What no one has mentioned for a while, and I stand to be corrected on this if I am wrong, is the covenant (?) on BV that states that until we are provided with an alternative home then it must remain a rugby stadium for Wakefield Trinity ??

Sorry a friend of his

Yes that used to get mentioned quite regularly at one point and I thought that's why the BOI didn't basically kick us out when they owned the ground for all those years. Have we in fact got a covenant because it doesnt sound like it atm?

Not directly but i know someone who does know him, and i know he usually gets what he wants. Normally i’m fairly positve as regards Wakey outcomes and we always tend to somehow survive. This time though the feeling deep down isn’t good. Fingers crossed i’m wrong.

There isn’t a covenant on BV, it was a planning condition placed on the permission for housing that expired long ago. It could be requested to be added to any future application but it is at the behest of the planning commitee. Sport England aren’t as stringent as they used to be over pursuing these matters anymore either due to changes in government policy.

That would be Box's planning committee then

The ground is not a pot of gold. The land is. But maybe you're right. I'm sure Manni will regret not being able to turn a large piece of prime real estate on a major route into a sports ground and be stuck with a lease that can generate an annual income but never be able to sell it on to a developer who might want to turn into a housing/retail/commercial/entertainment complex. Given how much he'll regret it, I'm sure he is currently battling alongside MC to make sure the Council do the right thing, rather than speaking and acting in a way more likely to ensure we move.

Oh, hang on ....

The land and the ground are the same thing
You seriously aren't getting it


The ground is the easy fast deal for him, it can be commercial / retail or what ever it needs to be next to the stadium

Turning it in to housing might not even be possible and it will be a long process

He's battling with mc to get the deal he wants not the deal that we want, if it were that easy and profitable to turn it in to a housing estate do you not think he would have done that already!?!

Go and read IAs post in the statement of dilapidation thread
He is one of a very small handful of people who has a knowledge of what's going on here

You lack understanding in theatre and sales, I'm not having ago here but trying to make you see what you can't see
Theatre is what you are seeing on social media and in the press, everyone wants the stadium to happen now
It's just the terms that aren't right for everyone (at the moment)

No, they are not. The ground can only ever be the ground. The land can be whatever Manni wants it to be.

I don't doubt that 88M would be content at getting a deal he likes over rent and other incomes from the ground, because it's an easy churn. But if he won't get it on his terms, because MC won't agree those terms, I doubt he'll be bothered. I don't think for a moment he bought Belle Vue for the opportunity to own a sports ground and collect rent from it. He bought it because it was a rock-bottom price for a large piece of land, because the club was told not to bid for it.

If we won't agree his rent, I'm pretty sure he'll shrug his shoulders, let us leave, and the bulldozers will be in by Christmas as he works out how he can best get a return from his land. There is a desire to make it work on his terms, and there is a desire to make it work. Two different things. If the club's terms are different, Manni won't bat an eyelid, I'm sure.

Tweeted Aaron Bower: Wakefield Trinity expected to make their position clear on stadium situation in next 24 hours. Club’s hierarchy been in dialogue all day

Absolutely right - developers are quite used to banking land for future profit, and you can bet your bottom dollar that there is WAY more profit in that land if the club folds and he gets a blank piece of paper to fill with whatever he wants; and given his coordinated work with Box in terms of forcing the club into a corner, it's safe to say that planning permission for whatever he wants to do will be waved through.

I don't see the argument that WT holds a strong hand in that regard - for all his nice speech when the fantasy drawings came out, he is quite clearly not interested in the long term welfare of WT - he's interested in profit; which seems to be the common motivation of all the vultures currently working against the club, including Rodney Walker.

Who advised MC not to bid for the ground?

I believe it was a "knight" in tarnished armour

You mean Sir Rod(the quango kid).

I'm amazed we took that advice.

I wonder if MC had bought the ground would WMDC secured funding for the trust to redevelope BV.

After everything that had gone on up to that point, so am I tbh. At the very least it would have been an asset and we wouldn't be in the very precarious position we are now & given us somewre to play in the mean time. If Newmaket ever had come about, MC and CB could have probably made some decent money on it, considering it was up for £600k. Wonder what 88m actually paid for it in the end?

No, you're amazed in retrospect.

The advice came from Rodney Walker chairman of the Trust at the time backed up by a promise from YC that they would buy it.

At that point we were still showing some trust in people. For those who still think you can negotiate with these low lives let that be your lesson.

Personally I would have bought it but then it wasn't my money it would have been MC's money - a lot to ask really.

Spot on Vasty

As far as I know Yorkcourt even said the purchase contract was already in their possession and just needed signing.

And it's things like that which might help the club in court. There's an old legal adage that "he who comes to equity must come with clean hands". Some of the hands in this mess are downright filthy.

Nope I'm amazed. The only retrospective is that i didn't know at the time they did it.
It's business. You don't trust anyone like that with such a big deal.if they were that trustworthy they could have given us the money and we'd have bought it r Carter get a loan and buy it off us later.
They'd have laughed at that idea. As we should have.

Ah, another one who doesn't know the full story and who wasn't involved who somehow would have done better than those who did. Your desire to be contrary is just plain odd.

The Club and the Trust took Sir Rodney's advice in good faith. MC is not a property developer it's not his job to secure land for the trust is it! Where exactly do you think he was going to find half a million quid?

Why this attempt to divert blame is a mystery why anyone would criticise the club for taking advise and acting honourably is beyond me.

There are two people to blame for this fiasco - Peter Box and Rodney Walker. Forget about the developers or anyone else. The focus must be on these two any version from that plays into their hands.

The Council promised us a development that included sporting facilities for Wakefield via a 106 agreement which is legally binding - they have failed to deliver in every respect but more to the point they have done so by IMO a number of illegal acts.

Just a quick question to you PB simply because you first brought it up, why is it that WMDC want to build a new community stadium on somebody else's land which is not big enough, when there is a site at Newmarket ideal for the job.

They don't, they don't want to build a stadium at all - why, god only knows.

The reason for this is that Box knows full well that when the first new stadium in the WMDC district is built, then there will be no impetus at all for a second one. His problem is that as his preferred choice of the one at Castleford is stalled he has to work even harder and more outrageously to place obstacles in the way of a stadium for the City. He has no shame at all in doing this as he believes he is untouchable.