The fans who go or the fans who stopped going?

It is a travesty the way the Bulls fans have been treated and there will be a few going without holidays because they have donated to a cause that was already forlorn.
As for other fans failing to empathise with the Bulls fans plight I would suggest they take stock and think, there but for the grace of god!
It could well mean the end of Bradford as a SL club and where they go from there nobody knows. Caisley needs to pull a rabbit out of the bag pretty quickly.

Steve & Dave but not John

At least we now know the value of SL clubs obtaining a Grade B licence under the SL franchising system.

Franchising by plenty.

Yep. got to feel sympathy for the fans who coughed up the 500k. I hope Garry was on the phone this morning to ask if there was anything we could do to help. Maybe not a lot pre admin, but we've spare young players who could be loaned out if their squad gets decimated.

A bit debateable how decimated their squad could get mid-season isn't it? How many teams have got squad and cap space at this point?

With a bit of luck there will be no carcass to pick over, but HMRC exist as a public body, not to bank roll sports clubs.

Not a good situation and as others have said you have to feel for fans who have stumped up 500k. Can't believe the club took their money and the. This happens so soon after.

Administration looks inevitable, as it has for some time IMO.

A winding up petition is serious and if other creditors come out of the woodwork and support it the only way to avoid liquidation would be administration.

Whilst I understand your need to put a point across, i'd be of the impression that this is not a consequence of franchising. The RFL may be culpable in the fact that a SL club is going into administration, but I would bet that if a close look were taken at most of the SL and indeed championship clubs there would be concerns over the financial position. None of this concern would be as a result of franchising or the salary cap but purely the abilty of clubs to continue as a going concern.

Does Keith believe that promotion and, more importantly, relegation would ease the financial issues facing most Rugby league clubs these days?

oh i'll have the cherry one please

I've run out of Grape Flavour



Cherry it is

On the Bradford board it's being alleged that Bradford avoided paying VAT on season tickets for 2 years because they took the viewpoint that by designating them as "memberships" instead of season tickets they weren't applicable for VAT.

Not quite sure what that has to do with franchising though.

Agent Harris has done a great job for us!

I fail to see any link at all between Bradford's plight and franchising. If anything, with the struggles they've had on the field the temptation to overspend would be even greater if relegation threatened.

TJ Hughes and now Thomas Cook closing down. The building site in the centre, and now the Bulls under threat. Difficult times for Bradford and its working people.
Leeds's record SL crowd at home was not that long ago against the Bulls, and the same for them at Odsal. Leeds needs a strong Bulls and vice-versa for some proper local rivalry and the income it generates. The two cities as we know are practically connected, and its a shame the intensity has drifted away in matches.

I hope Bradford can rebuild from this.

If enough good folk of Bradford wanted the club to survive at this level they'd have bought their season tickets at full price. It appears not enough of them did though and the whole 'two for a fiver' type scheme had 'bankrupt within two years' written all over it. Sad but fairly inevitable without a financial backer prepared to write a covering cheque I'd have thought.

I noted the other Monday when they played Castleford they still had a pre-match budget to spend and had obtained the services of the Beatles no less. That surprised me a little.

With filed accounts stating a Turnover of £4.6mil in 2010 droppong to £3.9m in 2011, with the same overheads it took no brain specialist to guess what was going to give. The RFL really looked into the accounts when issuing licences out didn't they?

The £500k pledged has been and gone. YOU were told it was a bottomless pit you your pledging to and still did it. Where's the return and loyalty from the Bulls now, its gone on players wages for the last 2.5 months. You were fools to pledge, it was better to buy shares in a Newco, Well at least the Boss of Thomas Cook will be happy sitting on his £15mil wages over the last 4 years while 500 staff are made redundant

Based on experience, the only winners here will be the administrators. What little can be raised from a sale of assets will end up in their pockets rather than with the creditors. It's time sporting bodies took stronger sanctions against clubs who are so recklessly mismanaged. In the same way that Rangers newco shouldn't be voted back into the SPL, the SL clubs need to put sending a message above self interest.

It's not an understatement to say the time is up for the bulls.the clubs management should be more truthful with the fans. Hm revenue are quicker off the mark as I believe they are no longer first in the creditors line. Also allegedly there has been some creative accounting with vat.feel sorry for the fans but the quicker they fold the better it is all round ,apart from the usual poor sods who are owed money by the club. The fun and games will start when they reform,will they go back in the super league,what name will they have. I suspect they will be treated well by the rugby league.after all they need a tennant for odsal.

I'm not uure. I thinkhis point was that the Bulls shouldn't have got a franchise given their financial predicament and for that reason the RFL had failed in its franchising, rather than franchising had led to the demise of the bulls.

My belief is that most clubs would have problems if there had been a robust review of clubs's finances. You will probably find that business plans for all clubs were optimistic and that whilst not guaranteeing the debts of clubs they would all have said that the owners along with their bankers were in a position to support the clubs balance sheet. In reality that support will have meant little. Suggestions that the club had a dubious interpretation of tax matters, which I am guessing is this additional £1m black hole, would have made it more difficult fot the RFL to carry out it's financial checks.

I just found Keith's comment about franchising a cheap shot without knowing what information the RFL had based it's decision on. He has his views on franchising, my view is that whilst IMO it probably has flawed scoring (everyone will have different ideas on scoring criteria) there is a need to put something in place. The SL can survive with full time clubs but the championship cannot and there is a need to creaste an environment where clubs can plan whist knowing what areas of their business are important to concentrate on for the benefit of RL as a whole.

The comments given when grade B was awarded doesn't sound very good to me..

Bradford Bulls provided a solid submission detailing a strategy, tactical plan and targets to achieve [uimproved[/u commercial and financial performance. The club has a solid fan base, a strong brand and good operating structure/governance in place.[u However the club faces some challenges[/u . These include the local economic environment, poor recent on-field performance and an ageing facility.

Im hoping this isnt a sign of things to come for other fans..there's comments on other forums stating its been leaked another SL club is going the same way..



I know people think we shouldnt have all pledges however.. when its your club on the line, its difficult not to.

Sadly I fear Bradford is just the tip of the iceberg.

Perhaps the RL can negotiate their own 3 billion from Sky.

Me too, only many other clubs don't have the fan base. If the game doesn't become more viable I fear what's happening with Bradford may become the norm.