Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in Trouble.

toomevara

The wildcats have been given 12 weeks to raise and pay HM revenue £192,000 or face being wound up. The club are confident they can raise the cash but it hardly marks an auspicious start for the new season. Worrying times for Wakey....

WakeyTyke

This is a strange one.

The club states that it agreed with the HMRC a repayment schedule for the tax it owes back in September and has already repaid £159,000 with the remaining money to be paid within the specified 12 weeks.

Yet a winding-up order came before the courts this week?

It does appear that the HMRC has been looking into the practice of making (tax-free) payments to players on 'image rights' and this is the end result. Apparently there are at least 5 other SL clubs who are in the same situation as Wakey with the HMRC and that Wakey may possibly being made an example of.

This story may be only just starting to unfold.

Dozen Wicked Words

WakeyTyke wrote: »

It does appear that the HMRC has been looking into the practice of making (tax-free) payments to players on 'image rights' and this is the end result. Apparently there are at least 5 other SL clubs who are in the same situation as Wakey with the HMRC and that Wakey may possibly being made an example of.

This story may be only just starting to unfold.

Just wondered if you knew which ones?

AdeT

dooferoaks wrote: »

Just wondered if you knew which ones?

Before I say anything - I don't know which clubs WakeyTyke is commenting on.

The payment of image rights is something Wigan used to entice Trent Barrett over, so maybe it might be something they've been asked about? If the other clubs involved (and I don't know either way if there are or aren't) are bigger clubs than Wakey, they may have been in a position to pay the bill and keep it quiet without people asking questions about the clubs future.

WakeyTyke

After all the recentl doom and gloom and speculation surrounding the Wildcats, comes the proof that rather than having one foot in the national league they are very much intent in securing their SL franchise.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_yorkshire/8425048.stm

Hopefully, the next round of franchise licences will be able to be decided by rugby matters, rather than facilities.

toomevara

Great news for Wakey fans and RL. Have they paid the revenue cash?

WakeyTyke

toomevara wrote: »

Great news for Wakey fans and RL. Have they paid the revenue cash?

I am sure if they hadn't everyone would have heard about it!

Wakey have already sold their Belle Vue ground so they are not cash-starved, it's their accounting methods which are questionable.

toomevara

Thought this was an interesting piece in Today's Guardian.

Wakefield Trinity unveil plans for £19m new stadium on the M62
• 150-bed hotel and other facilities a prerequisite
• Stadium site only six miles from Castleford Tigers' new ground


Wakefield Trinity have unveiled plans for a new stadium in what could become a battle for a single Super League licence with their local rivals Castleford Tigers. Both clubs have been warned by the Rugby Football League that their places in the elite competition beyond 2011 will be at risk unless they make progress on ground developments after years of promises, and now they are proposing to build separate stadiums on the sites of disused collieries at junctions 30 and 32 of the M62.

Castleford have already received outline planning permission for a new ground adjoining the ski centre in Glasshoughton, and today Sir Rodney Walker – a former chairman of Wakefield, the RFL, Wembley and now World Snooker, having been voted out of the latter role only last week – announced Trinity's plans for a community-owned stadium six miles to the west at Stanley.

Funding is the major issue for both clubs, with Walker admitting that to generate the necessary £19m Wakefield will be reliant on planning permission being granted for a commercial development including a 150-bed hotel, offices and other sports facilities on the same 100-acre site.

"It's a complex jigsaw," he said. "The stadium is but a small part of a 100-acre development and, if that development is successful, I can say with absolute certainty that the stadium is fully funded. As we sit here today I'm confident that the whole vision for the site will materialise."

A previous plan for a new stadium to be built in parkland nearer the city centre collapsed immediately after Trinity had been awarded one of the first round of Super League licences in 2008, and Walker conceded that the founding members of the Northern Union cannot afford another failure if they are to survive in the elite.

"The primary motivation for all of this is Wakefield's desire to stay in Super League and having a stadium that is compliant with the needs of modern-day spectators," he added. "We need to demonstrate to the Rugby Football League that we will have a new state-of-the-art stadium to play at when the time comes for the new franchises to be awarded."

The current licences expire at the end of the 2011 season and the RFL recently repeated its promise to ambitious Championship clubs such as Widnes and Halifax that at least one of them will be promoted to the Super League, increasing the pressure on the 14 incumbents – especially Wakefield, Castleford and Salford, whose plans for a new stadium in Barton have also run into numerous problems.

Walker revealed that Castleford had rejected "several approaches" to scrap their own stadium plans and become joint tenants with Wakefield, just as Trinity have snubbed previous offers to throw in their lot with Cas. Both clubs are currently preparing for derbies on Boxing Day that will mark the start of their serious preparations for the 2010 season – Wakefield at Leeds, and Castleford at home to Bradford.

Ian Milward's column continues to be though provoking in League weekly. This weeks piece concerns the need for certain clubs to actively consider the possibility of mergers along the lines of StGeorge-Illawarra in OZ. Cas-Wakey Wildtigers?? *ducks and covers*

WakeyTyke

Love the way Andy Wilson refers to Wakefield TRINITY in his Guardian article, omitting Wildcats completely!:o

Wakefield- Castleford Trinity Wildcats :eek: - about as likely as the Warrington-Widnes Wolves;)

WakeyTyke

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats have officially settled their tax obligation to the Revenue

http://www.wakefieldwildcats.co.uk/wakefield-trinity-wildcats-statement-i606594.html

amacachi

Glad that's out of the way.