M j M

I think it's a waste because I don't think there was much demand for this additional seating and this change reduces the capacity of the ground overall.

You could have said that for any of the redevelopments clubs have done over the years. Cas have been ridiculously unlucky in how things have panned out for them and have spent so much money already in trying to get the new stadium and then the redevelopment done. It just seems a waste to spend more on unproductive diversions like this when the main prize is getting closer now.

Given how complex and complicated getting stadium funding and planning sorted are that's just a pretty meaningless cliche.

This is absolute BS. Doug Laughton was not given free reign to spend whatever he wanted at Leeds, the board signed off transfers and budgets and contracts. If the board weren't able to produce the revenues that supported the spending that's not exactly his fault. I've no idea how things worked at Widnes.

They didn't do it years ago because it's a waste of money that would be better saved up for either the new stadium they were working on for years or the backup plan for a proper redevelopment of Wheldon Road. Forcing clubs into taking short-term measures which aren't really in their interests and don't really improve things is an unfortunate by-product of the spreadsheet exercise.

The sort of Leeds identity we understand now wasn't really a thing until well after the second world war. Local areas played a much greater role in people's identity in the early days of the Northern Union. So this "only one has the name Leeds" thing really isn't a distinction that should be made - Hunslet and Leeds were two very powerful teams representing different parts of the city.

Correct, this is still the case. I did wonder at one stage whether Caddick though Thirkill might be a suitable successor as majority owner but it looks like he and his family are sticking around for a while yet.

He's definitely smarter than the average player but it's on the face of it a puzzling appointment.

Typically once soccer got a foot in the door in previously rugby strongholds it grew to be the larger game, primarily I feel thanks to its more national spread and profile. The split of the sport of rugby almost certainly didn't help as time went by. Even in the places listed above, few of which have significant soccer teams, there will no doubt be a large proportion of the public who follow a team, be it from a nearby town or, increasingly, from anywhere in the world.

The Leeds team he inherited wasn't a team of star players by any stretch of the imagination. In retrospect it was obviously full of very talented young players but that didn't stand for much at the time and wasn't a guarantee of future success. Smith both backed those players and gave them the confidence to win things. I don't believe Leeds would have won half the amount we did in the subsequent 13 years without the attitude and culture that he put in place.

Getting Apprentice actor/hosts to do genuinely important jobs is not something that has a good track record.

As shown on the SL wages thread Leeds spend as much as other big clubs. People confuse Hetherington driving a hard bargain in negotiations with having a small budget, they're very different things.

It depends on the rivals and on the foreign team. If it was Manly vs Hunslet I'd be struggling.

East Stand was pretty sparse and the South Stand terrace wasn't sold out so it seemed plausible to me.

Well you'd have to play all the other teams, that's how a league works. But if just the biggest rating teams decided to play because they feel they generate most of the tv income then the whole thing would fall apart quite quickly.