HawkMan Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 A number of questions, 1. Does RL need a national stadium? Would it improve the image of the sport? How would it be utilised , would being in total control of a RL only stadium of say 40,000 capacity allow wondrous projects to come to fruition? 2. Where should it be? A stadium only for RL capable of hosting England games, big play off matches, MPG, ( GF would still be at OT) should it be new or could an existing stadium be expanded? Headingley is the obvious choice . Is there room for expansion there, up to 40,000 or is that too big? What size should it be ? 3. The cost ?! Enormous or possibly not, private capital required no doubt, would it all be worth it , or does the game need a national stadium like a fish needs a bicycle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommygilf Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 At the risk of sounding like a former poster, RL should, if it wants a "national stadium", invest in the redevelopment of an existing football ground. It would only ever require co-ownership - we'd only use it for maybe 10 senior Mens games a year even if we took Magic there. The Olympic park which now hosts West Ham could have been an option. Now, given our historically good crowds in Leeds, its central location in RL land and the country, and LUFC's plans to modernise, Elland Road would probably be our best option for investment at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chronicler of Chiswick Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Not in favour. Given the geographical spread of most of our support it would have to be situated in a large Northern conurbation, which would cement our reputation as just a regional sport that the national media can therefore cheerfully ignore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Gotta be Odsal (Sarcasm alert) "Freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice, socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality" - Mikhail Bakunin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunsletgreenandgold Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 22 minutes ago, Chronicler of Chiswick said: Not in favour. Given the geographical spread of most of our support it would have to be situated in a large Northern conurbation, which would cement our reputation as just a regional sport that the national media can therefore cheerfully ignore. But it is predominantly a regional sport - maybe we stop bemoaning that fact and rather embrace it and this could be a way to do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunsletgreenandgold Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 29 minutes ago, Tommygilf said: At the risk of sounding like a former poster, RL should, if it wants a "national stadium", invest in the redevelopment of an existing football ground. It would only ever require co-ownership - we'd only use it for maybe 10 senior Mens games a year even if we took Magic there. The Olympic park which now hosts West Ham could have been an option. Now, given our historically good crowds in Leeds, its central location in RL land and the country, and LUFC's plans to modernise, Elland Road would probably be our best option for investment at the moment. Leeds would be the obvious choice and if the RFL/government wanted to chuck some money in the direction of LUFC and their redevelopment plans, to include considerations for RL, I'd be very pleased with that. Sadly I don't see that ever happening as it' just not a priority for the RFL it seems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Browny Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 I think we are in danger of doing all of the close season threads before we even get to November. Have we done 'Cumbria for Super League' yet? I can confirm 30+ less sales for Scotland vs Italy at Workington, after this afternoons test purchase for the Tonga match, £7.50 is extremely reasonable, however a £2.50 'delivery' fee for a walk in purchase is beyond taking the mickey, good luck with that, it's cheaper on the telly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunsletgreenandgold Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 14 minutes ago, Just Browny said: I think we are in danger of doing all of the close season threads before we even get to November. Have we done 'Cumbria for Super League' yet? It's been touched on in one of the other threads already but i'm still looking for the 'Manchester and Liverpool need a RL team' 'BT sport does RL' and 'Could next year be the WC we finally beat Australia?' before it's a full house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnM Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Given the views expressed by some on here that clubs should own their own grounds, then it follows that the same people will think the sport itself should also own it's own ground. How it should be financed, where it should be located, etc is somethimg that should be left to the idea's proponents. Disclosure: This is not a view I support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerjon Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Everyone always envisages Twickenham when talking about this. No one really thinks about the white elephant that is the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawkMan Posted October 26, 2021 Author Share Posted October 26, 2021 Personally I'm 50/50 about the idea, but if it ever happened it could generate income. I'm thinking about other events it could stage, pop concerts for example, with RFL getting income from that. It could even stage big football matches for smaller local based teams if for example Harrogate get Man Utd in the cup. Yes if they wanted a bigger gate they could hold it at Hillsborough or some other, but the RFL could offer their national stadium.....for a cut of gate receipts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moorside roughyed Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 If it was going to happen it would've done by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnM Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 14 minutes ago, moorside roughyed said: If it was going to happen it would've done by now. A bit like me and Tessa Daly, then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leyther_Matt Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 13 minutes ago, HawkMan said: Personally I'm 50/50 about the idea, but if it ever happened it could generate income. I'm thinking about other events it could stage, pop concerts for example, with RFL getting income from that. It could even stage big football matches for smaller local based teams if for example Harrogate get Man Utd in the cup. Yes if they wanted a bigger gate they could hold it at Hillsborough or some other, but the RFL could offer their national stadium.....for a cut of gate receipts. Football clubs aren't allowed to move cup fixtures and the like any more. Leeds would be the obvious candidate, particularly as Elland Road is clearly in need of major TLC (or knocking down...), but sadly the RFL not having the proverbial pot would of course be a huge issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spidey Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 39 minutes ago, JohnM said: A bit like me and Tessa Daly, then? That's probably more likely... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pahars Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Is that time of year again? I think the only way a stand-alone national stadium could be financially viable long term is if it was similar to the Paris la Defence arena in being the nations biggest indoor venue which also has rugby played at it occasionally. Then in the winter months when RL isn’t being played can hoover up Christmas concerts, conferences, boxing, ufc, wrestling, darts etc which can’t take place at outdoor stadiums at that time of year and would get bigger returns for promoters then smaller arenas like Manchester, Sheffield etc. The almost definitely fatal flaw in this plan is the astronomical cost it would take to build. It would need massive outside investment who would expect juicy returns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Futtocks Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 I think the national stadium should be situated between Neasden and Sudbury Hill. Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. Ralph Waldo Emerson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonM Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Alt Park Huyton would be perfect. Could easily recoup the building costs through selling protection from fires and theft to those using the car park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davo5 Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Thought we had one at Leigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davo5 Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 2 hours ago, Just Browny said: I think we are in danger of doing all of the close season threads before we even get to November. Have we done 'Cumbria for Super League' yet? Up the Lakers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wellsy4HullFC Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 We have neither enough international games nor other event games to make it work. You'd have maybe 2 semi finals (which would probably be a double header), the Championship Grand Final, the World Club Challenge and maybe about 3 internationals a year at best. You wouldn't move the cup final or Grand Final there because it'd likely be too small. Until we get regular and guaranteed internationals, it just wouldn't be worth it. Better off doing what we're doing now or getting a cheaper bulk deal of events in one ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunsletgreenandgold Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 39 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said: We have neither enough international games nor other event games to make it work. You'd have maybe 2 semi finals (which would probably be a double header), the Championship Grand Final, the World Club Challenge and maybe about 3 internationals a year at best. You wouldn't move the cup final or Grand Final there because it'd likely be too small. Until we get regular and guaranteed internationals, it just wouldn't be worth it. Better off doing what we're doing now or getting a cheaper bulk deal of events in one ground. With Elland Road's plans to become a 55k ground in the next few years it wouldn't be that small. I'd love RL to have a purpose built national stadium but that is definitely never going to happen. Lumping in with a ground expansion at Elland Road could be the best solution to ever achieving anything like. If the RFL could put up some cash and maybe local council/government got behind it from an RL perspective, their investment may allow them to negotiate strongly for their events and even turnover a decent profit from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M j M Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 2 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said: With Elland Road's plans to become a 55k ground in the next few years it wouldn't be that small. I'd love RL to have a purpose built national stadium but that is definitely never going to happen. Lumping in with a ground expansion at Elland Road could be the best solution to ever achieving anything like. If the RFL could put up some cash and maybe local council/government got behind it from an RL perspective, their investment may allow them to negotiate strongly for their events and even turnover a decent profit from them. What would the benefit to the sport be though? The soccer club would retain presumably most of the benefits of ownership and we wouldn't have an anchor tenant of our own there. In the long run we'd maybe be saving on stadium hire costs for some games but that's only likely to be three or four maybe five times a year. Stadium ownership is important to clubs where it gives them control and, if in the right location and built properly, supporting income streams. The governing body being minority owners of someone else's football ground is a much more marginal proposition. And there's also the question of why Leeds United would want to give up a share of their stadium. At least until they next go bust anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumby Magic Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 In all seriousness we are nowhere near as a sport to have one. Financial, maintenance, need. We need leadership and an upturn in revenue before this can happen. Like poor jokes? Thejoketeller@mullymessiah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonM Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 28 minutes ago, Mumby Magic said: In all seriousness we are nowhere near as a sport to have one. Financial, maintenance, need. We need leadership and an upturn in revenue before this can happen. The only way it could happen is if someone else pays for it - i.e. lottery/ northern powerhouse/ local council willing to stump up some money to have it built in their city. And it would still need an anchor tenant additional to the RFL to be viable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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