Yorkcourt Properties has revealed plans to build a new 12,000-capacity community stadium in a bid to secure Wakefield Wildcats Rugby League Football Club's (WWRFLC) Super League status.

The proposed new venue will replace the Wildcats' current Belle Vue ground, which has been the club's home since 1878 but no longer meets minimum stadium requirements that form part of the Super League's licence criteria. Plans for the new stadium, which will be situated to the north of the town by junction 30 of the M62 stadium, also include the possibility of a local college and university establishing a sports science department at the venue.

Sir Rodney Walker, former chair of Sport England and the Rugby Football League, has been appointed to head a new community trust stadium group, which has been established to help deliver the scheme and take on the ownership and operation of the venue once complete. Walker said: "We have been working extremely hard with all relevant parties to find a solution to benefit the whole community and a new site for the proposal. We are delighted to have found an opportunity with great access and great potential to move sport onto another level in the district."

In October last year, the club's bid to develop a new stadium after Wakefield Council decided against plans for a new community venue at Thornes Park because the scheme was thought to be too expensive. WWRLFC chair Ted Richardson added: "We are under enormous pressure to be playing in a stadium which lives up to the world-class rugby league being played in the Super League. Having seen a number of false dawns, we are confident that this is a deliverable plan and should safeguard the future of the club for many, many years to come."