LEEDS RHINOS’ long-serving owner Paul Caddick has revealed that Castleford Tigers rejected his offer to buy the club before he went on to build a Headingley dynasty.
Caddick, now 74, is the founder of Caddick Group, a civil engineering business established in 1979, and Moda Living, a property development company.
In 1997, he and Gary Hetherington purchased Leeds Rhinos rugby team, and they co-founded Leeds Rugby Limited. He is also the owner, via Caddick Group’s majority stake in Leeds Rhinos, of the Headingley rugby ground – and the rest, they say, is history.
Since taking over the Leeds club – a club initially under £6 million debt – Caddick and Hetherington have led the Rhinos to eight Super League Grand Finals, three Challenge Cups and three World Club Challenges, as well as transforming Headingley into a 21st century facility.
However, it was almost a very different story had Caddick’s offer to buy Castleford in the mid-1990s been accepted.
“I went to Chequers Inn at Ledsham and there was a Welshman there Ron Hill, an ex rugby league player who knew the board at Castleford,” Caddick told The Box 2 podcast.
“Secretly, I made an offer to buy Castleford through Ron Hill but I said ‘you can’t tell them Ron who it is’.
“He told them I was going to buy it because I wanted to get involved in rugby league and I got turned down!
“I did try there! I tried and failed. Sorry Castleford fans, I did try. I still have a little piece of me that loves Castleford and the people.
“There is still big empathy with both clubs.”
Whilst Hetherington will be stepping down from his role as chief executive of the Rhinos at the end of the season to take up a new position at London Broncos, Caddick will remain at Headingley.
