Quote Georgie Best on a Bloomer="Georgie Best on a Bloomer"If that's the case, why has WTWRLFC failed to capture the imagination of Wakefield residents over the years of its residency in Super League.
what have the Wildcats done to capitalise on their on-field advantage over their neighbours?
How can anyone blame Castleford for Wakefield's failure to pull an average crowd of more than 7000 in any of those seasons? What capacity is being developed by WTWRLFC? Why can't a team that has had playoff qualifications under its belt pull in larger crowds?
This isn't really the sort of statistic that backs up your argument.
So my question is why should people accept that Castleford hasn't got the capacity to develop and that Wakefield has? It's got absolutely no foundation in terms of how the clubs have cultivated their support over the past few years.
Over to you...'"
Some good points. Clearly Castleford are in no way to blame for the lack of progress of Wakefield. 40 years of underperformance, poor management and sheer bad luck combined with a stadium that has been increasingly unfit for purpose for the last 30 years has done all that.
We have lost 2 or 3 generations of fans due to having a run-down stadium in a not very desirable area of the city which is unattractive to new fans. Winning one play-off game in 12 years is hardly the kind of success that inspires the new breed of supporters.
To me, what your statistics show is the characteristics of core support; how difficult it is to increase and also how resiliant it is during hard times. The timescale is not really long enough to show the real trends. It takes decades, rather than years, to build support. Cas's relative success through the 80s and 90s has stood them in good stead right up to the present day. The same period saw the decline of success and support for Trinity, from which we are only just starting to recover. If you look at the attendance figures from 98 to present you will see a gradual increase. That's how core support grows, not in sudden booms, they tend to be just glory seekers (cough Bradford cough).
A good example would be Huddersfield, who share a similar lack of success for decades and now, despite being in a modern stadium with a fairly successful team, their crowds are only just starting to increase towards the magical 10K.
For the future: Trinity in a new stadium with regular appearances in the play-offs would definitely average 10k+ in 10 years. Unfortunately the demographics and increased population of the catchment area is inaccessible in the current conditions, and as such, has yet to be tapped.
On Castleford: their crowds are, to be fair, nothing short of remarkable from a local population of 40k. I've previously worked in Castlleford and the Tigers are very much a part of what it means to be from Cas and an important part of people's identity (which is not true, at present, in Wakefield). However, to acheive 10k average crowds I think they would need the new stadium (obviously) and be in or around the top 4 with regular visits to Wembley i.e. the level of success would have to be greater than that for Trinity.
Alternatively, if Wakefield were expelled indefinitely to the lower divisions then, as the only SL club in the district, the catchment area could slowly expand and guarantee those bigger gates.
So, in summary, are you holding us back? No. Are we holding you back? Possibly.
