But that is what they will/would try to do , because if they dont , then in their eyes , they have failed , and that will hurt , they will be proud men , real fans

Ultimatley what will happen to WTW , will happen , wherever that will be , they will be playing pro RL , why ? , simple , because they have fans like you , and your BOD , who will make sure that the name Wakefield Trinity , will continue , All the best

It would be a strange club that didn't have a debt to it's directors , but it would be a strange set of directors that after the number of years they have been in charge would expect to get anything back , especially considering the rumoured finacial situation they find themselves

Probably like most BOD's in this position they will relinquish their positions only to somebody, or organisation in a position to go forward , and that requires money , otherwise they are the best prepared to continue , they have the experience

The club's board of directors have stated publicly that they will relinquish their shares and walk away if someone comes forward with the financial clout to run the club.

Will Wakefield be in Super League 2011?

need to pay £500,000 in the next month to avoid folding! oh dear.

Looks like Wakefield are really struggling - needing big investment over next few weeks just to survive, let alone make the cut for the new franchises. news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 346763.stm I feel a bit sorry for them, but they looked dead in the water once they decided not to share a ground with Castleford and their own ground plans didn't work out as planned. The RL need to cull a club, probably from West Yorkshire, so they accommodate Widnes, so the Wildcats look to be on their way out. Perhaps three years in NL1, maybe with a fresh start via Administration and clearing debts, new investors and a new ground, and they'll be in better shape to make a serious application in 2015? Without wishing to be totally mercenary, have they got any players that we might to use some of our spare salary cap on?

Looks like Wakefield are really struggling - needing big investment over next few weeks just to survive, let alone make the cut for the new franchises. news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 346763.stm I feel a bit sorry for them, but they looked dead in the water once they decided not to share a ground with Castleford and their own ground plans didn't work out as planned. The RL need to cull a club, probably from West Yorkshire, so they accommodate Widnes, so the Wildcats look to be on their way out. Perhaps three years in NL1, maybe with a fresh start via Administration and clearing debts, new investors and a new ground, and they'll be in better shape to make a serious application in 2015? Without wishing to be totally mercenary, have they got any players that we might to use some of our spare salary cap on?

If a mod wants to merge this with the other thread on Wakefield that started at the same time......

They're certainly making it easy for the RFL.....

Wakey Out, Widnes In

if wakey fold are widnes ready to step up this year?

No.

good luck Wakey, shame to see an old club disappear, not like your crowds are that bad compared to majority in SL.

We wouldn't want to give up another weekend in Blackpool.



Plus some unfinished business needs attending to in the Championship. We haven't beat the Leythers at LSV yet.

That's what the Challenge Cup's for!

Just can't see them not making the start line in Feb.

Worst case scenario is that they have to do a Crusaders. Go into admin, creditors take the best offer from interested parties - there's sure to be a few.

No chance. I don't think they will even win the league they are in this season. Wigan reserves would be a better option.

just transfer wakeys players to widnes.

wdiens already have the rich backer and sponsors, plus with the sky tv grant it could work

crusaders put a team together in a month

maybe the stobart will be used by 2 SL clubs this year

Just one small problem with your master plan, what are widnes going to do with the contracted squad they already have? Swap them with Wakey?

No.... just no. Widnes are all geared up and preparing for SL 2012. Why should they be shoved into SL early and unprepared just because Wakey go bust? (which I don't think they will!)

If they offered Halifax the place they MAY take it as they might not get another chance. But widnes are confident of getting in for 2012 so why cock that up by rushing in unprepared a year early?

There have been some very bad decisions that might have lead to this, I'm sure that none of them were taken for anything but the right reasons and were seen at the time as the best thing to do.

The BoD at Wakefiled have fought long and hard sometimes on an unlevel playing field and sometimes against issues that were'nt of their making. The club has been run on a shoestring budget but has still remained competitive on the field and made great strides off it in terms of youth development, commercial, marketing and especially community work.

Always on a knife edge and just one step from peril the club has recently suffered a huge number of blows which it has found hard to sustain. The obvious ones are the loss of Leon Walker, Adam Watene, David Topliss, Ken Hurst and Don Fox a couple of years ago but less publicised was the loss of two Directors at around the same time.

The franchis system has put a huge strain on the club and despite being amazingly close to a major breakthrough on the stadium (even after the PI decision) Wakefield are under immense pressure from the RFLs pending decision. That uncertainty over our place in SL has cost the club an investor who is up there with the richest in the game, we have missed out on lucritive sponshorship deals and obviously found it difficult to convince players to sign, we are now on the brink.

The share issue is one of the last resorts and hopefully it will work, if it does who knows there's six months before decision time and a lot can happen. There may be positive news from the PI, we will have a stadium, probably Oakwell, to play in and if we can get through this then maybe we will kick on financially from there.

What really concerns me is the way the nature of the game has changed, in many cases the relationships between fans from rival clubs is no longer good natured, we no longer seem to be a small sport united against the world, we now have fans and officials wishing for the demise of another club in order to protect their status.

Something is wrong when a 137 year old Rugby club, a founder member of the Northern Union in 1895 can possibly blink out of existance and the rest of the sport does'nt bat an eyelid. Indeed some fans and officials will actively gloat and celebrate the fact.

Well if they don't raise the money, it looks like mine and Ceejames spat about whether they should say NOW that they intend to play in the Championship next year was pointless as they won't make it anyway!

It's a shame this hadn't happened a few months ago. At least they could have looked into relinquishing their license and promoting someone new there and then in time for this season.

Looks like someone else may be joining Cru on minus points this year (and that's not the worst case scenario).

But...

You never know. Between now and July, a rich benefactor may come in, save the club, invest loads in them, relocate them to Barnsley, apply for a license as a South Yorkshire expansion club with plans to build the game around Barnsley, Wakefield and Rotherham, and push Castleford out!

A bit like Cru in a way. They had a crap ground and crap team and debts all over. They got took over (albeit not by a particularly rich benefactor, but one that has eventually gotten rid of the debt), relocated, got a new squad and finished in the top 8 that year... all in the space of about 6 weeks before the season's start!

if wakey enter administration why not give widnes an early promotion

i would basically move the franchise decisions forward to now, but give widnes a 4 year license, not 3.

widnes would make a better go of it than wakey would who would just be wasting everyones time this sl season

Just a possible view on the latter part of your post...

It may be that the game has grown so much and it is so much more competitive at the top that some clubs are struggling to adapt, and fans are no longer cosying up to their rivals in a good will sort of way. Nice guys finish last and all that. It's dog eat dog. That's what it's like at the top.

Take this very skew-if example -
Your watching your kid play his mates at pool with their Dads. You have a bit of banter with them and it's all good fun.
Then someone comes along and puts a big prize on it: "winner gets a PS3 and their Dad gets a speedboat, with a family holiday to the Bahamas for a month paid for!" You'll be goading that kid and his Dad every chance you get! (Well, maybe not everybody would, but you'd get a lot of people that would change their attitude when a bigger prize is put in front of them!).

Because Widnes aren't prepared to be in SL for 2011. It could cost them a lot of money to do so, and they have no reason to oblige. They're pretty much guaranteed a place in 2012. They want to build for that and come into the league prepared and make a good stab of it, not stumble into the league hastily and get stuffed every week.

By all means offer them it if it comes to it, and see if they feel they can organise something. But chances are, they'd turn it down.

Like someone else has said, it may be a better bet to try Halifax. Although again, they probably won't be ready either. It would be easier for them to obtain Wakefield's squad (it's just down the road), but then they'd have to renegotiate contracts, sponsors to pay for them, etc. in a very short space of time. I just don't think it would be at all possible. (Plus, you'd then have to drop another SL club the year after to let Widnes in, which clubs may not be too happy about!).

Hey, I understand all that, I've operated at high levels in sports which dwarf RL and understand the business edge that such pressures can bring to bear on all concerned.

While SL has elevated RL to greater levels we still remain a small almost community based sport, we are not viewed as one of the big dogs hence the problems with image rights payments. We still have to fight our corner to get media attention and despite Sport England funding being much better we are small potatoes compared even to Rugby Union.

RL can ill afford to tear itself apart from the inside in an attempt to push the "we are an innovative sport" line too far. If Wakefield fold I don't think the RFL or the RL community really know what or how far reaching the repercussions will be, and Wakefield may not be the last.

what if wakey fold and they are short a team?

Because administration doesn't entail automatic expulsion from the league. A financial mess and not even outline planning permission for a new stadium (unless it's a remarkably quick public inquiry) might seriously weaken Wakey's licence application - perhaps even fatally so - but they've still got every right to submit one and have it judged on its merits, not on some knee-jerk response to news of financial problems.