Wilson's premise that there is a business case for merger is without question valid. That there would be passionate objections is also true.

What I find fascinating is that almost everything he says applies to 90% of SL clubs and nothing he says wasn't true 10, 20 or 30 years ago, yet both Cas and WT have competed and contributed hugely to the game in this period.

Ignore the falling gates - ''crowd numbers fall amidst growing unemployment and recession'' shock horror.

Clubs struggling to hold onto junior players - this has been the case throughout the entire 30 years of my being a trinity supporter.

For me the RL at Red hall need to take a strategic lead upon this. I don't for one minute believe in the inevitability of merger but I think anything other than ground share is tantamount to the game pouring millions down the drain - and that is certainly not good business. However at the present time the arbritrary deadline for licences is in danger of forcing decisions at both clubs that threaten the integrity and ongoing viability of the sport in the WF postcode area and wider.

Whilst the development areas are being artificially trussed up by flexible application in rules it is a quixotic and nonesensical to force both Cas and Wakefield to develop stadia seperately in fear of being ousted from the SL clique.

A merged would be the end of me supporting RL I'll go watch Wakefield FC. I support Wakefield Trinity have done for 28 years and always will. Get the stadium sorted and no ones said it won't happen and then we'll be sorted. We're the biggest City in England with out a pro football team and we have the business and support base to support a top 6 SL side in our own right. With the mismanagement and and crap facilities we've had to put up with (worst in rl) i'm surprised with got the support we have. A new stadium would benefit and move Trinity up that ladder more than it would any other RL club. We're big enough on our own just Belle Vue is strangling the life out of us.

IN SIR RODNEY WE TRUST

TRINITY FOREVER

if you merge two teams with no money you get one team with no money. how is that a good business move?

cas £00
wakey£00

cas + wakey = £1,000,000,000

i must be missing something.

if you want to know what happens when two small clubs merge check out sheffield and huddersfield.

hardly dominated superleague have they?

not quite so, stadium issues apart the financial element of a merged club is potentialy much better.

Only one MAJOR club to draw on the big sponsors in the WMDC
A bigger club geographicaly would be more attractive to a National/multinational sponsor
Any merger would possibly draw an incentive from the RFL and/or a financial incentive from SLEs SKY Money

e.g. £1M from the RFL as per HUdds/Sheff & Hull/Gathd + a staged reduction of the money due from SKY if the 2 clubs had remained seperate.

RFL Money
£1M
SKY Money
Year 1 Cas £950K + Wakefield £950K = £1.9M for the merged entity
Year 2 Reduced to £1.6M
Year 3 Reduced again to £1.25M
Year 4 as per all other SL clubs

I could come round to the idea of sharing a ground. Games can be played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday so it wouldn't be difficult organising the fixtures to suit each team.

I couldn't however come round to the idea of watching a merged team!

A community stadium you mean, built in the middle the of the WMDC area and with out any council funding.

IN SIR RODNEY WE TRUST

TRINITY FOREVER

A community stadium you mean, built in the the middle of the WMDC area and with out any council funding.

IN SIR RODNEY WE TRUST

TRINITY FOREVER

I've been thinking about this for a few months and in all honesty I would be up for a merger. For me, I stick with the team because of memories at the ground and because of loyalty to the brand but lets face it, the name we all associate with the club has already been dropped and we want out of the ground we all have fond memories of!
I was born on the day that we were last at Wembley, I’m now 31! We need to move forward and perhaps this is the way to do it!
To those of you saying you’d not follow them, how many people have already voted with their feet against the Wildcats now? Perhaps they would come back if we co-formed a large club playing in a brand new stadium with a team of players who actually felt proud to pull on the shirt and could actually contend week in week out? I'd be up for some of that!!!

Ground share for me no problem. When all this franchise was announced I said the RFL (mr lewis) was trying to run it like football with nice new stadia but I can't see it. All this will do in this economy is fold the less fortunate super league clubs and make a lot of people out of work.

Richard Lewis you need to walk

=#8000FFExactly! a good team turning out and in a season or 2 all the "no chance" folk will crawl back and start watching in the top class facilities watching a quality side.

Bet you a pint we don't

Merger.. watching from 12000 miles away I would have to say... I would stock up on as many Trinity video, dvd, and other media as I could ... then concentrate on being a sharks fan...


Super League would lose its point, and I would bother even watching it on TV

I have to say that it would be very much like the endof The Trueman Show for me!

Once the old club had gone and the show was over I would get on with the many other things that I don't find time or energy for right now.

So to cut to the chase if Trinity and Cas stand on their own on a scale of 1 to 10 what chance of
1 New stadium before 2012
Wakefield 3
Castleford????

2 Franchise come 2012
Wakefield 3
Castleford 3

3 club folding in the National Leagues
A Wakefield without doubt
B Castleford would survive

No brainer for me time to stop prating about MERGER before both clubs lose out to Widnes and the Frogs

If a merger did happen I would find it hard to support it. In my mind it would be no different to following Leeds or Huddersfield. I would have no affinity towards the manufactured team.

However, should a new Wakefield Trinity rise from the ashes playing at say Collage Grove then I would support them. It may be at a lower level but so be it.

Under his leadership, the RFL has flourished. People point to what they perceive as negatives, but, as a sport, we are in a much better place now than we were before. Look at the disaster that was the 2000 World Cup and how the international game was pretty much dead, until the last few years when we have a calendar of events, and the smaller nations playing on a regular basis. Heck, even the 2nd/4rd tiers of the sport are on telly every week - only football has that pleasure!

Back to mergers, if it happens, it happens. This isn't the same as Huddersfield-Sheffield and should not be compared to that which was a shotgun marriage for obvious reasons, as was the GatesHull debacle.

Should the question be asked, do we want a club which can go forward and compete for the top players, keep the young talent and challenge for honours, or would we be happy to continue as is, with perhaps life outside the elite once more?

I will happily watch a Wakey Trin side in the championship but i would never support a merged team, for that reason neither would i support a shared stadium as once we where in we would be pushed into a merger.

Bring on the Northern Rail Cup.

SL is not the be all and end all some make it out to be.

Fact is Wakefield Trinity will not exist outside SL wake up

think you are confusing fact and opinion

Sorry for taking a while to respond to Khlav's question.

What i have been told is that WMDC dare not pass the planning without some consultation with our 'overlords' at LMDC as the threat of a possible public enquiry into the development at Newmarket would completely scupper the project, at least from a timescale perspective.

So the brakes are on guys - i have also been told that both Wakefield and Castleford are being encouraged to open dialogue over ground sharing (probably at Glasshoughton, but thats just my guess).

I should also add that up to this point neither club has been keen to talk to the other about any joint initiatives but the pressure is now on for this stance to change.

Thanks for the reply. I was of the understanding that LCC was consulted in the initial stages of the development and they were fine with it. I think the change in leadership may have altered their stance as the LCC leader, I think, has a constituency on the border.

If it’s about grounds sharing for a year until the planning issues are resolved then I would advocate turning to Oakwell rather than Glasshoughton. The benefits of this may extend to Trinity picking up new support from that area, especially if they can get Parky as and ambassador. They will not pick up any new support from playing in Castleford.

Meetings have already taken place.