Richard Wright interview – part one

Researching a feature on Castleford Tigers I am writing for Code13 magazine, I met up with Tigers Chief Executive Richard Wright and took the opportunity to ask him about the past and future of the club: why the club are scrapping between the divisions after being 80 minutes from the Super League Grand Final in 1999 and what his vision for the club is for the future.

In this first part of two, Richard talks about his relationship with the Tigers, the club’s plans for a new stadium and his thoughts on the club’s spectacular fall from grace (the second half can be found here).

The next issue of Code13 will be out on Friday 29 February, the first issue is out now and can be bought from ebay and the following club shops: Wigan Warriors, Wakefield Wildcats, Warrington Wolves, Harlequins RL, Leeds Rhinos, Castleford Tigers, Sheffield Eagles RLFC, Bramley Buffaloes, South London Storm, Dewsbury Rams, Barrow Raiders, London Skolars, Gateshead Thunder and New Earswick All Blacks.

 

 

 

What is your history with the Tigers?

I came down here as a kid when I was about six or seven years of age and have been coming ever since. Darryl Van de Velde asked me to do a bit of sponsorship after someone dropped out of being a player position sponsor and I said I would. After I’d done a bit of advertising and sponsorship I became a director. Then in 1996 with the dawn of Super League, we needed to fill various senior positions within the club to access RFL funding and I was asked to take the Chief Executive’s job.

It must be a pretty busy job at the moment with franchises on the way?

Yes it is, obviously we’ve got the stadium to deliver and we’ve got to get a licence and those are the two things that are occupying my time. It is an important season and it is important that the club continues to grow in tandem with those two very important things. I think we’ll get there – the licence application will be in by the end of March and we just need to push forward with the stadium, we need to maintain the momentum that we’ve got.

What is the position with the stadium at the moment?

Well we got planning permission, now we are finalising the ownership, the management, the funding package and the design. Obviously the detailed design will determine what the finished costs will be. We are appointing architects so that the detailed designs can get underway and consulting with the fans and the sponsors so that they are along the lines of what everybody wants. Meanwhile we’re working with the council on the actual ownership, the management and the financial contributions from each partner.

Wasn’t it initially a Castleford and Waystone partnership for the stadium and the council weren’t going to be involved apart from the planning permission aspect?

No, the council have always been involved. It is a three-way partnership between the club, Waystone and the council and obviously we want to ensure we deliver significant community benefits from the stadium and that is the council’s role.

Does that conflict at all with the Wakefield plans for a council-funded community stadium at Thornes Park?

Well I don’t know much about the Wakefield project and we’re just focussed on ours. Since I’ve been here we’ve been looking at ways to improve the facilities because if we’re to compete at the highest level we’re going to have to have better facilities. On this particular project we’ve been working five years and we’ve got a public initiative that a lot of work has gone into. I keep out of what Wakefield are doing.

What is the timescale for the stadium at the moment? How do you see the project commencing?

We’re anticipating resolving the funding and management issues by the end of March for when we submit our licence application. Once we can agree a detailed design with the sponsors and the fans we can submit an application for the detailed planning and that will take quite some time. Hopefully then by the back end of the year we will be able to get on with the construction which will take about 12 months.

All your eggs seem to be in the stadium basket. If worst case scenario happens and the stadium doesn’t happen what is the fallback plan?

Well an awful lot of money has been invested in this project by Waystone and in terms of the planning application you are talking about hundreds of thousands of pounds invested already in this development. People only do that when there is a fair degree of certainty that the project is going to happen. If we talk about a plan B there is the possibility of redeveloping The Jungle. It isn’t a route we’d like to take but it is a possibility that we could sell some of the land here and develop a training facility offsite. The problem with that is that it is not going to put us in a position to compete at the highest level. It will get us the stadium and comply with minimum standards but it will not give us the base to go forward and perform at the highest level.

Is it a case then that Waystone can’t afford for the stadium not to be built?

Well I wouldn’t say that and I won’t speak for Waystone but all I can say is that an awful lot of time, money and effort has been invested by ourselves, Waystone and the council into this project and we are confident that it will go ahead.

Ten years ago the club was almost at the peak of the sport – almost at the Challenge Cup final, almost at the Grand Final – what do you think contributed to the club being in the position it is in now, scrapping for survival?

Everyone seems to blame the directors for not being ambitious enough but I think if you look at the players we bought in the year 2000. In 1999 we brought in some quality overseas players and they lifted us to that next level. Obviously we didn’t do that again in 2000 and those that came in were of a lower standard and we didn’t move forward. In 1999 we brought in Aaron Raper and Dale Fritz and those overseas players were the difference. We needed to bring in better players the next year and we didn’t. It wasn’t a lack of investment though and it wasn’t a lack of ambition on the part of the directors. People won’t believe that but we don’t tell coaches who to bring in. From our perspective it is much easier to sell season tickets on the back of a big signing and we’ve always encouraged to bring big names in.

It comes down to 2004 which was a very difficult year. When we started that year I think people thought we had a very good squad and people were saying to me that they couldn’t wait to see the forwards we signed – Craig Greenhill and Shaun Ryan – and we all thought we had a really strong set of forwards and it turned out not to be the case. Then despite our best efforts we failed to turn it around. I think the one thing we didn’t have was quality juniors coming through and when we got into trouble we didn’t have anyone to underpin the first team. What’s happened since then has been a direct result of that year when recruitment was the key issue. I don’t think we brought the right balance of players in 2004 and since then we have invested trying to get back to where we were then and it has taken until now to finally get on the right track.

And now the future’s looking bright?

It is, we’ve been investing heavily in juniors since 2004 and we’re seeing that now with Michael Shenton, Craig Huby, Ryan Boyle, Richard Owen and Joe Westerman who have all looked comfortable in the friendlies and will play significant roles this year. We have a lot of good kids coming through and I think over the next four or five years we’ll see a significant percentage of the first team squad being from Castleford. That along with the stadium will finally give us the ability to compete at the highest level. We’ve never been able to sustain that challenge before, we’ve had some good teams and we’ve always been up and down because if you don’t have the money, it’s hard to sustain it and I think we now have an opportunity to do that.

 

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