Is there any guarantees that the build will take place @ NM with a promise of Championship Football, after all it is a commercial development by the developer and tenancy agreements and rentals will reflect that of a SL club being it's main tenant not a much reduced rental from a championship one.
In fact funding will have been sourced on these outcomes, you have seen this lately with such developments as Trinity Walk in Wakefield only recommencing when heads of terms in respect of rental values were agreed with some Key Tenants.
So in my eyes it's not the 22nd of October when 'the game changes' it's actually next week with the winding up petition with HMR. Come through that then you can look to the next fence to scale, but I also personally believe a brick will not be laid until the franchise decisions are finalized. It is a 'chicken and egg' situation and the same goes with Cas. I'm not being cynical here just looking at it with a 2010 commercial head screwed on.

The developers are building the stadium as a bit of a sweetener to get all the industrial units built. Actual income from there onwards from the stadium is small fry compared to what they can gain from the units.

Next week is important with the winding up, because obviously that could be a game-changer for the club completely. But if a payment plan is agreed with the revenue and customs people, which is very likely because they don't want to get LESS than the amount which is what will happen if they are wound up.

Bricks will need to be in place and substantial work to have happened before the franchise decision is started. It is too risky and there are too many pessimists out there who will say that they wont believe it til bricks start appearing, etc.. so to put them at ease and to show that things are happening, the only way is to build it. I don't foresee any delays at all once full planning permission is granted. Cas's situation is completely different, and I don't want to even go into that - there is another board for that! You are right to look at it objectively with a 2010 commercial head on, and these people running the show (outside of the club) are ones who makes things happen. That is our main hope and our main reason to be mighty thankful once we sit in our seats in the lovely new stadium.

Points taken. But with the Revenue they will look at it that they already have a payment plan in place that was made at the beginning of the season with visible income streams and now the club is wanting to 'double up' so to speak when no visible income streams are available. Their point will be that the company will be trading at a loss, therefore only increasing the risk of recurring down the line debts to the revenue. They may insist on payment within a very short time scale say 30 days.

Shall I open up a 'Save Wakey' paypal account then?! Actually, that might be an idea!

Longer term I see a supporter owned club being a better option for everyone involved with Wakey, then its all our responsibilities to ensure that a mess is never got into with regards to payments to the taxman etc...

Irrespective of which division we are it makes no odds the stadium if passed will get built. I am concerned however that as we are only tennants there, will any extra revenue go to us, the stadium management company or split between both. I understand that Cas will own there stadium and all the increased revenue will go directly to them.

I'm really worried about what colour the seats will be.



FFS lets just get the stadium for starters!

Not enough would pay up. Look at the poor take up of Squadbuilder and then look at those on here refusing to buy a season ticket and boasting about it on here, can't see them digging in and helping out.

A supporter owned club would be a wonderful idea, and we have some very commited, enthusiastic and inteligent supporters who could help achieve that, however we also need some cash to be a top SL club, even the top (bank rolled) clubs operate at a loss and a club operated by a supporters trust could not do that, I think.

just not on ere

A supporters trust is a great idea but the supporters would only be able to raise enough money to support the club in the lower leagues. For instance it would take 10000 people to put £100 in each to raise 1 million. This may be enough to buy the club however people would need to continue to put that much into the club each year for it to be any sort of success and i just cant see that happening with the level of support we currently have.

If I was looking to buy the club, I would be waiting to see what happened about planning permission and the taxman. At the moment, buying the club is a gamble. If Ted is desperate for the cash, waiting for it to become less of a gamble won't necessarily increase the price.

Ted is not waiting for/wanting any cash and neither does he own the Club - he is the major shareholder.

The club, the ground and everything else belongs to Wakefield Trinity RLFC. I know the ground is sold but that money belongs to WT ... and will need to stay that way before Ted would hand over the reins.

The money put up by any investors is to secure the future of the Club, not to buy Ted out.

But as majority shareholder he would/could be an obsticle to any new purchaser.
They would want shut of him and to a lesser extent any of the sprogs/hangers on.

Ted is prepared to hand over his shares (to the right person/people!) so that he can go back to 'just' being a supporter like all of us.

For nowt?

Yes- but whoever comes in will need money for the business, so it ain't quite that simple.

No, I quite agree, but basically if someone meets his valuation, or an agreed valuation, then it's lock, stock and barrel. Ted is no more?

But it wouldn't have to be too much given Ted hasn't got any cash. Dependent on who has expressed an interest, someone with enough cash to sort out the latest tax bill and tide us over until we get to the new stadium, with a modicum of general business sense would be an improvement on what we currently have

There are 2 levels of investment which benefit the club to differing degrees. The first would be a low six figure sum - which would add to what we have and could result in a strengthening of the existing board with a view to handing over long term. The second would be a mid to high six figure sum, which would be sufficient to accomadate the existing arrangements with the banks and other ongoing commitments - such that a new BoD could take full control - if they wished to do so.

There maybe potential investors who would actually prefer to have Ted around, for a while at least, due to his knowledge and experience of running the club, but there may also be many who would prefer Ted to retire to the terraces. Whether any of them have sufficient, either singularly or together, to achieve either of the above is very much open to question at this time.

FWIW I consider the numbers involved to be extremely moderate for a top-division sporting organisation on the brink of moving to a new state-of-the-art home - but we are still challenged with finding someone who has even that amount of money. They have to exist in Wakey - have to!

It's hardly moderate for a business with little in the way of assets, no guaranteed imediate futureaftwr next season, no or little control over the ground situation (brink is optimistic, despite your and others hard work, even you must think brink is a bit talking it up!)
I know I'm being devils advocate, but anecdotes state, ted has a track record for saying he wants to sell and then doing what he can to put people off.
To me it's a lot for not a lot if it goes T*** up at the end of this season, at the start of thus franchise fare enough or at the begining of a succesful application this time around, but in the current surcumstances I think it's another of the anacdotes.

I didn't say that the amounts would all go to Ted himself - rather it's the amount required to finance the running of the club. If it were a couple of Coke ring-pulls and a Mars Bar - I'd be in there, but sadly it isn't!

No I know you didn't, and I know it will be x amount for ted and x amount as a going concern to keep the business running.
But for a business that makes nada, I would hope that teds bit is not going to be too off putting to anyone with a genuine interest in taking the club forward, should there be anyone of course.

oh give it a rest for god sake you are the clubs spokesman. get a grip

Well at least we have one then!