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Martyn Sadler


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2 minutes ago, David Shepherd said:

While ever the criteria was only being applied to those wanting to join, while those already there got away with it, Fev had no chance.

P&R has not scuppered Fev's chances.  A few wrong choices of our own did that for us.

I disagree Fev were nailed to be the next pick under licensing. 

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5 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

I agree that Featherstone have done a good job with their programme of ground improvements.

Their biggest 'problem' (for want of a better term) is being situated in a small ex-pit village with a population of about 15000, with two other Sl clubs within a few miles. If they were in a different area, a different town, then we'd all be hailing them as one of the great 'success stories' of RL

Featherstone of course being a "suburb" of Pontefract., combined population larger than Castleford's.

20 years ago you would have struggled to see a Cas shirt in Pontefract, but you'd have seen plenty of blue and white ones.  Of course 20 years outside the top flight has seen many people, quite understandably gravitate towards the more "Successful" Castleford.

15,000 pop "pit village" is and always has been a red herring.

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Poor facilities or not, there is no better place to watch RL than a sunny Sunday afteroon at Wheldon Rd. Belle Vue is great too.

They will both eventually have to move on, but I for one arent looking forward to it. I have been to all the new flatpack stadiums. Saints and Warrington are decent. Some of the others like Salford and Leigh are horrible soulless places. 

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It often gets said “ all that sky money and they’ve not built a stadium”  Do they give you enough to build a stadium?  I thought it went on players to stop you getting relegated and losing the sky money.  Has any SL club built a stadium with their sky money?

Up the Trin 

Love this City Love this club

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11 minutes ago, David Shepherd said:

Featherstone of course being a "suburb" of Pontefract., combined population larger than Castleford's.

20 years ago you would have struggled to see a Cas shirt in Pontefract, but you'd have seen plenty of blue and white ones.  Of course 20 years outside the top flight has seen many people, quite understandably gravitate towards the more "Successful" Castleford.

15,000 pop "pit village" is and always has been a red herring.

You're kinda making my point for me. Too many clubs in a small area competing for the same pool of potential supporters.

I'm not sure many people in Featherstone would be happy to be thought of as a suburb of Pontefract? Besides Pontefract is pretty much equidistant from Featherstone and Castleford  (granted the M62 in between) so why wouldn't people be equally likely to gravitate to Castleford?

The basic point still holds: 80K in total between Castleford, Pontefract and Featherstone, with another SL club in the same borough in the nearby city of 100K. There comes a point when the market is saturated.

I still think Fev have done a great job on the stadium and in other areas as well. For my money, an exemplar in how to run a well-managed Championship level club.

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5 minutes ago, WakefieldCityLoyal said:

It often gets said “ all that sky money and they’ve not built a stadium”  Do they give you enough to build a stadium?  I thought it went on players to stop you getting relegated and losing the sky money.  Has any SL club built a stadium with their sky money?

Up the Trin 

Love this City Love this club

Neither club could be relegated under licencing but they still didnt spend any money on revamping the stadiums or begin the process of building a shared stadium

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I saw a comment on a thread a few weeks ago about a few RU prem clubs have stadiums made up of temporary stands  like Bath. and after seeing Leeds use one this year I don't know why Wakey and Cas demolish thier crumbling stands to put in temporary stands that would look much better.

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Hang on a minute, although people may have sympathy for Fev, if we are going to strip clubs out of sl I would like to suggest a couple of other clubs that should be in the reckoning.

I will start with Leigh, much better stadium in my opinion, bigger town and bigger crowd potential.

Doncaster should also be considered, beats fev in every aspect in my view.

Then there is York,good stadium on way, world wide recognised name and more potential than Feb and Leigh together.

  How ever my front runner would be London as we need them above all others.

 

So to get fev in Sl we need to kick out wakey and cas plus 2 others, who should we choose

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11 minutes ago, jpmc said:

Neither club could be relegated under licencing but they still didnt spend any money on revamping the stadiums or begin the process of building a shared stadium

 

Sorry, but it costs a lot to keep up an old stadium, just ask Gary Hetherington. Leeds spent millions just keeping it up to code. 

Just because they Don't have shiny new stadiums doesn't mean they haven't spent money on thier facilities.

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19 minutes ago, WakefieldCityLoyal said:

It often gets said “ all that sky money and they’ve not built a stadium”  Do they give you enough to build a stadium?  I thought it went on players to stop you getting relegated and losing the sky money.  Has any SL club built a stadium with their sky money? 

Up the Trin  

Love this City Love this club 

No SL club has privately-funded their stadium rebuilding other than Leeds and even then it has taken favourable interest rates via Leeds council to make financing for the two new stands to work. All the others got funding by selling their ground, were council initiatives or are football grounds. Fev are an exceptional and outstanding example in recent years in the lower leagues.

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25 minutes ago, Agbrigg said:

Hang on a minute, although people may have sympathy for Fev, if we are going to strip clubs out of sl I would like to suggest a couple of other clubs that should be in the reckoning.

I will start with Leigh, much better stadium in my opinion, bigger town and bigger crowd potential.

Doncaster should also be considered, beats fev in every aspect in my view.

Then there is York,good stadium on way, world wide recognised name and more potential than Feb and Leigh together.

  How ever my front runner would be London as we need them above all others.

  

So to get fev in Sl we need to kick out wakey and cas plus 2 others, who should we choose

 

How about Coventry playing out of the Richo?

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49 minutes ago, David Shepherd said:

We're not a super league club and in our hearts we know we never will be.

Won't stop us trying though.  If we could just get rid of the blasted DR arrangement with Leeds, all would be good.

why are you putting super league and its clubs on a such  pedestal take there 2 million plus from sky away and they are the same as us and some much worse

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28 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

You're kinda making my point for me. Too many clubs in a small area competing for the same pool of potential supporters.

I'm not sure many people in Featherstone would be happy to be thought of as a suburb of Pontefract? Besides Pontefract is pretty much equidistant from Featherstone and Castleford  (granted the M62 in between) so why wouldn't people be equally likely to gravitate to Castleford?

The basic point still holds: 80K in total between Castleford, Pontefract and Featherstone, with another SL club in the same borough in the nearby city of 100K. There comes a point when the market is saturated.

I still think Fev have done a great job on the stadium and in other areas as well. For my money, an exemplar in how to run a well-managed Championship level club.

No true ponte lad would ever follow a cas team,

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In terms of new vs old stadia and the empty seat factor it's worth remembering what the stadia criteria were in the original licensing system:

  • Teams will get one point for having a stadium with a capacity of 12,000 or more.
  • Another point will be awarded if the ground meets the standards of a premier competition in the 21st century.
  • Another point will be awarded if stadiums are operating at 40 per cent capacity.

That third one was important, if not a bit underdone in my view (50% at least should be the target);  the gameday experience at places like Huddersfield is severely lacking because the ground is inappropriate to the size of the club and there is no doubt this has an impact both on whether people want to go there AND whether Sky want to televise games there.

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57 minutes ago, David Shepherd said:

We're not a super league club and in our hearts we know we never will be.

Won't stop us trying though.  If we could just get rid of the blasted DR arrangement with Leeds, all would be good.

This is a cracking post purely for its honesty and realism. I have said time and again that not every club needs to be a Super League club and clubs shouldn't bankrupt themselves trying to be. The lower leagues could be vibrant competitions in their own right if more clubs adopted this attitude. If we had Oldham, Swinton et al playing in grounds that they own and at a sustainable level then the game would be in a far better place.

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27 minutes ago, M j M said:

No SL club has privately-funded their stadium rebuilding other than Leeds and even then it has taken favourable interest rates via Leeds council to make financing for the two new stands to work. All the others got funding by selling their ground, were council initiatives or are football grounds. Fev are an exceptional and outstanding example in recent years in the lower leagues.

Who is building these stands by the way? Not paying for them - building them.

Sport, amongst other things, is a dream-world offering escape from harsh reality and the disturbing prospect of change.

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29 minutes ago, gingdong said:

why are you putting super league and its clubs on a such  pedestal take there 2 million plus from sky away and they are the same as us and some much worse

Not really putting them on a pedestal. I'm sure we could do just as well, if not better than some of them.

Just don't see it happening.

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36 minutes ago, gingdong said:

No true ponte lad would ever follow a cas team,

I am also sure no true cas lad or cas lass would go and watch Fev either if your logic is to believed.

I probably think Wakey folk would not be tempted either, so where do Fev get their support base ?

The only real evidence available is to turn back the clock and look at the gates from post war to SL when all three clubs operated on an equal footing over a very long period. I suppose some anorak out there may be able to get the aggregate crowd figures. However from my knowledge of things back then, Fev would have the lowest crowds by far.

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1 hour ago, David Shepherd said:

I don't think the retail park will ever be built.  They're advertising it as a "Regional Shopping Centre" a la White Rose.

They've got four companies to sign letters of intent.  Of the four, one is Boots.  Not exactly a big draw, every high street has one.  One is M&S, who are rapidly closing stores, one is Next who already have a shop 500 yards away and the other is Primark, that well known destination of the well heeled fashionistas.

This is not a "Regional Shopping Centre" It's a smoke screen for a future housing development (of course IMHO).

As for Wakey, they'll never share with Fev.  That lets the council off far too easily, if they stay within the district there's no incentive to ever get them back in the city medium sized town.

I was surprised when they said they'll be building a retail outlet when there's already Junction 32 and Xscape across the road plus retail business is in decline. 

A ground share with Wakie obviously seems to the most logical option. I assume it's cheaper to build a new stadium than redevelop Wheldon Road

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Just now, Mr Plow said:

I was surprised when they said they'll be building a retail outlet when there's already Junction 32 and Xscape across the road plus retail business is in decline. 

A ground share with Wakie obviously seems to the most logical option. I assume it's cheaper to build a new stadium than redevelop Wheldon Road

Actually, a merger would be the most logical option.

Sport, amongst other things, is a dream-world offering escape from harsh reality and the disturbing prospect of change.

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2 hours ago, ojx said:

I'd rather watch a game at Castleford or Wakefield on TV than at empty modern stadiums like Salford and Widnes, now those look truly depressing.

Understood, but would ask you to consider this. Its less about existing fans than new ones or lapsed ones. Think about the all potential fans who don't go because they prefer to watch their rugby league in modern stadiums. After all, if the game had never upgraded its facilities, players would still be getting changed in pub outside toilets,  walking half a mile to a muddy field, and having a bath afterwards at home in a tin bath in front of the fire.

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3 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

Actually, a merger would be the most logical option.

Yes but what good would that do Fev ? If those two managed a merger and built a stadium , then what? Could this be followed by all their supporters joining hands together and giving each other a loving hug, you would create a monster. The big boys would have a really serious player joining them at the top table. 

Fev could not survive in the shadow of such a strong presence in the district other than as a feeble feeder club for the new entity or the magnificent rhinos

 

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3 hours ago, ojx said:

I'd rather watch a game at Castleford or Wakefield on TV than at empty modern stadiums like Salford and Widnes, now those look truly depressing.

I’d also rather go to one of those grounds than the modern stadia. 

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