Walton. holding on to a sticker will not help you. You may still have your sticker in 20 years time. i'm sure there are Bramley supporters with stickers too if you get my drift. Dont take that the wrong way by the way.



Nailing your colours to the mast is not smart if there isnt a future. sometimes you need to change to survive. You could be something bigger and bright and strong or you could be a dinosaur.



You need a cause Walton. Rhetoric is fine but it has to have a direction and it has to give you a chance.



Good Luck with it.

wakefield castleford and featherstone are there own clubs with there own history and futures i wud rather go down a league than merge whys it so important to you that we merge u div

not read all the posts but why dont cas stay where they are and knock down and re construct a stand at a time as kr have just done?

Uppo58 I appreciate your considered response but my point remains that using your argument that a merger would make for a stronger club in the Calder region is equally valid for a merger between Hull & HKR making for a stronger club in Humberside, an argument as it happens put forward on SL Backchat last week. The fact is that you don't want Hull & HKR to merge even though you might then have a club capable of challenging the Wigan/leeds dominance of RL. Its Rugby League Nimbyism, so I'll do you a deal- keep quiet about my club merging with our rivals and I'll do the same for you.

I hate the fact that the area keeps being referred to as "Calder Valley" or "Calder region/area" do people know where the Calder runs?

You are aware it runs through Halifax and Dewsbury aren't you, are you suggesting they join forces along with Wakey Fev & Cas?

Best thing for RL is for all these teams to have their own identity and rivalry as this generates stronger teams, and then Leeds & Hull can come in and pick off the best of the crop

So I take it you would not wish to merge with KR, and far from attaching any emotion to your choice of sporting clubs to support, follow teams until they expend their usefulness to you then drop them like the proverbial potato.

I on the other hand follow Cas...not Calder.

I will also look upon my sticker with the memories that I was there fighting for my clubs identity and not just walking blindly to some meaningless RL conglomerate...like Hull and Gateshead just for the money.

Well said that man!

Maybe now is the time that Wakey and Cas fans forget the petty arguments regarding going North, throwing abuse at each other and join in a common goal of negating all talk of mergers!!

If you think merger is such a good idea, why didn't you merge with KR instead of Gateshead.

With 1 club in Hull, you'd be onto a sure fire winner

Think Uppo58 does make a lot of good points and in a very eloquent way, but his ideology is totally funked!

Even if a merge was a good idea, I have no view on that at the moment, it is so far from today’s agenda that it is irrelevant.



It is so far from the agenda because there is essentially a top flight land grab in progress at Super League level. If we take for granted for a moment that one or both of Cas and Wakey are on the exit chute, right now and Featherstone are doing everything they can to position themselves for a shot. Therefore, I would suggest at the moment, as I have said all along, the position in SL belongs to the first person to pour concrete in a new facility, and if neither do, Fev believe they have a sporting chance to nick it.



So, I would expect nothing regarding a merge, share or anything until the next licensing application or unless someone pours foundations for a stadium, or funding for a major and serious improvement or overhaul, not plans, approvals, committees or trusts – actual bricks and activity with FUNDING.



If someone did miraculously find £10m in a funding package to actually build something not a dream, well, that really does change the dynamic.

Without a doubt in the "Calder Valley" whoever lays the first bricks and shows the money is in place, well they are the ones who are in a position to offer "help and solidarity" to the others with facilities and secure their own legacy first.



It is an interesting discussion, but largely moot at this time.

As always with this question there is an assumption that a merger will dominate market forces.



This is not correct.



Look at the Sheffield/Huddersfield Merger. You would assume this means there is no longer a team in Sheffield. Wrong. There is a team in Sheffield, as there are fans, who wish to support a sheffield team.



Any Merger would be as a business, so sure both boards could vote for a merger to share assets and spread costs etc. But actually whilst the clubs merge, the fans stay separate and just start up their own club or fade away.



The business's can merge, but the traditions cannot.



As for groundsharing. In an ideal world it's a good idea, but with both clubs setting along their own paths a long time ago, I'd be shocked if it can now be done to everyone's taste.



Which ever team happens to be in the ascendancy at the time will always have the final say. The only true form of merger is for one team to dominate the other and over the progression of years, new fans will come from the less dominant area to the more dominate club (if they can market well enough). Just as Bradford took fans from other areas when they dominated that locality.



Sport is competition and sometimes that competition is to the death. It could be in this case, but there is no saying in 10 years time that this debate will not still be going on, with Cas or even Featherstone in the ascendancy.

Actually, an excellent point, I think my post rambles between merger and ground share!



I started out thinking merger in the proper sense, not like GatesHull and Sheffdersfield.... they were distateful events that went against every right minded thing.



Prehaps I revise my sentiment to "the first one to pour........ becomes attractive to a share" but for now, everyone has to fan the flames of their own ambition.