We had paid out money to train at Featherstone so not to cut up the pitch, this way we can train on home turf and rent it out when it's not needed.

I'm not sure that this is true.

It's pretty good but, there are plenty of very good playing surfaces now.
Although traditionally, RL would be played on a pitch with plenty of grass and not the "smooth" carpet like surfaces that the round ball game is played on.
Places like Shudds, KC Warrington, Saints, Wigan and even Headingley are top pitches, better than ours I would say.

Disagree with you there Wrencat. Our pitch is one of the top in the league IMO. Hudds, Hull and Wigan are all football pitches.

The BV pitch is one of the best traditional pitches no doubt, but that's all it is. In the old days, it was especially liked because it was wide and fairly flat. These days that is hardly exceptional. Truth is it's not perfectly flat, you can clearly see it slopes slightly away from the middle, I assume this is one of the reasons it always drained fairly well.

However, this new stadium is for community use and to all but the most myopic the current pitch would never stand up to all-year-round use from just two teams (Football and Rugby), the addition of a third team and some community use would destroy it.

I suspect when they say 'community use" I suspect they mean for amateur finals and special event matches rather than Bill Bloggs and his mates hiring it for an evening of hacking about.

My guess is that on average it will be used perhaps on average 2 hours per day by the community, more in summer than winter.

Nah, a pitch is a pitch. There was a time when Rugby pitches had longer grass but they are all trimmed to a few millimetres these days. There is no difference IMHO. BV is a brilliant natural pitch but is no match for say Hudds or Saints pitch, which is laser flat and I believe partly synthetic. Not sure about Wigan though I suspect it is not totally natural. Headingly maybe, I'm not sure but then Leeds have an excellent training facility.

I think Grass pitches have had their day at this level. It's the harsh cost of living for all sports.

And we as a club that rents this

I'm pretty sure that this opinion that Belle Vue has one of the best pitches is an opinion that is many years old that everyone clings to. I've seen it looking plenty muddy and messy on plenty of occasions. Better than the likes of Hull KR but no way better than the most of the other pitches in the top flight.

And the money will help.

I think Wigan has had a lot of drainage problems, which is why they've had to repair it so often during the rugby season, but I think it's sorted now.

My dad used to say that BV was on top of a cinder base then sand and soil. I seem to remember while playing on the edge of the pitch as a very young boy this to be true.