Wakefield forced to leave Belle Vue home

Trinity chairman Michael Carter says the club will move away from what has been their home since the formation of the game in 1895 after becoming frustrated at the failure to carry out essential improvements following the collapse of plans to deliver a promised new stadium.

Carter has labelled the current ground, re-named the Beaumont Legal Stadium for this season, an "embarrassment". And says that, despite announcing an agreement a deal with the ground's new owners last September for a new community stadium and retail park on the site within two years, no progress has been made and that he has served notice to leave at the end of the year.

"We gave a deadline of six months last September and literally nothing has happened since," Carter said in the club's match-day programme for Sunday's game against Salford.

"Super League have just introduced minimum ground standards again as part of an overall reward funding policy and, needless to say, we cannot meet this standard as the ground stands.

"This will have a significant effect on the club moving forward and, therefore, we have no choice but to look for pastures new."

Carter has already held talks with Championship neighbours Dewsbury over a potential ground-share for 2018 but Carter says that is only one of the options open to him.

Super League clubs have been made aware of interest from outside the game's traditional heartland on taking an existing club's franchise and re-locating it.

Newcastle and Coventry, currently home to League 1 clubs, are among the areas thought to have expressed an interest in "adopting" a Super League club at a purchase price of around £2million.

Plans for new stadium for Wakefield on a site near the M62 have failed to materialise - despite planning permission being provisionally granted in 2012 - and suffered a further setback with the recent resignation of Rodney Walker, a former Wakefield and Rugby Football League chairman, from the Wakefield and District Community Trust which had hoped to oversee it.

Carter added: "I am determined to ensure that this city gets what it was promised and those that promised much are held to account."