One thing all of this points to is that we need that support on Wood Street next Friday morning!

Hi everyone.Been watching all this from France for a few months
As a lifelong fan now in exile I am as desperate as you all are for a positive outcome on the 22nd.
Having read all the issues to be considered by council members at the meeting I was initially dismayed at the number of hurdles to be tackled.
Feel a bit better now as those who are obviously more experienced in these matters than myself remain positive.
Will be there in spirit on the 22nd.
Will definately be there for the first match at Newmarket.

i am going to miss the Leeds v Wakey derdy games.....

Derby even......

We won't miss you and your sarcy comments. Glad it humours you. Bye

Why - are they taking you away so to protect the public?

Got your work permit then.

Enjoy, I hope it works out for you.

no unfortunately the only thing being taken away is your super league license and given to Widnes. That I can say with 100 per cent certainty and I think deep down everyone on here knows it but does not want to accept it.
Even Richardson knows that is why after years of turning down investment, he is all of a sudden shouting from the rooftops to sell the club hoping some unsuspecting poked up millionaire to come along and give him the retirement fund he has already ed down the sink with bad business dealings!
For what it is worth kicking out Wakey is bull and it stinks and is pointless and what it will actually achieve is beyond me. Why they have to take one out is a joke and it would be easier to increase the league by 2 new teams if thats what they want.
Like I said i love the atmosphere a wakey Leeds game has especially at Belle Vue and the RFL are a bunch of jokers
and not a brain cell between them !!

Don't worry about it too much - there's a big dam full of water to pass under several bridges yet!

I think you may be given a lifeline by Crusaders going into Administration if the rumours actually happen.

However the RFL could decide to bring 2 teams up but I think, other than Widnes, you will fulfil the conditions of licence better if theres a chance you will have a stadium eventually within the 3 year licence. If Crusaders stay afloat it may be the end of the line which is a shame I dont want any RL side to be rejected a new ground the sport needs it as much as you do.

Don't forget to post the same thought on the Cas and salford boards as well.

Are true fans really concerned about the quality of grounds e.g. Wakefield, Salford, Castleford and even Saints I suppose?

If we were getting an average of 12k for each team maybe an issue but when has any game in the recent past refused admittance at the grounds mentioned. I know I am old fashioned but some of the best atmospheres in recent past are at the grounds mentioned.

I suspect all of the above will end up with similar stadia (is that the correct plural phrase?) but will lose the atmosphere. It has taken us 10 years plus to have something similar but we will never re create Central Park for a Saints Derby, but the JJB or DW has created its own atmosphere probably different but OK.

After saying this, people and history and the product they are watching are what matters. Glory fans come and go true fans last forever.

even true fans are now questioning why we can't have similar stadium to fred, tom and harry
bit like keeping up with the Jones'

Great post. One of my fondest memories was going over to Widnes one night after school and watching a great game (which we eventually lost!). It was windy, raining, sleet, and everything else possible, and just as we were about to get in the ground the floodlights failed. They eventually kicked off an hour later, and Geoff Bagnall and John Devereux were the stars of the show that night. It was after midnight when we got home, but it was a great game, a great atmosphere and a great night. I don't think it would have been so memorable if I was sat in a nice seat all nice and warm (althought at the time I wouldn't have minded!).

An interesting post and one that I whole heartedly disagree with!

I think you are right when you say true 'current' fans are not bothered about the quality of grounds but how do you encourage the next generation of loyal fans if you are playing in sub-standard and outdated stadia? As more and more things compete for our leisure time and disposable income we can't just say, well 'us' loyal fans don't care, we would go watch our teams in a muddy field! However, you then go on to talk about the best atmospheres and isn't it this that turned you into a loyal fan? If people don't come through the turnstile in the first place because they are discouraged by shabby grounds how do they get their nostalgic moment in the first place? If they are presented with a nice modern football or Rugby Union ground instead they will probably choose to got there instead.

Club Rugby Union in England is a good example of why this matters. It is only 5 or 6 years ago that Rugby League was the second biggest weekly spectator sport after football and only 2 years ago that we still had the best supported Rugby team in England in Super League (and this had been the case for some time, with Wigan, Bradford & Leeds all holding that title) . Now Rugby Union is the second biggest and they also now have the best supported Rugby club in Leicester Tigers... who are the second phase of a major redevelopment of their Wellford Road ground. Top flight Rugby Union is being generally played in modern stadium (some of them football stadia) and along with good marketing of an inferior product has lead them to grow average attendances significantly.

I like nostalgia and history too but you should not let that get in the way of development! I can think back to being at Headingley for the CC game against Widnes in 1987 when 27,000 were packed in, the CC Semi Final at Central Park in 1994 when Leeds got to Wembley for the first time since 1978! But if we don't attract new people to the games in the first place when will they have their nostalgia moment, what games will they look back on?

We should not let nostalgia and history get in the way of change and development and therefore the future of RL!

My thoughts exactly IA.

I will watch Wakefield even if they are playing on Heath Common, [ubut[/u I'd far rather watch them in a nice sparkly stadium, and I'm more likely to to take my family there, and more likely to go when it is peeing it down, and more likely to invite friends that support another sport and feel pride about my club......and on top of that we are more likely to gain sponsorship and investment for all those reasons too.

To me its not a big issue. York Court have made huge developments all over the UK im sure they have had words with the highways boys before. Them and the highways need to sit down and work together see whats acceptable. All this hard work cannot go up in smoke because some road may cause a issue. The road system up there is not safe anyway pulling out of newmarket to the middle and then going to leeds its dodgy anyway this development will improve the road system thisis someone who knows how dangerous it is as i have been using that road for 20 + years !

Its nothing to do with what you're saying the point is that the sport needs to progress to keep up with other sports so it doesn't go under. To do this it needs to be attractive. Im not local to wakefield so I cant use your place as an example but i have an example related to Saints. There was a forum for the lower football league that St Helens Town play in (shared knowsley road) and even the fans of that league described KR as a "sh*thole".

This doesn't make RL look good when lower league football stadia are of a higher quality.


This is the problem NOT atmospheres or attendances its just the sport needs to progress modernise and to do this the Stadiums have to be better.

I prefer the open aspects of going to Knowsley Road, The Jungle and Headingley etc. The only positive about being packed like a sardine in one of the newer grounds is that all of the away fans are together. Other than that it's an uncomfortable experience at the likes of Galpharm, Wigan and Hull etc.

you are indeed right, grounds should improve, but only if economically viable, perhaps in the current economic climate it would be unwise for clubs to blow fortunes on stadia, when day to day costs are increasing and profitability squeezed, arguabley new grounds may help this over the long term, but certainly not in the short term compared to any initial capital expenditure.
Most clubs are having or are rumoured to be having tax problems, gates are dropping, player wage demands are increasing year on year.
And of course these rules (stadia being one) don't appear to effect every club!
Catalan, quins and whichever crusaders could play at the council tip and the rfl woulnt bat an eye lid.

I'm not taking issue with the rest of your post but in reference to that bit, any tax problems that clubs are having are entirely self inflicted; they were caused by an attempt at tax avoidance that went wrong.

On the stadia issue though - I'm with IA; as hardcore fans, we'd probably watch our team play at Belle Vue 'til it fell down around our ears (which in reality isn't too far off) but we'd be the last of a dying breed; what's needed is new fans to replace us crusty old farts, and a new stadium will remove the barrier that Belle Vue has become to getting them there.

I agree with the bit in bold mostly the tax thing is though self inflicted and if you have tax issues then its your own fault for basically attempting tax fraud.

The Catalan Quins and Crusaders part though is very true as long as Crusaders dont now get a licence after administration then fine but remember Crusaders play at a pretty good stadium at the minute and Catalans is being updated and Quins is good its just the part that if they played at a stadium like yours then they probably would be ok.

I never understood that as Quins is a waste of time tbh.

Don't be too smug; every SL club (and most football clubs) have used the 'image rights' method to avoid paying tax on some player payments, not just WTW and Crusaders. I don't know who your team is, but that means they're more than likely to be getting their own bill in due course and, if they don't pay it within the prescribed timescale, their very own winding up order.

I'd also be very careful with chucking around accusations of fraud if I were you; never know who's reading.

hope you have a good lawyer



like bren2k said we are not the first and we won't be the last club to have the HMRC come knocking at the door

My mistake! Those shirts are too similar!!