: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:48 pm
Disco wrote:
We're not AC Wakey, they're not Inter Castleford. We're two different clubs representing two different areas. Why do people constantly drag up inappropriate examples from different sports, different circumstances and different cultures to try and justify crowbaring Cas and Wakey together?
I agree with you that it's annoying - and pointless. However, Cas and Wakey are in a unique position in that both teams need new stadia if they are to stay up in Superleague and both teams come under the same council, and no way can one council afford to invest in two rugby league clubs, no matter how different the communities or how strongly each identifies with their own rugby league club. Hull is different because one club has no worries with regard to its facilities and the other has clearly done enough to keep the wolf from the door. All other clubs are in separate towns and boroughs from each other, even though some of us are close to one another, so there isn't the same financial pinch on one authority.
Would it be possible for Cas and Wakey to share a stadium but maintain individual identities within that ground? For instance, by having a Wakefield end and a Castleford end, with separate changing rooms and tunnel on to the pitch and identical corporate and other facilities so that each club could operate separately within the same overall physical space? I dunno. It probably sounds dumb! But especially in this time of credit crunch, unless one club can find entirely separate finance and come up with a separate yet equally atttractive idea (which would compel the council to approve it), I cannot see how Wakefield Council can endorse and/or help finance two entirely separate rugby league clubs within its own borough. Apart from anything else, the council tax payers would go ape!