief that Castleford is somehow unique within in the district is pathetic. My job takes me all over the district and I could probably introduce you to just as many people who've never left Lupset, let alone Wakefield (or anywhere else in the district for that matter), but I don't feel the need to make myself feel better by mocking them.
I grew out of the "my dump is better than your dump" a long time ago; I suggest others do the same.

Not OTT at all Vasty.....Nobody has ever moved to Cas.
Never?icon_smile.gif

I'm guessing you're having a veiled pop at me there, so I'll speak for myself.
I'm not a seemingly clever person I take people on face value, I was commenting on two instances I know to be fact and was genuinely shocked by, you say you could "probably" introduce me to people who have never left Lupset, that would suggest you have never actually come across this insular attitude, you're just assuming you could. I actually class the guy as an old mate and wouldn't look down my nose at a friend. If you think never leaving Cas is an ok attitude, fair enough, I just think it's sad.

I'm not sure there is anything wrong with never leaving your village/town/City
Personally I love to travel and see new places but I like to come home too.

If we are talking about Cas, right now they have a lot going for them.
I like shopping at the rugby stall in the market. Parking is easier than Wakefield too.
I like Xscape. Great places to eat out and plenty of entertainment, that rivals Leeds and nothing comes near in Wakefield.....and it really should, we deserve much better.
If you want the opposite end of the extreme they have a pretty good nature reserve up past Lock Lane too.

If you go shopping in Wakefield at Trinity and drive back through Sandal via Newmillerdam you'll think Wakefield is a beautiful yet modern City. If you go to the Ridings and come back via Lupset you won't.

Perhaps I represent the opposite problem; I live in Wakefield, but spend the vast majority of my leisure time in Leeds - I shop there, eat out there, go to the theatre and gigs and shows there; I even drive there some Sunday mornings to eat brunch and read a book in one of Leeds' many independent hipster coffee shops.

There - I said it - I love Leeds, and despite being Wakey born and bred, it holds virtually no draw for me in terms of shopping and leisure; these days, it feels backward, depressed and distinctly un-metropolitan. I await the lynching...