£10m redevelopment plans revealed for rugby league ground

Rugby League club Castleford Tigers, which in November revealed it discussions with Wakefield Council and the owners of its current ground about the possibility redeveloping the site rather than relocating to a proposed new stadium at Junction 32 of the M62, has revealed the cost and benefits it could bring.

The club has noted that the plans for its existing ground, which includes building a new main stand that will run the length of the pitch, would cost between £8-10m with a between 20 and 25% of this coming from Wakefield Council’s Rugby League Resilience Fund.

The redevelopment could provide an extra £1m a year in revenue for the club as a result of the new banqueting suite as well as double the number of hospitality spaces.

Plans for the existing site however hinge on a change of use at Axiom with the Tigers’s managing director Mark Grattan noting that the developer was working with the club and the council in order to provide the funds required for the redevelopment.

This action would see Axion on Junction 32 of the M62, which currently is designated for retail and leisure and was going to become the new home for the team, have its use changed to warehousing, capitalising on the continued high demand for sheds across the region.

Gratton said: “We’ve got a developer who is willing to change the 106 agreement at Axiom, to give us the funds to develop the site.

“Providing he gets [consent to change the use], they will contribute a significant sum of money to getting this stadium up to a really good standard.”

The club which made the announcement ahead of the Super league season kicking off on Thursday, added its confident that this change will go ahead as it has support from the council and because there is precedent for such decisions with Wakefield Trinity securing a similar deal at the Newmarket site of its proposed new stadium with the funds going to redevelop Belle Vue.

Gratton added: “Providing we get the same kind of treatment that [Wakefield Trinity] got from the Council planning department, we should be home and dry.”

Alongside the new stand the redevelopment will also see extra hospitality boxes and automated turnstiles at the stadium, with detailed planning expected by summer if the change of use is agreed.