This can only happen on a Wakefield forum brilliant news regarding the the new Community trust stadium plans of how it will look, positive news put out to the media and on the club official website and what happens!!! some people decide they want to share stadiums now.

The shared stadium issue has been raised before and Wakefield were for it cas were against it and have decided to go alone and good luck to them. Trinity have agreed to be tennents at the community stadium which is to be built in the middle of the WMDC area.
The community trust own the stadium and it will be for the benefit of the whole community. Funding is in place, plans have been drawn, up planning pushed forward to september. The trust visited LSV last week to see how it was it was run council involvement etc but it won't be the same design as LSV.
All positives regarding the project Sir Rodney the club and York court are doing us proud and it's about time this CITY and district had sports facilities to be proud of.
Next season to be the last at Belle Vue.

I have no idea who you are, I may know you and then again I may not. I do know TRB as do most on here. You do seem from your comments to be "in the know" and if what you say about funding being in place and I have no reason to doubt you then the only obsticle to overcome is planning. This should not be a problem IF we have the FULL SUPPORT of the Council and they are prepared to "fast track" it within the rules.

My reasons for speaking in favour of a ground share was my concern over funding. Castleford have had a planning consent for I believe around 2 to 3 years but work has not started as they have not had the funding. Some have said its in place but if it had been the stadium would have been built by now. They may be nearer with funding now but my guess is that they are still a way off having all the funding needed to commence construction.

One stadium in the neutral venue of Stanley would be easier to fund than 2 but if Castleford feel that Stanley is Wakefield even though its eqi-distant from both Castleford and Wakefield then I can fully understand their feelings. I certainly feel that Glasshoughton is Castleford as its around 1m from Castleford and 7m from Wakefield.

If we have the funding in place and we feel that planning will not be a problem and Castleford are not interested in a ground share then lets go it alone.

I do however think that this matter is not over yet.

Far too busy signing quota players to be bothered with this



Who could and i hope it works out for them.

I am with the future mob on this one.

I am old enough to remember the days when Hunslet were in full swing. They had their own ground and were equal if not better than Leeds on crowds and results. Hunslet v Leeds was a derby as big as anything in the game today and the passion was just as great.

History has not been kind to Hunslet and they are just a ghost from the past. They have a few hangers on who probably still like to dream about past glories. However a generation has been and gone and all that talk about local identity has also gone. Leeds now draw loads of support from south of the river and the majority of them will not be aware of the old bitter rivalries. Likewise if there was a shared stadium or a merged WMDC side in 10/15 years a new generation would be supporting that team from all over the district and they would not give a #### about Cas,Wakey of Fev.

Also if we continue with weak teams in this district there will be more and more young kids walking around our area wearing Rhino shirts. To me that is the biggest threat to the future and thats why I have no problem with a ground share or even a merger with Cas Fev or both.

However I still believe Stanley will be the first stadium up and running in WMDC. once that happens things will get interesting

Thats a hard one for me, we all think of ourselves and how it affects us, and you quite rightly point out the the future of RL in this area is under threat and that we must look to the future and maybe you are right.

No one can see into the future but we can all learn lessons from the past, so i suppose we may have to go with the flow on this one.

Having said that i hope and pray we can ALWAYS stand alone becuase thats half the fun of being a Wakey fan.

Apologies about this mate but the reality is that debates have been going on on this forum for a couple of years about the wisdom of sharing. The fact that WTRLFC approach Cas about it suggests that they believed in this wisdom too. Discussing the merits of a share is in no way a critique of those who are progressing on the community stadium

It has been clearly stated above that if Cas don't want to share then we wish them good luck going ahead on their own and we are greatful for all the work those involved in the community stadium.

Trintiy had a duty to invite Castleford along because even those anti share must admit that by doubling resources you can achieve a better stadium.At the time problems were all starting to crop up with Glasshoughton and its future looked in doubt so WMDC were also hoping that a ground share was the best solution. Strong pressure was put on Cas to come on board but they totally refused.

Like I said before I believe Stanley will be up and running first. If Glasshoughton is no way near completeion by then I can see WMDC loosing interest over there. If Labour loose control and Mr Box his seat then WMDC will definitly loose interest over there and Cas then may be forced into a ground share

The trouble in sharing is that both clubs represent different places and different communities. Most other organisations that share stadiums represent the one city or town which makes sharing that much easier. If Cas wanted to share the Stanley stadium then I wouldn’t have a problem, I would if Trinity needed to share with Cas at Glasshoughton, I imagine Cas fans would feel the same vice versa. Anyway the idea has being put to all parties and no agreement has been made so both clubs may as well just be left alone to get on with things on their own.

Slightly O/T, but I knew an ex-Hunslet player/director who seemed to hold more bitterness towards Wakey than Leeds because he believed we did a con job in getting up where as Hunslet had been cheated out of their no doubt 'rightful place' in the top flight. Then again, I don't think he enjoyed his very brief stint in charge of Wakey.

If we do have a shared stadium, could I respectfully request that my seat is 'washed' prior to each Trinity home game.




Furthermore, would I have to move seats when we play Cas in the 'away' fixture?

I find myself agreeing with nearly every single poster in turn on this thread, which seems to highlight the complexity of the problem and the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

As far as the stadium (or stadia) is concerned, IF we have secured the funding to build a new ground in Stanley, it seems fair to assume that a large proportion of the funding will have been secured by way of grants from public bodies. If we've already tapped into this funding, it also seems fair to assume that it'll be much harder for Cas to secure funding from the same sources for a similar project only a few miles away. The same could be true in reverse, of course. If the funding for the Cas project is in place, we would have the same difficulties raising the money required to fund ours. And if neither is in place, we may end up in a state of paralysis which sees neither project come to fruition, at least not within the required timescale.

Under those circumstances, a ground share would be the only sensible option for both parties. Of course, it may well be that both clubs have the necessary funding in place, but in the current economic climate, that seems very unlikely to me, though I hope I'm wrong.

The community stadium is a shared staduim in essence that will be for the use of the whole district, were just tennents of the facility and it all sounds good from what I'm hearing

Interesting thread (uncharacterisitic for these groundshare chats). FWIW I think I'm with the prevailing sentiment here - It's just not going to happen. I do think one or two in the pro-camp are missing an opportunity though. I've read that there are shining examples out there of sharing/merging (I don't believe for a second the two aren't different sides of the same coin) which have had a positive effect, but I'm yet to have one highlighted. Of all the examples I can come up with, to be honest I don't like the outcomes of any of them.

Maybe it's less important to Wakey fans as, in all probabilty, the team to emerge afterwards would be called (or at the very least start with) 'Wakefield'..? That's not acceptable to me I'm afraid though. In any joint venture Cas would - by the simple expedient of being perceived as 'small town' - end up being the poor relation. The Sheffield, the Gateshead, the Illawarra... the long since assimilated historical remnant that very few (if any at all) even recognise anymore. 'Wakefield/Castleford Trinity Tigers' would of course become Wakefield Tigers (or some such) in a very short space of time, and a fair chunk of the home support would still refer to them as "Trinity" too. This is why IMHO Cas have rebuked all advances, be they at Glasshoughton or at Stanley, and I applaud them for it. For Cas to share/merge is for Cas to sign their own slow death warrant.

Far better to take our chances alone than suffer such a fate, and if we end up in the lower leagues, well at least we'll still exist.

Good post, and understand your point totally!

Here here

Got rather emotional reading that. Sort of made me realise how much id miss watching Cas.

I would rather watch Cas v Dewsbury in the championship that watch Wakefield Tigers win the superleague

The question is Steve will the next generation ?

I don't know about your lot over there but there are plenty of young kids in Wakey walking round with Rhino shirts. The Cas you talk about in the future could still have a following of oldfarts that remember the glory years but the young kids will watch the merged side in SL especially if they are doing reasonably well.

Those are very fair points, but just out of interest, would you, or anyone else on here, follow a SL team that didn't carry the name of either Wakefield or Castleford or Featherstone but was based in the area and made up of lads from those 3 areas, with a smattering of top class Aussies to compliment the squad, if you could also support your local team in the National Leagues?

A merger is something that would only ever happen if one club was to fall behind the other in such a way that is was no longer viable to have 2 clubs, this is probably one of the primary reasons why neither club has ever really sat round a table and discussed sharing.

I should think most people are going to follow their heart & support the club they've always followed....I know i would.

I strongly doubt it. I can't say no outright because I can't begin think how it would be marketed, what its identity would be, etc. On the surface it seems like an appalingly bad idea to me - the kind only marketeers and business gurus could come up with.

The only comparison I can think of at the moment is that my other half supports Brentford FC, a League 1 soccer team unlikely to make the Premiership any time soon. She has no desire whatsoever to follow - even passively - any other London team on the grounds that it's in the Premier League. Why? Because she's a Brentford girl.. always has been, always will be. End of.

But in this scenario, you could in theory follow both.

Just asking the question. Everyone wants to hang on to their own club, and rightly so. But many people recognise the limitations of that when it comes to sporting success. There are so many players from the area who come from one place and play for the other, and we don't seem to mind that, as long as they're "one of ours".

Are Catalans or Celtic Crusaders not similar entities (albeit in slightly different ways)?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the proposal but I don't think they are, no.

Assuming my ropey French RL history is right, XIII Catalan and St Esteve merged to form UTC which eventually became the Dragons. UTC still play in the French comp, but do XIII Catalans or St Esteve still exist? I didn't think they did, suggesting to me that UTC's French league commitments aren't much more than reserve grade Rugby for the Dragons. Like I said though, it's not something I'm that knowledgeable about so I could be wrong. I certainly can't judge on how UTC or former XIII Catalans & St Esteve fans view their various allegiances but isn't it also true that ALL the above clubs are/were based in the city of Perpignan and thus had a common banner to unite under?

As for the Crusaders, they were born of Celtic Warriors RUFC which as I understand it was by any measure an unmitigated disaster of a Union merger between Pontyprydd and Bridgend. Again though, I concede my knowledge of Welsh RU is even more spartan than that of French RL.

Im pretty clear on my views on this and Im pretty much with Disco, you could watch a merged team but what we do now is follow and support, we are wakefield and castleford and featherstone. Id rather see wakey cas and fev in a lower league and surviving than one all encompassing "calder" type arrangemt in a shiny super stadium winning every week. I know im approaching old fart status but its a bit like an old dog, it may smell but yoou still love it, so you dont put it down and go and buy a new puppy.

the footbal analogy has been used but the real wimbledon and fc united fans of this world are the real ones, we mock the drift from bradford to leeds and back based on success, so we cant just do the same. In short a merged cllub is a new club not my club, and no I would not watch both if both existed

Part of the love of trin and cas these days is the survival, and a really hope both clubs do, shiny stadia or not.

Having watched Richard Wright he looked like a man who was bluffing when asked about the future of Castlefords stadium. When asked about a ground share he more or less stated that it could be possible.

Complete change of stance from his no share attitude about 12 months ago.