The thread title is 100% right too... it's pretty dismal in the Championship...
Fans are becoming disenchanted with the game and turning away regardless of the picture the RFL want to paint... There are some good matches but games just don't seem to have 'the edge' anymore. It will be a long three year sentence for anyone that gets the chop.

Personally I hope that you don't drop. Best of luck with the next 12 months.

Listen mate, ignoring all the posts about "Widnes fans" and Barrow etc I would bring back P & R in a second. Most of us would. This whole process is designed to make the game political. People assume that this is a business, but it isn't entirely. There is far more to it than that.

It's just, we're working within the system. All hopeful candidates are. I'm not assuming we're going in, you wont find many fans more cynical than Widnes fans are on this, but all I'm saying is keeping us down here indefinitely just because we can't meet a super league clubs current standards is ungair and missing the point. We all deserve our chance. If we have the system, the club is going to do our best to work within it and hope for the best. Many of us believe this sport is about politics and being controlled by people who think they know better than most of the fans and are gambling the future of 130 year old clubs for pipe dreams but there's nothing we can do about it except try to live with it. I don't hate Wakefield, far from it, I've defended your club in the past most recently to a Leeds fan who dared to bash your stadium, I just don't want my club to see all its hard work down the drain.

Widnes are a shoe in and if they don't make a mess of it they will pretty much guarantee their top flight for the foreseeable. They have all the infrastructure in place.

Go on then - I assume that's me.

I'm not giving false hopes - or at least I believe I am not. We were involved in a series of discussions which were meant to be kept private - until Mr Box made them public - which would have resulted exactly as they have, and exactly how we wanted - i.e. with our scheme left alone, as it was, for Yorkcourt and the Trust to see it through. Ted, Colin and Rodney all believe in this scheme - although I still feel that they could convey it better.

I will, as ever, try and convey what information I can as soon as I can - and that goes for anyone from SWAG, but we simply cannot just blurt every detail out on here as much of it becomes redundant very soon - such as Mr Box's idea of a review that wasn't needed.

When TP fell through the council told us to find a site; find a developer and set up a Trust - we've done all that and both moved mountains and accomodated many of their wishes - we also have a funding package in place to deliver the scheme, as confirmed directly to WMDC by the parties involved immediately prior to Ted's announcement at the Saints game.

Planning has been delayed until September - and we became aware of it quite late in the day. The developer was not pleased at the delay but he will not lose his cool as we still need the support of WMDC. We will be campaigning for this to go in September - whether privately or publicly or both.

Please do not assume because you don't hear from us that we are not active.

It is a tough time we are going through as a club. I have held the belief since SWAG began that the stadium was our ONLY hope - I still believe that and I still have faith that this can be delivered - based on the quality and quantity of people involved in it. As for Cas - that's for them to determine - our role is to promote a Stadium for Wakefield.

HTH.

Phil Townsend

For me its a simple despite how the RFL try to dress it up.

The 2 in danger are Wakefield and Cas, personally I feel these are the only clubs in danger.

Whoever out of these 2 clubs gets the spade in the ground the first will be in SL, whoever fails to be the first to actually get the spade in the ground I personally do not think will get a shiny new stadium and will end up in an existing facility in the National League.

I genuinely cannot see 2 new Stadia being built in the district in the same decade.

Cas fan here. It's heartbreaking to hear all threatened clubs' fans pushing others for the chop rather than themselves, it's getting a bit undignified. Stick a roof on your uncovered terrace and get seating for the length of one touchline that will replace that hideous old stand. Cas do the same. That's all Leeds have done. HKR, Bradford, Salford etc you do the same too. Come on boys be positive and stop chasing stadia that will cripple us financially. We're only there for a short time to watch a game. The atmosphere generated in these stadia is better than any concrete and plastic arena that some of our clubs are tenants in. Match action is what it's all about and meeting your fellow and rival fans. At the end of the game, all fans merge for a drink behind our main stand. We talk and laugh and have some banter. Communal space, activities, good service and a share and feel for our sport. Don't let the suit boys and accountants take you to their packaged worlds that suck the life from our sport. Franchises...makes me laugh. We're people from Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumbria, we're not football supporters, we have something unique and our people are unique. Stick together and upgrade your traditional stadiums, keep your local talent and stop fearing the worst. If you have hard times then bounce back. We did!!

Good luck to you brothers and sisters.

Quote ="Walrus"One superleague club to lose it's license now confirmed: news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 885900.stm Anyone else have a sick feeling in their belly? '" It's like waking up at 2am with a dicky tummy, you know it's food poisoning and you know you're gonna be sick soon no matter what.

Quote ="Walrus"One superleague club to lose it's license now confirmed: news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 885900.stm Anyone else have a sick feeling in their belly? '" It's like waking up at 2am with a dicky tummy, you know it's food poisoning and you know you're gonna be sick soon no matter what.

No offence mate but if your BOD shared the same principles then it will be you that drops to the National Leagues.

Regardless of the ideals you stand by which are for me very important and a corner stone of our game, the criteria has been laid down and the only way either team will remain in the top flight is if a new stadium is started and in place during the early part of the next franchise picks.

As much as I agree and as much as it pains me to say it, a new stadium would benefit Castleford, Wakefield and everyone else in this situation more than renovating an old stadium. A new stadium yields more financial streams and increases revenues in other areas such as merchandising and sponsors.

Will be a sad day for The Jungle and Belle Vue when both stadia go. I hope to be at both final games (unless they are played on the same day).

The writing was on the wall when the RFL gave Catalans a relegation exemption when they came up to SL (as a Cas fan it still grates that we were relegated despite not finishing bottom) and when Celtic were picked for SL ahead of Widnes. It showed that in the eyes of the RFL expansion of the game trumps everything else and the criteria for a renewed franchise will be fiddled to ensure that Crusaders and Quins get enough points to survive whilst one of Cas or Wakey get the boot.
Frankly this is not the game I fell in love with 30-odd years ago and without P&R decided by what occurs on the pitch I'm not convinced its truly sport any more. I think I might start watching that wrestling from America- At least nobody makes any pretence that its not fixed.

The rfl have decided that at least one team will lose its franchise in the next round of licenses. It looks grim for us or cas but as has been stated earlier ther are other teams that are in a worse position than us both , but these clubs seem to have "other" reasons that are favourable to them.
The rfl have spoken and what they say must be right , like introducing paris to the competition that would benefit the rugby league in the northern hemisphere & the london broncos who would make the game a national sport, or even more recently setting up a superleague club in south wales that could tap in to union side of rugby to make wales a nation to challenge the southern hemisphere which then ended been within 15 miles of widnes.
If ever there is an organisation with pie in the sky ideas about how to make the game better, then the management at red hall take the biscuit, with some of there short sighted suggestions. The best thing they could do is to bring back promotion & relegation and reduce the number of overseas players to the clubs.
Slightly going off track but earlier tonight radio leeds interviewed Steve Ball from Hunslet Hawks and to hear someone talk about the game with his passion the rfl would be better employed giving him a job to promote the the sport, or better still get him down to belle vue now that he is leaving hunslet at the end of the season ( his job is done & not getting the push )

There's nowt left to say then. Abide by the franchise criteria (especially the stadium part) imposed by ....visionaries? When did the supporter get to vote on this then? It wil be a sad day for RL if one of the heartland teams drop out. From reading the views on other boards there are some cocky so and so's who are baying for blood. We're all becoming insular and selfish with feelings of paranoia. The old 'divide and conquer' tactics used by politicians. Collectively the supporters have the strength to tell em to p..s off, but we have been brainwashed into thinking this is the only way without looking at alternatives.

I think its a crying shame that clubs with 100 yrs plus of history are stuck in the championship because 14 teams have picked themselves as the elite.

I have to agree with what brian carney said on boots n all why have they stated that a super league team will lose its licience now, why not wit till all the aplications are in then pick the best 14 from that,They did not do this when they first di the liciences so why do it now.

Because in 2008 Widnes were perhaps denied entry in favour of an inferior bid from The Crusaders and this is their reward for not kicking up a stink about it.

and Quins and Crusaders 2412 gate v Salford and money problems same with HKR
I would replace Crusaders with Widnes i doubt the Muppet show will do it
ground or no ground if Wakey lose out i am finished with RL and Sky and I do mean it

Well, a cynic would certainly suggest the elevation criteria for C'ship clubs were designed to fit only Widnes..in fact I'm sure I read somewhere an average attendance of 2500 was required, not 2000 which Halifax would probably manage or 3000 which Widnes probably wouldn't. Apologies in advance for any misrepresentation.

Me too. No franchise then my 50 years of watching Wakefield and Rugby League will come to an end and so will my Sky Sports subscription.

I'm not against the principle of being replaced in Super League but being replaced when there are teams inferior to us on the Community front, Academy/Youth Development, Crowds etc. because the RL want to see plastic seats and "expansion" and they love Harlequins and Crusaders and more than likely Toulouse.

The same applies to Castleford and I can see us both being sacrificed if they want Toulouse in.

eI have supported Wakefield Trinity since 1975/76 season please tell me whos fault it is that we have done bugger all to develop Belle Vue in 35 years
Please dont tell me it could not have being done it bloody could Leeds,Warrington,Widnes have no parking etc
The fact is our club has being run by muppets since 1968 we go from one disaster to another and blame every bugger else its being cock up after cock up
we have one of the worst grounds in the RL but how Bradford get away with it ps me off both Cas and Salford have better stadiums they may not hold the same but Odsal is a hellhole

If Bradford continue in their vein then in 3 years time they could find themselves in the same position Trinity and Cas do now.

Regarding all the outrage about Quins...Sky just aren't interested in a Superleague without them. The last time the northern clubs turned on London and tried to cannibalise them senior RFL figures threatened to resign and Sky were allegedly coming up with a rather derisory TV contract offer. Once the northern Chairmen realized they would actually make less money without London they did a rather sharp U turn and suddenly endorsed their Superleague place.

I fear that may be the perception even though it's light years from reality. In the modern era Wakey as a city has not shown itself to have any real appetite for RL and in that respect Trinity's "massive potential" appears no greater than Salford's or Quins.

To suggest Cas have little opportunity to further themselves ignores the fact that we have already done that twice by bouncing back from two relegations when one would probably have finished Wakey as a viable business. Despite the adverse impact of 2 seasons in NL1 we have recovered any ground lost to you very quickly.

You are right to refer to crowd trouble at the Jungle, not because it was serious, but because RFLs over-reaction to it is surely indicative of Cas being set-up for the fall.

So how can the RFL decide that 1 team is to go, I was under the impresion that places were decided upon application by any team that thought they worth a place and then judged by how they met certain criteria.

To say 1 has to go before the process has even started absolutley stinks, no matter who the club is.

You are right in some respects. The general public of Wakefield do not appear massively interested in Wakefield Trinity (aside from the hardcore few that will keep going no matter what). Whether a new stadium would change that I don't know, I hope that if we were to get a new stadium we would do some real work in the district trying to encourage back old fans and attract new ones with the proposition of a nice shiny seat for them.

I suspect that the only way things will really change is if we make some drastic changes at the helm of the club.

How all this is viewed at Red Hall though is another matter entirely and it could be that they may take the City view as being better than the Town.


I think both clubs face a very uncertain future and several months of nail-biting until the decisions are made. New stadiums for both would certainly give us both a much stronger case to fight with, especially against Salford. If all 3 have stadiums you would have to say that we both look stronger than Salford in most respects, not that that will necessarily save either of us but it would make the RFL's decision harder to make/easier to challenge.