I can't agree. Most of the people who say they wouldn't come actually would - if it was done properly, I'd be confident of retaining half of the existing support of each club; the task then is to build on that, with success on the field being the most obvious route.

A SL team, a feeder team in the lower tier and the best jr pathways in the country; with the right people in charge, commercially, it would sell itself.

Maybe it's time for a revolution?

Funny how I was talking to a lad on our street who is a Cas fan and he would go with the idea hes in his mid twentys.I would not go with the idea and never would and Im in my fiftys and talking to a lad at work whos a cas fan and he said andmeans like me he could never go with the idea and hes round my age.Reality says that if one got a sugar daddy and the other did not it could be the death of the other also looking at reality some day it will possibly come sooner than later.I would not be going to the games and its no use anyone saying I would because no matter how good that side became it would not be the side I have watched for years.

ditto

No1 I shall put the humble pie in on gas mar 4

.

Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the opening poster but for the last 7/9 years (yep life before RLFans) the old guard were forever loading whatever from peashooters to nuclear weapons when ever I mentioned the much hated M word.

Question is a, who b, who tells em.

Remember distance is not relevant and I don't want shuddwoddywoody fans crying or old faithful with a gordey accent its just fact that you merged with a club with no relevance and from a different county to save the RFL embossment.

It will happen one day just like in a few decades or maybe sooner we will have just one code of rugby,

Merger? No thanks.

the merger of two mediocre clubs to make a super club ain't going to work because it needs more money than each clubs got and most of that has been frittered away trying to chase dreams of going it alone,
it now seems that we have no choice but to hope a wealthy backer comes along in the for see able future otherwise we will never be able to compete against the top 6.

the guesstimate of the attendance for a merge side where does this come from? its a massive risk to take over the proviso that each club can bring 5k of fans to build on

as a kid I used to support Leeds in football and when Clough took over I never forgive them for it and never returned to feel the same about the club, I even thought of supporting another club Liverpool, Aston Villa but it never seemed the same, so if that's anything to go by there's not a cat in hell chance for me to even mulling this one over.

if the club still exists it will have one fan at least. WTID

as for one code of rugby I don't think that will ever happen RL is here to stay, total different in each other but I do admit it could have to go semi professional like the good old days

My heart says NO!
I have been banging the drum on here about us having a Mr Big to spoil us with money as I see that as the only way forward if we stand alone.
My head says YES - as did Maurice Lindley's all those years ago! The bloke had it right but what he overlooked was the passion involved with the three clubs.
You know, having had a taste of SL for years - with no team having won anything - just barely survived - I just wander what public opinion would be now. I know on here, we're mostly diehard Trinity fans who would be against it, me included, but in theory, I see a merged club with gates of possibly 10-12,000 regularly, a wealth of talent to go at and I think a top four team.
Pity it won't happen.

again can you show me where a 10K - 12K supporter base would come from because I don't see it, more 6k-7K from a start club and that could drop

SL as it stands is a competition dying a slow death. IMO there are only 3 or 4 clubs based on current expenditure who are self sustainable. The rest are either struggling badly or are totally reliant on one persons wealth to cover their losses.

If it went back to only being able to spend a percentage of income on players wages but still with a max cap, then clubs would be forced to cut their cloth accordingly and reliance on a wealthy benefactor would not be such an issue.

Never

No I can't - just off the top of my head, I should have put the word 'potentially' before the figure!

so you see it could be the death of both clubs, I've spoke to many fans that have stopped supporting the club and there's been a multitude of excuses as to not coming back

You may be right. All theory anyway because I just cannot see it happening.

Don't like it. I'd rather drop a division.

You could only guage a merged team's attendance based on its location. Say the merged "Calder" team played in Wakefield - how many CT and FR supporters would attend matches ? Not many I bet. Likewise if the merged team played in Featherstone or Castleford - how many WTW would watch that ? It will never happen - and the main reason for it not happening is there is nothing to gain from it.

We need each other to survive as separate entities. If you go out of SL - CT might gain a couple of players and a few juniors might be tempted to sign for us - thats all. What we would lose financially from WTW not been in the top flight will far outweigh these gains.

You are our Yin to our Yang, we are your fire to your water and so on.

Personally if I wanted to watch a successful local side I had no affinity with I already have two options. Leeds and to a lesser extent Huddersfield. Wherever this merged team would play would alienate the othet two sets of supporters, and the merged entity would need some serious investors to cover the losses its likely to make for 10 years or so until the new generstion of fans who had no previous allegiance to one of the three come through.

Its a no from me.

Merged team my



Fev own their ground and 17 acres of land, Cas own their ground, why would they want a merger ? Its embarrassing to even mention it on here, just shows how desperate the situation is, to even contemplate such action. They have and will always have the power position due to assets, and its simple as that, and as such, we would always be the ones to succumb to demands. We don't even own the cheer leaders FFS, let alone the ground

Just as a matter of interest when and who was BV sold to

Tillion (Ted) who since defaulted so now the BOI owns it.

No, no and no. Sounds like you have given up already, you may has well go support Leeds or Bradford rather then put together a "team" we have said no to for the last 15 years if all you want to watch is super league.

As a Fev fan, I wouldn't be against a merger with Wakefield. I wouldn't want Cas anywhere near it though.

While there is a rivalry with Wakefield, I have much more affinity with you than I do Cas. I go to three or four Trinity games every year as a corporate guest.

The question is though, what would we gain? We are in a far stronger financial position than you and we believe we can make SL on our own once the restructure comes in.

The only thing we have to gain from a merger is early entry to SL, I don't think it's a price worth paying.

Hope you get things sorted

Newmarket would be the obvious location if we were to merge with Cas. Pool resources, get rid of the grounds and start again. I would support that. Both Cas and us would have to cease to exist though for any chance of it to work. I would also welcome Feath if they wanted to join but they appear (despite being in the Championship) to currently be the best run and most promising club so I'm not sure if they would be interested.

The reason it would be attractive to Fev is that no matter how well run they are, they will never, ever, EVER get enough people through the gates to be a viable SL club; they look likely to go up next season and that will be the beginning of the end for them.

I realise it's a tough sell, but in the current economic climate and with the game's future structure stitched up by the RFL and a few wealthy clubs, the only way to maintain top flight RL in the district is to think outside the box; Cas are on a knife egde and always have been - it's no use talking about the stadium as an asset when in actual fact, it is has no real value - if they monetised the 'asset,' they'd have nowhere to play and it wouldn't realise enough to build a new stadium. They're also massively in hock to an aging chairman. Fev are doing some good stuff but as I've said, they will never be sustainable in SL due to the tiny number of supporters.

I'm not necessarily advocating this as something that I'd want, but it seems to me to be the only solution to the different problems faced by all 3 clubs; without a Davy or a Kockrash, all of us are doomed to drop out of SL - it's all well and good a few old farts like us saying 'I'd rather watch lower league than a merged team,' but that's rather missing the wider value of a top flight team; fewer kids would participate in the sport for starters and those who did and were any good, would be hoovered up by Leeds, Shudds etc. Working together might not suit some of us, but we'll be pushing up daisies soon and unable to buy a season ticket - for that reason, a lot of our invective should be ignored.

I dont want to start digging up old arguments here but for a start off deffinatly no to a merger for the 1001 reasons gone over in the past and as for playing at Newmarket (what Newmarket) there is nothing there and not likely to be any time soon, sorry but thats the cold hard truth of it, there is as much at Glasshoughton as there is at Newmarket NOTHING.

With the new league structure coming in it would propably see us fev & cas playing each other in the middle league which will attract big crowds and to be honest it will be better than the non event that SL is now