As I posted on another thread, it seems that our 'kicking and clapping' cousins have got their act together at club level and are attracting significant crowds at the start of the season.

We've had half-empty stadia in our 'finals'!

Didn't Caddick have ownership of Leeds RL before he took over the Union operation?

That's my recollection.

Maybe but his main interest was always RU & his (& GH's) longterm objective was IMO to bring both operations together under one umbrella organisation. For the mutual benefit of both.

Synergy, 2+2 = 5

Caddick is a businessman first and a sport benefactor second.



Without Gary Hetherington I would question whether Caddick would have come on board at all but the fact(?) remains he invested first in the League set up at Headingley, so the notion that Caddick wouldn't be here but for the Union club appears misguided.



I thought he'd relinquished his majority interest in them anyway when they re-branded as Carnegie?

Correct.

You don't think there may have been a business plan to involve a Union team of some description, manufactured or bought-out, in the same stylee and at the same time as whats-is-face of Metro Centre fame was doing in Newcastle ?



Or did it just happen by a nice coincidence ?

Can you or someone else expand on that please?

Good luck to them. I just don't have a problem with Union.

A ground share with a Union club was first envisaged by Alf Davies pre Super League so it'd be wrong to say that Caddick was oblivious to the possibility.



But he didn't come to Headingley with a Union club already there or with one under his grace (which is what was implied earlier) that came along much later when the original Leeds RU club directors failed to make an impact at Headingley.



Did Caddick oust them or did he agree to the takeover which then became Leeds Rugby? Did he set out to achieve it or was it an happy/unhappy coincidence?

Is it being suggested that Caddick took on the liabilities of a debt riddled RL purely so he could take over a RU club?



Why wouldn't he just buy out the RU club?



His motivation in coming to Leeds CF&A Ltd had nothing to do with Union. It quickly became part of his business plan and then it eventually went out of it.



If the Union side bring so many benefits why did Caddick rid us of it to Carnegie?

Like DHM, I don't have a problem with the Union version of our game, although it can be a bore fest at times.



Caddick is a very astute business man, and his primary interest was in the Headingley site as a whole. I'm pretty sure his original business plan encompassed both Rugby Codes and the Yorkshire Cricket side of the ground.



It's been a nice little earner for him, and without his input, I suspect we would have been deep in the mire.