The RFL have purchased Wembley of the north, Odsal stadium.

What is going on. Yesterday i read that SL made Stobart their new sponsors for free, today the RFL buy Odsal. Not sure which is the most ridiculous.

justthebasicfacts wrote this in early Jan
"Just a little teaser for the day, how would people feel if the RFL started stepping in to buy the Stadiums for the chosen ones?
Say for instance Odsal?

We've seen that its tough times for all clubs, would the RFL be forgiven for protecting its cash cows in this way?

Too big to fail springs to mind."

Was he ahead of his time?

Perhaps he's bought it for his own personal use?
Fill it with water, all his hot air,
Jacuzzi for Nige?

apparantly RFL already "own" Cougar Park and have an interest in Rochdales ground! Just bought Odsal to save Bradford it seems. . load of B-----ks saying theyve done it to keep an iconic stadium And what have they paid? Its worth a fortune just as a hole in the ground


So who pays for all these "investments" bailing out Clubs. . Must be the rest of the Clubs who are trying to run profitably whilst developing their grounds without RFL subsidies

Will it be Castleford and Wakefield next?

It seems to me that Clubs like Halifax, Leigh and even Featherstone are wasting time and money trying to develop grounds forfor Super League. . Nigel wood and his lot
will buy out any Super League Club that needs help in preference to getting one of us in Super League

So Bradford dont now need to worry about any Stadium improvements while RFL will pay for it. Meanwhile Fax and Fev amongst others have to fight tooth and nail to find the cash and support to get things done. Nigel shows his colours again with him being a Bradford lad and all.

Staggering!

jeez, the next big hairbrained disaster for the rfl to write off in 5 years time...

The RFL have bought it off Bradford Council, not the Bulls.

Did the RFL write that chapter of their Franchise application for them?



So, the RFL issue a criteria for clubs to compete on in getting a license but actually own one of the grounds which forms part of that said criteria.

"Hey Castleford, Wakefield - sort your grounds out or else" "Bradord - don't you worry yourself over such trivial matters" "Now all of you - submit a license application and we'll judge it on a level playing field"



What a corrupt elitist bunch of shysters you'd ever likely meet. It's nowhere near being Super. Nowhere near!

The thing is rich, they didnt even have the brains to judge the reaction ( not that it bothers their thick skins ) and cover their tracks by saying it is part of a long term plan to build a genuine asset for the sport

I expect we'll see a table top model and a virtual ' walk through ' video inside a couple of months of the re developed future of Odsall, the Wembley of the North

I don't blame Bradford selling their ground if they were looking for a buyer anyway. What stinks is the fact that surely they (Bradford) have an unfair advantage when it comes to licensing criteria ie - standards of stadia when the people that hand them out are responsible for the upkeep. Everybody might as well flog their grounds to the RFL and surely that's one box automatically ticked?

I did have word yes, but i cant reveal my sources, so was playing it cool until it became public. I was at Odsal on Saturday morning and had a good wander the ground and behind the scenes, it must be a complete nightmare to maintain and unbelievably expensive, theres just so many outbuildings and its a huge peice of land, I can only assume that Bradford council have had to cut their losses and the RFL have got it on the cheap, its only buying the Bulls time though. Its very hard to get private investment in Bradford as the shopping centre shows, being local rivals its easy to slag off the Bulls but we have a lot of shared history between the clubs and towns, whether its the Dukes, many memories of clashes in days gone by and we were part of the Cup Final replay there in front of 105,000 (150,000 if you talk to people that were there) so i dont take any pleasure in saying Odsal poses some big problems for Rugby League and the Bulls.

Eye up, its all gone wierd again

Almost verbatim, you've have posted exactly what I said to a mate about an hour or so ago!
Transparency and the RFL??? My botty!
They are as bent as they come!

I had a quick word with my daughter last night when she returned from a meeting re` the closure of nurserys in this area and she said there were councilors at that meeting who were calling for the Shay to be sold. So tell Nigel to keep his cheque book handy.

This is wrong, so wrong what kind of precedent is this setting???
I don't care the ground has history so did Station Road, Watersheddings, Thrum Hall, Central Park and Knowsley Road but all these clubs at those grounds had to do it the hard way and raise their own money to fund new grounds or move to grounds shared with football clubs and improve them.
Plus how come they have done this with OUR money, that is the fans and other clubs money when the RFL won't even give Championship clubs any of the Premier Sports money, it stinks.

No coincidence that Fat Controller comes from Bradford then never heard of a 'vested interest'???

Plus the ground was a public owned 'assset' are the local council taxpayers happy they have subsidised (yet again didn't the Council pay for the improvements a few years ago and that block at the far end?) the RFL and a professional rugby club? Any public asset should be put on the open market when being cashed in, especially in the current climate of budget cuts and services being cut, did the Council get the best price for this site or its true value???

What are the RFL going to do with the ground now plus who and how are any jobs and improvements that need doing going being paid for,.
There are lots and lots of questions but like the North Korean regime the RFL won't tell anybody anything its a closed shop. How I wish we could do a Freedom of Information request on the RFL.

I absoluteley hate the RFL even more now this deal stinks.

It would appear that the RFL have bought the stadium to stave off predators. Apparently the Council were selling. - either to a Rugby League friendly organisation or one that was not so friendly and who wouldn't blink twice at evicting the Bulls.

Still, advantage to Bradford Bulls from an intervening governing body. We're either comfortable with that or not. If we didn't have licensing, I'd have no qualms. But we do and when clubs are competing off the pitch this does rather create a stench.

Can only think of 3 words


Corrupt, corrupt, corrupt

What has this got to do with the RFL?
Yer its one of their clubs but its a club issue like us and Thrum Hall then the Shay I did not expect the RFL to sort us out so why have they Bradford???
There is no money in the game and times are hard clubs can't even afford an U23 at our level yet the RFL have found what must be significant pot of money millions surely, how much exactly does anybody know? We can find out through Bradford Council as they will have to disclose as it is a public asset so are duty bound, even the Fat Controller can't stop that one!

Sorry for the confusion folks - it would seem I'm an hour ahead again. Or is that behind?

Toodle pip.

Well, well it seems that what has happened is that the Bulls are up to their necks in it, and needed a million plus to continue operating, so they have sold their lease to the RFL for a seven figure sum

Thats right, not the council who own the place, the Bulls get the million plus

If the Bulls are uable to pay the rent, willthe RFL chuck them out?

Answers on a postcard to Red Hall, Red Hall lane Leeds

So Halifax were denied super league because we didn't have a benefactor prepared to prop us up!

How silly our board must feel to know the RFL are in the business of propping up clubs, if only they'd asked eh?

Still why would the RFL invest in a club they know the RFL will never allow into super league!

Great eh?

So the Bulls have only sold the Lease, not the actual stadium?

So if there has been "Predatory Approaches" as per the RFL article, these "Predators" could still approach the council with a view to buying the place, and (albeit expensively) buy the Lease back from The RFL?

absolute joke! but in no way suprising!

nothing shocks me any more with this lot!

the best game in the world - run by creeps and cheats!

a 'fair chance for all?'

i think not!!