: Tue Dec 08, 2009 3:49 pm  

When the decisions were announced I thought you guys were a touch unlucky not to have been in place of Salford.
I always doubted your potential to be any bigger than Cas however within the last 6-12 months almost everything coming out of Widnes seems positive. I had doubts over your youth policy but someone rightly set me straight on that, I didn't realise you were running a full setup even in the lower leagues.
You seem to have the right ideas on expansion and although Widnes itself is a fairly small town you have fingers in many pies and frankly, you'd have to.
Barring a miracle bid from somewhere else I fail to see how you'll be overlooked next time. Everything off the field seems to be perfectly in place and I don't think you could be better run.

If you're not admitted to SL in 2012 you can bring this up and I'll donate £100 to a charity of your choice. I reckon Toulouse & yourself, Salford dropped to make it 15 clubs, the magic weekend then being run as a last 16 challenge cup day.

: Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:15 pm  

Dico wrote:

I always doubted your potential to be any bigger than Cas

Are you taking the pis5 or what?

Dico wrote:

I didn't realise you were running a full setup even in the lower leagues

We’ve run a full set up for about 8-10 years. Unlike Cas, who only run an under 18’s while in NL1.

Dico wrote:

Widnes itself is a fairly small town

Which is nearly twice the size of Castleford.

Dico wrote:

If you're not admitted to SL in 2012 you can bring this up and I'll donate £100 to a charity of your choice. I reckon Toulouse & yourself, Salford dropped to make it 15 clubs, the magic weekend then being run as a last 16 challenge cup day

I think you should worry about your own club. It will be either Cas or Wakey that get the boot imo. As much as I think Salford have no business being in the top flight, it is in an important area for the development of the game, and we have too many small Yorkshire clubs in SL already.

: Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:59 pm  

Noo I wasn't.
You've had similar attendances previously in SL, yes you're a bigger town but its not by much (Nowhere near twice the size, look it up chief) really when comparing to the bigger areas, see below.

I think you should worry about your own club.

Not really, we're 5 times bigger than Castleford as an area and 4 times bigger than you, this is more the angle i was coming from when I said there wasn't much difference in size.
I don't really see why you took such exception to my comparison, I think you're probably misinformed by the size of the two towns.

: Tue Dec 08, 2009 6:45 pm  

Dico wrote:

You've had similar attendances previously in SL, yes you're a bigger town but its not by much (Nowhere near twice the size, look it up chief) really when comparing to the bigger areas, see below.

Yes, it’s not twice the size, but Widnes is significantly bigger than Castleford.
Castleford - Population: 37,525

Widnes - Population: 53,410

That’s a difference of 15.885

What you completely fail to understand is the reality of Widnes drawing support from it’s entire borough. I wrote this earlier in the thread:

Pepe wrote:

Both Widnes and Runcorn with a combined population of 114,662. Halton borough council own 10% of the club and are helping the club promote themselves in all the schools in the borough. The people of both these towns own the stadium and also attend the games. It’s not just Widnesians who attend.

Dico wrote:

Not really, we're 5 times bigger than Castleford as an area and 4 times bigger than you, this is more the angle i was coming from when I said there wasn't much difference in size.

Could you please expand on that?

Because, as you have now read, we draw from a population of 114,662. There’s the fact, unlike Castleford, we have no competing clubs to the south or west. That gives us a free reign in much of Cheshire, Wirral, South Liverpool and even North Wales.

I’m sorry, but you are seriously deluded if you think you have that kind of potential. Your time spent in SL has allowed Castleford to build a good, stable fan base – good on yer. However, I would suggest you are close to saturation point for RL in your area, and only major success could improve your fan base significantly any further. If Widnes had been able to sustain their SL place, we would be miles ahead of Cas now imo. Hull KR were regarded as a small club a few years ago. Within three years, they have already left Cas behind.

Dico wrote:

I don't really see why you took such exception to my comparison, I think you're probably misinformed by the size of the two towns

It wasn’t so much the size of our respective towns that bothered me, but the use of the same old, uniformed, platitudes made about Widnes and clubs in the lower division. None of them ever hold true.

In my opinion, if Widnes get a licence in 2012, and we have even a modicum of success, we will also pull away from Cas. When the RFL then choose to drop heartland clubs again, and that will happen, Cas will be one of the first clubs to go imo.

Without a new ground, I'd stake my house on it.

: Tue Dec 08, 2009 8:12 pm  

First thing's first, how dare you associate me with a yorkshireman; I'm from Warrington
I agree almost completely with what you're saying, if you read my post again I said the opinion in past tense and went on to say that although Widnes itself is a small town you've got fingers in many pies.
At the moment they are fingers because as i've said on the VT someone ought to get towards chester and in the suburbs south of runcorn there's very little RL played, I have a few mates in those areas who had to travel to Widnes to play.
I have a slight objection with your statement regarding Cas as due to the size of the town they obviously draw from a bigger area, they've GOT to, no way 20% of the population turn out to watch them and so populations arent THAT important, regardless you're both significantly smaller than warrington which was the point I drew on and why I put you in a similar bracket in that respect, we obviously disagree.
IIRC they (Cas) try to draw more from the south (i think) and i genuinely feel they will get the new stadium and it will be wakey first of the two but both will be preceeded by Salfords exit imo

I did state that my old opinion was wrong and that I could see you going on to do very, very well.
(not as well as us though)

: Tue Dec 08, 2009 8:25 pm  

Dico wrote:

First thing's first, how dare you associate me with a yorkshireman; I'm from Warrington
I agree almost completely with what you're saying, if you read my post again I said the opinion in past tense and went on to say that although Widnes itself is a small town you've got fingers in many pies.
At the moment they are fingers because as i've said on the VT someone ought to get towards chester and in the suburbs south of runcorn there's very little RL played, I have a few mates in those areas who had to travel to Widnes to play.
I have a slight objection with your statement regarding Cas as due to the size of the town they obviously draw from a bigger area, they've GOT to, no way 20% of the population turn out to watch them and so populations arent THAT important, regardless you're both significantly smaller than warrington which was the point I drew on and why I put you in a similar bracket in that respect, we obviously disagree.
IIRC they (Cas) try to draw more from the south (i think) and i genuinely feel they will get the new stadium and it will be wakey first of the two but both will be preceeded by Salfords exit imo

I did state that my old opinion was wrong and that I could see you going on to do very, very well.
(not as well as us though)

A Wire!

I might have guessed

What's the population of Warrington - 180,000?

You do know we get an awful lot of supporters from Warrington to don't you?

Penketh and Sankey are particularly fertile areas.

Cas have my upmost respect, and always have, but they are limited in a way we are not. Expansion*zis alway talk about potential and catchment areas, while completely ingoring what even some heartland clubs have. Double standards are the very nature of their arguements. Personally, I think it's all bullsh*t anyway.

: Tue Dec 08, 2009 8:34 pm  

Pepe wrote:

Penketh and Sankey are particularly fertile areas.

AKA Little Widnes.

: Tue Dec 08, 2009 8:39 pm  

I prefer not to frequent those parts of town: The scouse accent gets to me like no other...

Re: Widnes Potential? : Wed Dec 09, 2009 11:20 am  

well thats funny cause iv got a warrington accent via burtonwood,and ive watched widnes for 36 years and not a hint of scouse in my accent mucker i also live in sankey.

Re: : Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:05 pm  

Pepe wrote:

Penketh and Sankey are particularly fertile areas.

I can vouch for that!