I agree squad looks a lot fitter pity it's taken 3 year to sort it out

Couldn't agree less.

The thing is doom and glooms become the norm.
8 know the club and Chester in particular will keep banging the drum about how the players are positive and all in it together but it can do nothing for moral. It's like a big negative cloak around the place at the moment and it's got to change.

Slightly OT, I do think we suffer from not playing in front of fans. I think on less driven players it makes a huge difference when the fans get behind the team. Whereas players like Roby I honestly believe would play at 100% in a vacuum, it's what makes them great.

We shall soon find out

And yet this is the year we are rumoured to be trying to get a new head of strength & conditioning for next season!

I’m sure we will lose more games than we win this season ,but if the games we lose are full of effort and commitment and we play for the full eighty ,no one can surely ask for anymore . I still bang on that what we have seen so far this season isn’t the finished article by a long way ,when those balls stick and those passes/kicks come off and they get a few wins under their belts I’m sure we will see a very different team .

If we were to get relegated, Trinity would never find their way back into SL, with or without JM and MC.
They have done a magnificent job of turning the club around off the pitch but, lets not pretend that relegation would be anything other than an absolute disaster.
With the proposed "restructure" it may be that our spot in SL is already under threat.

Although accepting that the club mat survive in The Championship, I cant see that we would EVER return to the top flight.

This is nothing new as we have been in this similar position and sometimes worse, for over 25 years

Everything that's happening at the moment, points to us hoping and aiming for an 11th place finish, certainly a (very) risky strategy.

The old saying about "Aim for the stars and you may fall on the roof. Aim for the roof and you may end up on the floor"
We seem to be aiming for just above the skirting board.

Don't agree. If we do get the stadium upgrade then I see no reason why we won't. That said we could fall into oblivion but that will be down to us.

Even with the stadium upgrade, which is not yet a given, coupled with lack of central funding (something that is likely to all but stop, for Championship clubs, for with the new TV deal), coupled with a possible reduction in numbers in SL, it's nigh on impossible to see how we would be able to gain promotion - assuming that it actually remains in place.
Apart from that, I dont see why not, either.

The obvious solution is not to be relegated even if this means being flexible with the finances. The alternative is less central revenue, smaller crowds, loss of players and gambling on a less than guaranteed return to Super League. If we did we would be back to square one and all the good work since our initial promotion will be lost.
We have a chance to stay up, the question is are we willing to do what is necessary to make this a possibility.

That's been the mantra of SL for 25 years yet Salford, HKR, and Leigh are all on life number 2 or 3.

What you are not taking into account is that a re-vamped BV will make Trinity a viable club to develop for a man/woman with cash. The truth is nearly all money men want to invest in on-field success and not floodlights and 4G pitches and a balance sheet, MC is a freak in that respect.

By having no real debt and assuming we get the new stand, much of the hard work will have been done.

If we don't get the upgrade I agree we are pretty much stuffed as anything other than a Championship club. Our only assets are that unlike a lot of Championship teams we do have a very strong local talent pool, reasonable core support, and a fair bit of local business support, especially at that level.

Anyway, let's not go there for now.

how much more revenue will a new stand generate, would it be based on new supporters filling it or existing ones and others moving from where they stand in the ground. I’m assuming the hospitality will move from Benidorm I’m there, so where will the extra income come from

I think the hope is that extra income will come from additional fans (both home and away), who don't currently come to BelleVue because of the facilities.
But the biggest source of additional revenue should come in being able to hire out the facilities and utilise the stadium on more than just 13 occasions throughout the year

So what is this flexibility with finances that you mention every second post?

We must have some or how can we look to try to sign AF and I guess we have saved from by letting the prop return to Halifax. I doubt signing fringe players on short term loans are a big drain. We also released quite a few at the end of last season and bringing in two.

In terms of matchday revenue, the extra revenue created will be modest unless we have a team that can attract fans and fill every seat, a new stand will not magic that.

It will attract a few more fans and will certainly attract better corporate deals. Although there are no boxes in the existing plans there is a restaurant and bar for corporate and premium seating. In a way boxes are not what they were, many businesses like the idea of being part of the main crowd all be it in a certain amount of luxury. so in effect, we will be able to offer both.

However where the real money-making potential exists is what we do with it non-match day, For example, the large meeting room can be rented out, Generally, the rate is about £100 a day and there is a huge market for them, trust me on that. So if we manage to rent it out for say 200 days of the year that's 20k for basically no outlay on our part and it's an all-year-round income stream. Add to that catering for meetings, weddings, parties, evening events, clubs etc that could easily rise to say 500k per season, most of it profit. That would make a huge difference and will make us a true 52 weeks a year business. Or to put it bluntly, it's approx 3-4 top-class players

Finally, less to do with revenue, it will turn the heads of more players, hopefully.

Lastly, to stay in SL we have to have it.

and, as you have referred to before, there is the additional income generated and outgoings saved from the 'pitch'.

Correct, it's a huge win for us if it happens, it would catapult BV out of the 19th century to at least somewhere close to the 1990sicon_lol.gif

For other clubs, it would be nothing but for us, it would be massive.

If you 'Hate the doom', why post more of it?

We gained promotion back to the super league and survived a few relegation scraps before MIchael Carter and John Minards arrived at the club.

In answer to phe13, I am not moaner or doom merchant & I have been a season ticket holder for 45 yrs & will continue !
However, the tone of the zoom meeting/answers by MC etc, was not wholly enthused, it gave doubt & cause for doom
Not what they probably intended but it gives rise to doom & MC, sounded to be a bit fed up !
Also giving rise to shortage of cash, hence outlook is bleak & give rise to we are doomed & possibly fated !

Yeah the difference was that had we gone down the club would have folded for good. I know that as a fact. If MC is to be believed and I have no reason not to we won’t if it happens now, hence we would have at least the possibility of of coming back.

Big difference to me.

First time for a long time we got it right at the top .M C and Co have turned the club round big time .Just hope we can keep our head above water on the field

Sometimes in life, you have to go backwards to go forwards, I think that is where we are at present.

The club has made great strides in recent years but we've definitely hit a rough patch. Sadly fans have short memories and forget the good stuff very quickly, luckily it works both ways.

A couple of wins and you won't see the doom merchants for dust and we will all be happy again whilst some will be apologising for lacking faith. We've seen it all before, it's all about emotions despite what some say.

Wouldn't you be? He has put so much effort into getting us onto a stable footing and everyone is running around like Private Frazer from Dad's Army "We're doomed, I tell you, doomed"

I'd rather he was realistic than tell us that we're still aiming for the playoffs, which at the minute nobody would believe. I would suggest that the target has been realigned and that we're probably aiming to be outside the bottom 3 but saying that is only going to get the same reaction in most quarters as saying we just don't want to finish bottom.

There were some positives in the Zoom call if you chose to pick up on them. There were also some negatives which given where we are currently is perfectly understandable IMO.

Hopefully in 10 days time the fans can start to do their bit to raise the morale of the team by getting down there and supporting them, instead of constantly criticising them. I can't imagine any of them are enjoying the run we're on. A vocal home fans only crowd can make a massive difference to us when we've got 3 home games on the bounce against more winnable opposition, provided that we get behind them.
Let's look for some positives on Friday to take into the following week when we can really make a difference to the players!