Worth thinking about.

I think Barnsley is an "untapped" area for us and £20 in a stadium with decent facilities may not look too bad. Also may attract more away fans as you have said.

One stumbling block I can see is the rent. What would it cost to rent Oakwell, of course that assumes Barnsley would be willing to rent it to us. Having to cover the rent may make the move unviable.

Well worth a thread on its own to see how many would be prepared to travel to Barnsley for home games - if it helped the club progress I would.

From what I know Barnsley have already asked us to go there when Thornes Park went belly up

As far as costs, Belle Vue is costing quite a bit just to keep going day to day. I know we have got to replace some floodlights again and the bill for that is significant. I would imgaine the cost of staying at Belle Vue would go a long way to match day rent.

This seasons crowds have confirmed to me that Belle Vue is Killing us off slowly, next season will be even worse. All in all I don't think a move to Barnsley would be a gamble. It would be a smart move and more importantly retain SL status for the next franchise period.

I would probably grumble about it but would still go.

I suppose anything is worth a try as I can't see us increasing our crowds while at Belle Vue.

by the comments on here i suggest the newmarket plans have gone to pot

No they havn't, far from it.

However Belle Vue is killing us. I would be quite happy to make that our last season there. I also think we would be in much better shape going into Stanley if we got out now.

Like the other posters have said £20 to go and stand on a terrace with no cover and the most basic of facilities will kill us. The finest marketing facilities in the world could never overcome such an obstacle.

Start winning the important matches ie cc semi final last year, last nights playoff to name just two and the crowds will increase at belle vue. Yes we need a new stadium but to attract new supporters you have to win something or at least reach a final, something we have failed to do for too many years. The die hards will always be there, but to get new fans you have to give them a reason to choose Wakey to spend their hard earned money on. IMO Oakwell would be out of the question due to the cost, I am sure it cost a fortune when we played Saints there on the one off occasion.

Far too expensive, reflected across at Saint as well, 20 pound is all well and good maximizing proits at Headingley but its too much. While the RFL set the prices for these games I raised an eye-brow when it was mentioned that this would be the standard price next year too or our gate, I would suggest a re-think.

20 quid for Rugby League is certainly pushing it, I would like for us to see us at half the price, extra bodies in the ground and making up the shortfall on the extra funds you would generate in the per head spend a la Huddersfield.

Although we would probably need more lightbulbs in the loos.

i think you are all reading too much into last nights attendance, yes 4000 wasnt great but at our game at saints there was only at most 4500 saints fans, it looks like the play offs is suffering the same problems the cup is and that only time people seem interested are at the semi stage, for what its worth i cant see us getting many more next friday against catalans, maybe 5000 if we are lucky, do think the pricing policy for these matches needs looking at though, it always seems when the big games come around us the fans have to dig very deep, which at this moment in time is very difficult finacially for a lot of us, yes the die hard fans will do there best to get to the match, but the average floaters wont.

I agree it was a rip off. Up the prices because they know not many Catalan fans usually visit, but then we lose a decent amount of flipping home fans. Also, the sooner we are out of Belle Vue the better, if we don't relocate ASAP we will lose our firm place in SL. Would our crowd get into the average marker in the lower leagues

hmmmm.

Quite right but you can only generate that extra income if you have the facilities to enable you to do so. Thats were Belle Vue falls short.

and we are all fooling ourselves if we think we use someone elses ground we wil get to keep beer sales etc etc etc

barnsley and doncaster are no brainers for me, whats ther point??

sales pitch to new barnsley trin fans ???
hi were here for a year or two then we are going to move to further away than where you wernt bothered about coming previously???

While it may be ok for those in cars, for those who use public transport to get to games, the extra time for travelling, especially on a Sunday, would be a nightmare.

I'm sure Barnsley FC would love us there, just for the cash!

When we are talking about our poor crowds - going on with what somebody else said all the play off crowds are bad look at Wigan tonight

who don't? the fans? the ones who do turn up dont deserve to be in superleague because many 'fans' dont? strange logic !

The club.

Think it was partly a play-off quirk. Wigan only got over 8,000, and there looked to be a couple of thousand Cas fans there. So if you assume that Wigan only had 6,000 of there own there, we didn't do too badly, as there were only 20 Catalan fans there.

The Oakwell debate is a matter of timing alone. We can't move out of Belle Vue until Stanley is a definite. If Stanley falls through and we get a franchise out of Oakwell, then we have to stay there, and there is no longer a rugby club in Wakefield. If Stanley is a definite and work has started, then it might be an option just in case work is behind schedule.

On the other hand, if Stanley is under construction, I would rather see a few more games at the old lady of Belle Vue than go to Barnsley.

Wouldn't we also lose a franchise point as well at Oakwell for not filling 40% of the ground, plus the loss of the community stuff if our base is no longer in Wakefield?

surely the club and the fans are intrinsicly linked?

going through the attendances for the predictions it did open up my mind that we hadn't done that bad for the crowd,
Half way through the second half I just wish the crowd on both sides would of walked behind the sticks filled the end up and cheered Trin on, what I site that would of been (too many beers I think) but we do lack a togetherness, sporadic voices hear and there never get the crowd going

All fair points but in response.

Yes having now seen the other three gates we did not shape that bad but we were lucky it was a very nice mild evening. If it had been raining we may have lost quite a few more from that gate. Rain would not have been such an issue at the other grounds.

Don't see any reason why the community activity should be stopped in Wakefield infact we could increase it by expanding into other areas around the north of Barnsley.

Yes we may loose the 40% crowd point but we would gain the 2 other points by ground being fit for purpose and 12000 capacity.

Forgive me I just can not see the benefits of moving away from Belle Vue with approx 4-5K home support to then move to an area generally uninterested in RL to lose roughly 1.5K fans on a consistent basis. The one thing that is killing attendances is the price and the recession.

A couple of matches at Barnsley would suit, perhaps one of the big games (Leeds etc) in order to generate interest but you move the club outside of Wakefield for a year then the already limited presence the club has in the city would be lost. The club need more exposure not less.

The play off attendances are notoriously low, the all conquering Leeds only managed 11K with 2K Hull KR support, Saint even worse. Take the Huddersfield following then they would’ve had approx 5K.

A lot of comments about low attendances point to the fact a single person expense at match is roughly £20, for a family you looking at quadrupling that. I would like to see some sort of family ticket where by if mum and dad come along the kids get free tickets if pre-purchased.

The Wakefield support came to see the relegation decider, which fair enough was car crash entertainment, but it was still at Belle Vue. An 8K crowd came to Belle Vue when Diversity were there. The ground, to understate, has seen better days but the value of the ticket to the customer needs to be increased and then the support will come.

Must of them sat around us then!!

Maybe I have understated them, because they were a noisy bunch, and good on 'em. They had come a long way and saw their team win.

I think the point about losing the presence in Wakefield for a full year is a good one. The occasional match, yes, as a marketing tool, but not a full season. I just can't see the benefit of moving out if Stanley is making good progress, because if the spade can hit the dirt in time, we could well be ahead of a few other clubs plans (particularly if Cas are still dreaming of their own stadium) and that would surely do us good in the franchise application.

The point about value for money is a good one, and maybe we ought to take some gambles on concessionary and family packages.

I know the issue is that our attendances are low but look

League match , Play off match , Down
Leeds v HKR 16192 , 11220 , 35%
Saints v Hudds 8708 , 6157 , 29%
Wiagan v Cas 12079 , 8689 , 28%
Trin v Cats 4807 , 4008 , 17%

This doesn't take away from the fact that our attendances are v poor and [uthe club[/u has to take responsibility for doing something about it but it does put it in to the context of generally lower attendances for the first round of the play offs. As far as other's criticism of our crowd on Sat - these figures show that we actually did quite well!!

The club appear to be doing their best with respect to season tickets, the 6 month payment option is a good one and would help to spread the cost at approx £34 a month for the early bird offer. It's a great deal when compared to the £20 individual match fee.

THE SEASON TICKETS NEED ADVERTISING

My uncle been telling his friends (he and they are over 60) and many of them have said WOW ill get one at that price bargain at just over £6.40 a game.

Not everyone has computers and certainly not all of the elder generations so this needs to go in wakey express/guardian and other local papers,

We should be making a song and dance over the 5th place finish, academy top of league, home playoff, exciting players coming in. To the young and old £25 juniours, £80 odd quid OAP's and Students. And make adults aware of £20 a game so the season ticket price of £160ish is a bargain too.

Im afraid we have to SELL it to the public of wakefield and having the prices hidden in some long article on the website is not going to do it. !!!!!!

PLEASE FOR GOODNESS SAKE ADVERTISE IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!