Wire beginning of last year it rained, a lot, i remember because the 200 mile drive home was a little uncomfortable.

Sort out the North. Then tart up the south.

It's just not true to say Leeds haven't spent on their ground. They've spent more on the stadium in the Hetherington era than any club other than St Helens, including Warrington who got an entire new ground for less than Leeds have invested. This is manifested mostly in the Carnegie Stand (which wasn't "paid for" by Leeds Met - they helped the ongoing finances stack up very well but the £7m build cost came direct from Leeds' own cash reserves) and the corporate areas. But there is also a reason that Headingley's rugby side isn't completely falling down like the Jungle or, it seems, the cricket side - all that money spent on reroofing the north and south stands, strengthening the south stand so it can operate at full capacity again etc etc.



And the primary reason for the delay in further work is not so much to do with Hetherington being tight, although if there is a free lunch for the club in the form of any kind of grants or subsidies he will be all over it. It's all because Yorkshire are a bunch of insolvent idiots who keep saying they want to do the north stand project but never have the funds when it comes to making the decision. Leeds can immediately afford to do one or the other, north or south (the south was going to be paid pretty much in cash like the Carnegie was, the north is a lot more expensive so will have to involve borrowing). But even Leeds can't afford to do both. Since the south stand planning was granted, Yorkshire decided that yes the football/north stand was suddenly a shorter term project than Leeds had expected. Given that, the south stand project had to go by the wayside and is probably a non starter for the next decade or so.

Complete rubbish - unless you took a tanning lamp with you, every other year the game is played on a thursday night at easter!!

I've been entrenched on the Western Terrace for the last 15 years and the last time we got wet at a home game we have to go all the way back to... last week!!

We all view Headingley with affection. I'm sure Wire fans did with Wilderspool and Hull fans did with the boulevard. But, like those famous old girls, Headingley is a tired old dump. Most areas are barely fit for purpose.



In an ideal world they would move to a new, purpose built stadium but I recognise that is unlikely so they will continue to patch and mend.

Ashes already been said Leeds were all set to start on the south stand as the North stand was a no go as it required investment from YCCC. YCCC didn't have the funds so this was set aside and Leeds wanted to move on with the South stand. However this tack has changed late last year as YCCC have realised they now need to improve the shared stand in order to compete for the England tests in the future. From the last I heard YCCC had 60% of their part of the funding in place.



As for the western terrace, is there any legs in the rumour Leeds own a number of the properties towards the rear of it? I think the western is the last stand on the list to be rebuilt but if capacity can be increased over the next 15 years with new stands to the North and South then capacity could be slightly reduced on the west and a shallow cantilever stand could be created.

With hindsight, going back 15 years or so, the best thing that could have happened to Headingley would have been for YCCC to move to Durkar.

The cricketers could have had a new ground similar to Hants with the Rose bowl.

The rugby side could then have sold off the cricket ground, which they owned at that time, & used the money to completely redevelop the rugby side.

Provided all that had gone ahead before the current financial crisis then we may all have been in clover right now.

Isn't hindsight wonderful?

To put some other comments into context, the current YCCC management is far from being the idiots portrayed elsewhere in this topic.

Colin Graves with his financial support has saved the club safeguarding its future such that we are the current county champions.

The new Chief Exec is doing an excellent job with the support of the board & his staff - playing & non-playing - such that I fully expect the rebuilding of a joint rugby stand to go ahead for completion before 2019.

That should then go a significant way towards resolving the complaints about the state of the stadium.

I loved Wilderspool, and people may say the HJ is identi-kit but i love the functionality of the HJ, it is a far superior stadium.

You seem to know a bit about this

Yes ,but LCC were desparate to keep 1st class and test cricket in the City of Leeds and they helped out YCCC to acquire the Cricket side,, unfortunately the RL club hasn't had anything like the same kind of assistance

I know that the council was desperate to retain test match cricket in the city but whether in the long term that was the best decision for both clubs i'm not so sure.

At the time I agreed with the outcome now I'm having second thoughts.

Leeds Rugby sold the cricket side for about £10m, that was only due to the support of the council for YCCC so indirectly they did benefit.

Also don't forget that the funding for the Carnegie stand (IMV the equal of any faciity in any other RL stadium, excluding shared football grounds) came from Leeds Met Uni, so the club has had substantial external help.