Biggest season ever? Castleford get cash boost ahead of critical campaign

You’d forgive any sports team which had just stayed in the top flight by a single place if they spent the next few months throwing around any spare cash they had to bring in whatever star players they could for the following season.

But after finishing just four points above a woeful Wakefield Trinity side in the 2023 Betfred Super League table, Castleford Tigers have bigger goals in sight off the field due to IMG’s greatest modification yet in their 12-year quest to reimagine rugby league in the Northern Hemisphere.

From 2025, Super League places will be offered on a grading basis, with the top ranked ‘Grade A’ clubs - scoring at least 15 of 20 possible points awarded across a range of factors - being exempt from relegation and those considered to be of B and C-tier left fighting it out for an invite to play in the flagship competition.

And Castleford were one of the teams put on notice in indicative gradings released in the autumn, with the Tigers attaining a Grade B score of 12.16, good enough only for 13^th at a time when 12 remains the maximum number of clubs considered for Super League.

Cas petitioned for their score to be raised to 12.91, which would lift them to 11^th in the charts and therefore in position to play in Super League in 2025, citing a data error in their submission to the RFL for the initial low total. But while the governing body agreed that the later evidence would have given the Tigers a rosier outlook, it was sticking to its indicative scoring out of fairness to other clubs appealing for edits.

The uncertainty over their viability for Super League has arguably been the kick up the backside the club has needed for some time. Talk has been rife regarding a potential new stadium for much of this millennium, with work initially expected on a site in the suburb of Glasshoughton in late 2008. After a funding collapse, planning permission was then granted in 2011 only for sponsors to drop out and by the time another attempt to get the project off the ground was announced in 2015 fans were already sceptical. Again, it was a false dawn.

Their current Wheldon Road home is 97 years old and feels every day of it. Investment has been an issue for so long, and a facelift for the current stadium is the very minimum that the club ought to have achieved by now. But it has seemingly taken the grading bombshell to kick-start the Tigers into action.

One Cas fan was so desperate for his side to meet the Super League criteria that he has invested a huge seven-figure sum to gain a 32-per-cent stake in the club. And Martin Jepson, the founder of a local real estate company, has insisted that rather than pump his money into a playing squad shorn of the likes of Blake Austin, Gareth Widdop, Niall Evalds, Adam Milner and Greg Eden after the 2023 relegation near-miss, his investment will primarily be used to bolster the off-field outlook for which the Tigers have been given low marks by the RFL.

Of the 20 available points in the grading system, only a maximum of five are awarded for results, with fandom, finances and community engagement being among the other categories. The stadium, meanwhile, accounts for up to three points, and Cas’ facilities are notoriously among the least welcoming in the top flight and arguably beyond.

While neighbours Wakefield have encountered similar issues over the past few decades, they have at least been able to build a new main stand at Belle Vue over the last 12 months, finally bringing their home ground towards the level of most other Super League outfits.

Now Cas need to break their own status quo if they are to make more than a modest improvement on their grading rank and book themselves a top-flight slot for 2025. It is no exaggeration to say that Castleford is a town that simply must have its sole professional sports team playing in the Betfred Super League.

“I grew up in the area, just a few miles from the ground in Garforth and I’m a lifelong Cas fan but haven’t lived here for 40 years,” Jepson told the official Tigers website upon acquiring a stake. “That being said, I make the trip here regularly for matches. I’m fortunate that I am able and in a position to invest and I think this is a really pivotal moment for the sport, and for the club in particular.

“I just felt that the club needed some investment, the town needs the club to be in Super League, and I would regret it if I didn’t take the chance to help the club along the journey.”

All of this makes 2024 perhaps the most important year in Castleford’s modern history. While they were Challenge Cup finalists in 2014 and the League Leaders’ Shield winners in 2017 before the stinging defeat to Leeds Rhinos in the Grand Final, the work done by Daryl Powell over his nine seasons in charge is now a long-forgotten memory.

The results since Powell’s exit in 2021 have largely been reflective of the tiredness on display in the physical structure at Wheldon Road rather than a distraction from it. Cas went through three coaches in 2023 alone, and new boss Craig Lingard knows he has a tough task ahead of him even if wins and losses will not be the sole dictator of the club’s destiny beyond the next 27 rounds of league action.

“I believe the club is looking at the off-field IMG points and investing the money into the ground and infrastructure of the club,” the former Batley Bulldogs head coach told Rugby League Live. “With the planning application we need spades in the ground and to start redeveloping to move forward.

“I’m fine with that. For a long time this club has needed that investment and you need to invest in bricks and mortar to get stability in the long term, so in the short term that’s what we need to do. With IMG and the guidelines, there’s more benefit investing off the field so we can move forward and safeguard the future. As a coach you always want the biggest budget you can, but safeguarding the club is the most important thing.”

The spotlight will be on the whole Castleford Tigers organisation in 2024.