There you go.
I hope you enjoyed my first blog a month ago. It seems to have created a good deal of interest and I hope that will continue.
The first thing I would like to say is that I share the frustrations of the fans. The team has been performing well in patches but not for the full eighty minutes. Our coaching staff and players are working very hard to turn things around.
We are also doing it tough with injuries at present, some of which are long term and difficult to legislate for. An example of this is that five of the starting seventeen who won at Headingley only a few weeks ago was out of action for Monday’s game. If you look at any other club in Super League and take away the same n umber of first choice players from their line-ups, they would expect to experience a dip in form.
Our fans have been a real strength of the Club for many years and clearly we need, and hope, that remains the case. By all means make your feelings known, I respect your right to do that, but I would urge you to stick with us as we work through this difficult time.
Rest assured, we are all focused on improving things.
Stadium
Turning to the stadium, the next big meeting has been set for later this month. This features Castleford Tigers, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council and the developers Waystone PLC. In the meantime, everyone has been working very hard to meet the action points from the last meeting.
Currently, one of the main priorities is to finalise the agreement with Waystone on the stadium construction contract and then to agree the architect’s appointment. We have made good progress and once the agreement is signed it will have a significant impact and help drive the project forward to the next stage of development.
Also, we are working on the mechanism to transfer the Wakefield Council land assets into the project that they have donated to the scheme. We need to be able to unlock the value of this land in time for the start of construction of the new stadium.
As you drive past the stadium site, you may notice how vastly different the landscape looks from a year ago. The bulk of the earthwork is almost complete with the next stage du e to commence when the detailed stadium designs are available and the contours of the stadium are determined.
We have more work to do before the next meeting and everyone involved is totally committed to dealing with the issues we each had to address.
Super League License
The RFL are currently finalising the Super League Licensing application process for 2012 – 2014, after which time we will be busy compiling our submission.
Initial indications are that all submissions will need to be made by the end of January 2011, although we await final confirmation of the timetable from the RFL.
A considerable amount of work is being done behind the scenes to prepare for this process, which again will focus very much on our off the field activities and business case. I will be able to say more in the forthcoming months once the RFL announce the criteria and process.
As was the case with the last licensing criteria, attendances will be very important. It is seen as critical criteria by the RFL.
At the moment, our average attendances are healthy. However, there is no doubting the benefits to the Club if we can increase it further by approximately one thousand supporters. If you can help in any way it will be highly appreciated.
As I have said above, I strongly urge all the fans to continue with their fantastic support throughout the rest of the season and demonstrate an upward trend in the run-up to submitting our license application for 2012.
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Fans Focus Group
The Club highly values the supporter’s feedback. We want to take this opportunity to engage with you in an open forum to debate the current issues expressed at the weekend.
The Group will involve the Board of Directors and will take place next week. If you are interested in taking part, please email
info@castigers.com Title your email Fans Focus Group and include your contact details.
All the best,
Richard.
