Wakefield set to stay at Belle Vue
Wednesday 23 September 2015 11:13, UK
Wakefield are confident they will stay in their Belle Vue home next season after successfully re-negotiating a rent reduction.
Chairman Michael Carter had threatened to move the club out of the ground because of the high costs and had lined up a temporary ground-share with Championship club Dewsbury for 2016 if talks with owners Bank of Ireland failed to resolve the impasse.
"We've got agreement in principle to carry on using the ground," Carter said. "We have to firm things up but I don't see any obstacles.
"The plan will be to remain at Belle Vue, certainly for next year, but the ultimate aim is to move into a new community stadium at Newmarket and we've got to keep the pressure on the council and the developer to deliver on the promise they made at the public inquiry."
Carter says alternative plans to develop Belle Vue, which is one of only five grounds still in use from the time of the breakaway from the Rugby Football Union in 1895, were impractical.
"It became more difficult," he said. "It's an old facility."
Belle Vue will be full to the rafters on Saturday week if they beat Sheffield on Sunday to earn home advantage against Bradford in the 'Million-Pound Match' to determine the 12th and final place in Super League for 2016.
In 2006, 11,000 people crammed into the ground to watch Wakefield beat Castleford in their promotion decider but the current ground capacity is expected to be confirmed at just short of 8,000.
