Castleford Tigers’ Wheldon Road Redevelopment Revealed
Castleford Tigers have revealed how much the proposed redevelopment of their Wheldon Road stadium will cost and what income it will generate when facilities have been improved. They expect the work to cost £8-10m, but will bring in an additional £1m of revenue each year.
Castleford are set to drop plans to move to a new site near the M62 and instead focus on revamping their existing stadium, known as The Jungle. Wakefield council has granted the club £2m from a fund set up to keep professional rugby league alive in the district.
Castleford Tigers managing director Mark Grattan is confident the redevelopment will proceed saying: “Provided we get the same kind of treatment [Wakefield Trinity] have got from the council planning department and we don’t get called in by the secretary of state, we are thinking we are home and dry.”
Grattan insisted the club were “very much on the verge” of commencing at the Axiom site, but that was disrupted by funding issues and the pandemic.
“We are in a fortunate position in that we’ve still got the planning permission down at the Axiom site, so if they can fund a shopping centre down there, we can go down there,” he said.
“That is looking a little less likely, but we have got £2m from the council, part of the rugby league resilience fund, to start doing some work down here [at The Jungle].
“We have looked at some other avenues, we’ve had quite lengthy discussions with the developers over the last six-seven months about a project down here, so we have got the plans drawn up ready to go for down here.”
The centrepiece of these new plans will be a new stand featuring a restaurant, corporate boxes, gymnasium and changing rooms. They hope to have computer generated projections of what the stadium will look like later this month. The club are aiming to apply for planning consent in early summer. Grattan said the use of these new facilities on a daily basis would generate an initial £1m per year for the club.
Castleford intend to continue playing at The Jungle, though with a reduced capacity, during these works.
