......and your point is?

What did the so called "merger" with Gateshead have to do with the building of the KC stadium?
Totally unrellated...

Absolutely correct, all three clubs in city were invited to play at the new stadium. Rovers were nowhere near super league standard (bit like now) and declined to take part, because they thought they had a new sponsor (Caddick) who unfortunately for them pulled out at a later date. If they had come on board the KC would have been built on a different (more central) site.

Huddersfield finished bottom. I don't recall them getting relegated?

The club would have restarted at the bottom, like rovers did when they folded. At least the merger did not result in a load of local businesses getting shafted which is a bonus/

Mmmmm, but we beat Sheffield, I know because I was there, which saved us from bottom place. We did merge????? Seem to remember RFL gave us 2 million quid to absorb a failing team. The KC was built, and would have been irrespective of anything else that may have happened. If ifs and ands were pots and pans, the rest is history, Challenge Cup win, 2 finals at the New Wembley, a Grand Final plus who knows this season. Really poor trolling old boy. Lock it.

And weirdest post of the year goes too MR FRISK.

I remember you now !!!!

You were a horse at Aintree

Just a few pointers for you:

1) In 1999 we knew we were in the financial doodoos thanks to Lloyd's antics. We made an application to the RFL to drop down a league, the same league as KR, and rebuild from there. Barry Lilley asked all the chairmen in that league to vote against it. Enough did and our application was rejected. This was when Shane Richardson decided to move his money from Gateshead to Hull, where he knew the fan base to sustain a SL club was based. It was the then KR chairman's bitterness towards us that actually helped us to survive, how ironic.
2) The KC Stadium was nothing to do with our league position, it was built with community money and would've needed both us and City to make it viable whichever leagues we were in.
3) The obsession with the merger with Gateshead from the dark side is really quite pathetic. We had financial difficulties due to poor management and Shane Richardson saw an opportunity, one he wasn't getting from Gateshead. At least we didn't go into administration meaning all our debtors lost vast amounts of money unlike KR.

Can't believe so many have taken the bait!!

A legitimate narrative, but...

1) This was a period when SL was an independent entity and was perceived as acting with a high hand towards the rest of the game. Those other chairmen weren't compelled to do what Lilley suggested, and I suspect he was pushing at an open door. The bitterness was widespread, in a sport divided against itself. Worth remembering, as Marwan Koucash pushes for a new SL breakaway, IMO.
2) 'Community money' sounds like a New Labourism, but a fair point. 'Community investment' has helped other clubs, at other times, including my own.


3) Mr Frisk would appear to be a Wigan fan. I dunno, but perhaps he was just making a 'sliding doors' point? It's history now - like when you gazumped us to take over the Boulevard (that's my favourite 'what if?').

How did we get roped into this.

Don't think the original poster is anything to do with us, should be bringing up salary points deductions and the signing of Mr Fielden to avoid relegation as a counter

1) It scares the hell out of me that people actually think that a breakaway league is a good idea. There isn't the money to go round now, people have a very idealistic idea of what would happen should we stick 2 fingers up at the RFL.
2) It does, I agree, but my point was that is was built using share money which legally had to be ploughed back into the community. Where would any of us be without a bit of help from the Council in varying guises?
3) I now realise that, if I had earlier I would've made reference to their "Let's openly and blatantly break the salary cap to survive relegation" year

Hahaha, see my above post!!!

Apologies accepted

You're welcome

This might be the most pointless thread i've seen on here....

You can't have been around for long.

A classic 'hit and run' trolling thread delivered by Mr Frisk. Fair play

Something that I hadn't thought about before though, is that Rovers fans seem to have woven a heart-warming version of history for themselves around the events of that time. Pulling together, nice guy Eddie Klempka, overcoming adversity, Darth Wilby, the club that wouldn't die, Phoenix from the ashes and so on. Now, you can pick holes in it - the return for creditors, the subsequent reliance on the largesse of benefactors, but the feel good version is too deeply embedded for it to have much impact.
Although Hull had a better outcome, my impression is that memories, generally speaking, are less fond. Is that fair?

.... one memory which doesn't get mentioned anymore is the fact that the RFL were actively encouraging the merger of clubs in 1999, and £1m was on the table for the merger of 2 SL clubs.
And in 2000, SL had been reduced from 14 teams to 12.
Pure coincidence, I'm sure.

Memory serves me that the merged club would recieve 2 portions of Super League money, meaning 2 million quid as I stated earlier. Gateshead I believe were over a million in debt, FC just under a million. The Super League payments cleared all debts. It was a condition of the deal. Super League reduced to twelve because Sheffield and Gateshead went to the wall. People tend to forget about Hudds merger conveniently.

... it's how you want to interpret it, an additional £1m amounts to the same thing.

The point is/was that the money was being offered for clubs wanting to merge well before the end of the 1999 season.

£750k for the merger of a SL club and a championship club seems to ring a bell also.

Soz, thought you meant only one million to the merged club

That's why the original post made no sense. It basically said had we finished bottom, we'd not have merged... yet Huddersfield finished bottom and they merged?

Surely for it to be good trolling, it has to make sense? The troller just looks like a moron in this case. Anyone can just say something random.