Union has Twickenham, Football has Wembley, Cricket has Lords, Tennis has Wimbledon etc etc. Isnt it about time that RL has one.

Odsal used to be known as the Wembley of the North and is now owned by the RFL, could they redevelop it and turn it in to the RL National Stadium, or build one elsewhere?

Would RL be better off with a National Stadium in terms of status and sponsorship or are we better off the way we are now, playing at different stadiums across the country.

Surely the rfls intension is to devolope odsal otherwise there was no point buying it was there?

Nope. We've found a home for the Grand Final at Old Trafford and the Cup has its traditional home, which should not, under any circumstances, be moved from Wembley.
The only issues left are internationals and Challenge Cup semi-finals. Internationals can be played at Wembley or other relevant stadium. The cup semis aren't enough on their own to warrant such an investment to get Odsal up to scratch or build another.

A national stadium would be fantastic, and as I said when Salford's plans came out, the RFL have missed a trick. A 40,000 stadium at Barton, right on the motorway network, build youth and other facilities, hold Championship and amateur finals there, internationals (including World Cup/4 Nations Finals), etc. Move the RFL there wholesale and bring in sports science centres and other such set-ups. Bid for concerts and other events, etc to bring in revenue.

Problem is, the Challenge Cup would always stay at Wembley and the Grand Final at OT where it pulls a 70,000+ crowd. So would a national stadium be worth it? Probably not without changing our finals venues.

Would be great, but hard to justify.

Wembley is RL's national stadium.

We just don't make any money from it

There are 2 finals and a couple of internationals

Wembley is the home of th CC and OT is sort of the traditional home albeit fairly recently the home of the Grand Final

It would be nice to have a genuine home with great support facilities, training facilities etc but the ground would get minimal use and would only be viable at around 25k capacity

I think this is true. I wonder how the RFU justify the cost of Twickenham. How many times a year is it used? I believe the residents of Twickenham have objections to its being used too often. I don't think we can justify a national stadium for our sport, unless we piggy back on another stadium that's used for something else. The proposal to move the HQ of the RFL to the George, raises the question as to whether the Galpharm could be uprated into a true international venue. With Town playing there too, perhaps soccer could be lured into also using is for FA Cup semi finals involving northern teams.

I would much prefer for the RFL to have there own national stadium, maybe Odsal developed into a 70k one with temporary stadia cladding to reduce it to 30k for Superleague matches and retain atmosphere.
We,ve spent too much time second fiddle to "football stadia" locking us down into a 2nd tier sport, the RFL goal was most clubs to play in modern stadia maybe to give our sport some serious profile they should practice what they preach.

If the RFL are going to have a National Stadium, it would have to fit the following criteria.

- It would need to be purpose built. Adapting an old stadium is a non-starter as there would be no prestige to it.
- It would need to be in Manchester. As arguably Britain's second city, and certainly "Capital of the North" and proximity to the bulk of the professional sport, it cannot be anywhere else. Sorry, but places like Huddersfield, and the Yorkshire cities are not prestigious enough.
- It would need to seat 70-80,000 people. Any smaller and it would not look or feel prestigious enough, and it would not be big enough to hold the Grand Final in.
- It would need world class, and I do mean WORLD CLASS, conference and hospitality facilities. The number of games potentially held there would otherwise make the stadium a money pit.

And that's before you talk about which matches would be held there. You'd need a full international programme every year, the Challenge Cup semi finals there, probably the playoffs, Magic Weekend and everything.

Sadly, I can't see it being anywhere near viable.

Follow the lead of the worlds top & best earning sporting competion(NFL) they dont have a national stadium they just let the final go to the highest bidder each year. That means they not only dont have to pay to run a stadium that may loose money they make money by selling the event to stadia that want it. It also spreads the event around the country & all areas can make on the deal.
I would like to see the RFL buy the George hotel & use it as the games headquarters.

Should just use Wembley IMO

Get real JC, the rfl paid Bradford for the Odsal lease as a means of giving a severely cash strapped club a pile of cash.
The cost of turning Odsal into some kind of wembley of the north would be prohibitive, indeed, they could build a new stadium with better viewing and facilities for less.
Besidese, the haven't bought Odsal, they just took over the lease

edited for accuracy etc

Is the rugby league community ready to move the Grand Final to Wembley?

It depends on the cost of renting Wembley compared to the cost of rent OT really.

There would be some benefits to it but right now the GF makes money, something we dont have a lot of.

Salford playing every other week in a 40,000 stadium in front of 5,000 people wouldn't do anyone any good. I'd keep the Challenge Cup final at Wembley and the Super LEague Grand Final at Old Trafford, but I'd look at redevleoping Odsal with the intention of holding England mid-season internationals, Challenge Cup semi-finals and maybe even the Championship Grand Finals. A stadium which guarantees 100% of the income on match days stays within the sport is vital, even more so in the present economic climate.

We should stick with OT for the Grand Final. I wouldn't like to see the stripe of red empty Club Wembley seats at the GF

Only if they move the challenge cup final back to May or June.

How much would it actually cost to

a) build
b) run yearly

40-50k should do. That's a realistic aim for internationals, semi finals, WCC, etc. I think if it was any bigger, it'd be a white elephant. In fact, I think the only way to stop it being a white elephant would be to share it with a soccer club. There simply aren't enough internationals and other events to justify RL having their own ground, but I do think that having a "national stadium" would have benefits.

I have to completely disagree about it having to be in Manchester. There are already too huge stadiums in Manchester. We wouldn't get any business at the RL ground as the majority of bookings would be at those grounds.
I think Leeds would be an ideal location. Huge city. No 40k+ grounds in the entire county. Dead centre of the M62. Great transport links from all over the country. And most importantly, there are a lot of RL fans on the doorstep (which is very important). If it was in Manchester or Huddersfield, you'd struggle for numbers to fill it.

They should sort out the sport nevermind build a national stadium.

Possibly the most unproductive and useless post I've read on here.

Just be a man and admitt it Wellsy your response to that post is nonsense

"They should sort the sport out". How is that productive? What needs sorting? Why? How? How would a national stadium not help?

It's a throw away negative comment that means absolutely nothing.

Wrong, it's a concise statement, that clearly states that the game needs to concentrate on being better before we even remotely need to be thinking about any stadium that is purely for finals et al within RL. That you couldn't understand that & chose instead to come back with your comment is somewhat surprising.

We don't need a stadium of our 'own', our finals comparative to other games in the RL calander are so disparate in attendances that none would fill the bill anyway.

It's all pie in the sky & as the previous poster says, we should be looking at sorting the sport out, in terms of viability financially, visibility to the national populous and ensuring we have sponsors on board for all competitions for the forseeable future (that will actually pay good money for the right) before we even should be even dreaming about any new stadium for such.
Shaking down the whole structure of Red Hall & the rotten wood would be a start.