The city population is more like 100k, which means a paltry 3% of the local population watch Trinity compared to approximately 15% who turn out to watch Cas. This highlight the point in The Avenger's post about a lack of civic pride in the city. The club really do need to engage with the public some how.

Which ties in with lack of success and ambition for 50 years no other SL club and even a lot of championship clubs have had the same lack of success. We need stadium situation sorted ASAP and build on from there.

I don't think you are comparing the right numbers there but the point still stands.
Not enough people living in Wakefield want to watch Trinity.

For years the club's failed to engage with the Wake public, the club's made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. It's links with the local paper have never been used to a full potential the marketing side seem very poor. If you link that to M Cs reluctance to speculate you have no hope of any improvements in the near future.

Interesting that most posters use the name Trinity. I'm sorry but that is part of the problem. We need to engage with new customers (yes customers) and move on. It is not 1963 anymore and a name that sounds ancient does not attract the young people we need.

I think we should just be Wakefield Wildcats and drop the Trinity.

Can't agree with dropping Trinity, it is part of our history and heritage and should be preserved. But there is also the more modern marketing aspect that the Wildcat moniker brings and like it or not (i don't personally) it can add value, especially with the younger fans. Just leave it as it is for now, we don't need to be alienating anyone and a rebranding exercise would be an expensive course i doubt we can afford.

You keep peddling out this world famous line and i really wish it was true but i'm afraid you are looking at it very misty eyed. It just isn't really the case anymore. Put it this way when i go on holiday unless it's actual RL fans i'm talking to when i say where i am from nobody ever replies 'ah the home of Wakefield Trinity'. It's normally ''Wakefield, where's that?' Hell half the people in Wakefield itself don't seem to release there is a club here these days. And when people think rugby league think don't think Wakefield i'm afraid. Whilst a new stadium may give a short term boost to morale (although i personally think it is in the wrong place but thats just my opinion) i doubt it will make a great deal of difference to out standing in the world order. We have lost too many fans already and are in very real danger of losing the next generation without some promotion of the club which isn't going to happen under this leadership. They'll be no 60's style domination within my lifetime without a Koucash style businessman appearing and that doesn't seem very likely.

I have to say that Wakefield is near Leeds. Face facts, Wakefield Trinity is not world famous

The fanbase is there. We've seen it rise pretty quickly when promise has been shown. For me, the principal villain is Yorkcourt. Had a new ground been on its way, we would have been an attractive option for investment and sponsorship, with reduced overheads and more to spend on players. Because they haven't, we are expecting people to pay a lot of money to watch a currently inept and broken team lose in a worn out old stadium. It is no wonder people are not bothering.

Although MC's stated intention to provide the team the level of support dictates makes some financial sense, there is also an additional obligation on a business to make its product attractive to consumers. I thought the squad was okay on paper. Not world beaters, not a Grand Final team, but with an outside shot of a top 8 finish. Now, they are just not looking good, and we look a long way behind every other team in the league.

Our only hope is that our good patch comes at the back end of the season and our bad patch is now. Going back to 2006, we stayed up not just because we won games but because Cas started losing them. Remember Odsal, watching the screen at the result from Salford? It was only in our hands at the last game. So it's about timing, and I'd rather hit the grim patch now than August. Which is a woeful way to look at your team.

If we agree that the current state of the team is due to mainly to finances, and the inability to buy quality, if we go down the tubes or the league, the main villain will be Yorkcourt, in my eyes.

Think you've just shown a good example of bad the wildcats name is. 17 years of using it and the majority prefer to use our traditional Trinity

Regardless of name it's the product that is poor for the entrance fee that has to be paid which is the irony....without the gate receipts how does the quality of the product improve?

Only with a big investor I'm afraid and I think that investment, along with sound quality player recruitment (showing strength in depth) and then decent marketing to appeal to young and old would lead to a healthier crowd attendance of around 8000-9000.

As soon as Trinity develop a reasonable squad though without that type of investor(which is not a worry this season) the bigger clubs come along and buy their best players as they can't compete financially....Topliss, Skerrett,Ellis, Brough,Amor,Aiton etc... A fit Kirmond will be next.

Disagree with adding value I can't see any value of having the daftest add on name in Rugby League other than offering more amunition for other clubs fans to throw at us. As for helping attract younger fans as young as 9-10 year olds want to be street cred nowadays and a cartoon cat doesn't do that. Our first home match of the season I couldn't help notice the young HKR fans wearing the badge that they haven't changed in years same as their dads and grandads. The wildcats add on was a rushed I'll thought idea from start to finish.

My line of work gets talking to people all over the country and when they find out I'm from Wakefield, Wakefield Trinity gets mentioned more often than not. If they don't know about us I educate them.

I agree with dropping the Wildcats. Reconnect with the city. Go for the nostalgia trip. Certainly can't do any harm, because there is no way we can sell it as modern and vibrant, because that bubble pops the minute they arrive at Belle Vue. The one asset we do have is heritage and history and there is nothing wrong with cashing in on that. Look at Huddersfield and "birthplace of rugby league" on the badge. Cartoon cats make good mascots, and you don't have to lose that (the Saints mascot has nothing to do with the club), but I still don't like the Wildcats branding and would happily get rid of it.

I'd love to know what difference it actually makes. I suspect, very little. Kids decide early on if they look the game. A cat on the badge makes no difference. I never stood on the terraces when I was a kid feeling that what was missing was some kind of gimmick, a bit of Americanism. And if I won the Euromillions and bought the club, the first thing to go would be the name.

If I won the Euromillions the first thing to go is the wife

Then I'd buy Wakey

I'm going to check that post tonight. If she looks at this forum, I bet it's edited later!

Only one boss in my house

Edited for accuracy.

Don't get me wrong i don't particulalrly like it myself but i i see the marketing angle with the young ones and i don't see what benefit will be gained by dropping it at this point. It would take an expensive re-branding which we can ill afford and is hardly going to get the lapsed fans flooding through the gate anyway, it would ultimately be a pointless exercise. Leave it as it is for now. As for street cred, Trinity doesn't really do that either so thats a pointless argument and precious few people have much civic pride anymore so they are not going to strut around in wakey gear like i did as a lad whatever badge is on the front.

Not the experience i get and as i said i wish it wasn't so. As for educating them telling them we were a good side forty years ago and done nothing doesn't really wow them to be honest. Maybe a successful side could put the city back on the map but i really don't see it happening in my lifetime without a maeg-rich benefactor who will subsidise everything.

So currently Yorkcourt is the bogeyman but who else can you blame for the last 30 odd years?.

However as you say it might be a blessing having a bad run now and pick up form later on. Win against Halifax and a favourable draw in the next round could work wonders for confidence.

Anthony Wedgewood Benn.

Just on the basis that they presented at last a chance to get out of the mire we are traditionally in, and as far as I understand it, were obliged to do so as the price for getting the development they wanted. What happened in 1980-whatever is irrelevant, that was a change for the here and now.

Personally, I'd rest a lot of players for the cup. Wembley is unlikely. Give them all a few days off after the Leeds game, and get them to report for work rested and fresh and ready for a new start.

Just a question, what kind of mascot would a dreadnought be?

A warship? How cool would that be!!!

Almost as good as Herbie the Hammer was.