In that case then, fair enough. Maybe the stadium issues prevent you from spending the full cap

Stadium issues also mean we spend a tenth of what we did on marketing in 96/97. Short cuts are taken on other business too. Lots of backroom staff have been laid off.

Money well spent on them drains.....

Think it was more a case of signing Bird and finding he couldn't get a visa, similar to Leeds

Compare that to the £60K we spent on pitch drainage a couple of season ago, oh and the £7m that was spent on a new stand.

All clubs need to either pay for ground renovations or are paying for a brand new stadium (Wakefield excluded of course). This is factored into the annual budget and in no way should detract from player payments.

The reason that the Bulls are under-performing at the moment has nothing to do with Harris or that your aging ground is drain on the purse – no, it has to do with your front and rear of house miss-management, simple.

The first port of call for addressing the problems at Odsal is McBanana, since taking the role from Nobby he has taken the club in one direction, and I think we all know which way that is?

... and the £500k that was spent on the southstand four seasons ago, and £250k needed to be spent on the stand now...

It makes you appreciate how Leeds remained reasonably competitive while paying their own stadium costs all those years Bradford City Council (?) took care of Odsal.

How much of that came out of the pockets of Leeds Rugby Ltd, out of interest?

Let's also not forget that Headingley has year-round revenue streams, Odsal does not.

Do the Union arm of the business qualify for ground improvement grants from the RFU too?

That would be nice.



Didnt the RFU put towards our shiny Kirkstall traing base too??

It was, as usual, a one year deal for 2008.

This year the award has gone to Vilnius in Lithuania, as well as Linz in Austia.

Swings and roundabouts. Leeds CF&A were, until recently, pumping several million pounds into ensuring that next door was still capable of hosting Test cricket.

You're right in that Headingley is now a 365-day-a-year venue (RL, RU, cricket, hotel, university, etc) although much of that is down to the money that was put into the stadium complex several years ago, even if it isn't overly evident to the rugby supporters.

Absolutely, which makes comparing the various amounts spent on Headingley and what has been spent on Odsal - which some were attempting to do - like comparing apples and aardvarks.

The money is there to spend on upgrading Headingley because of the revenue it produces and the status it already holds, neither of which apply to Odsal.

Quite, Odsal is a rugby venue first and last. So up until 2003 it was not pulling any cash in outside the RL season. On since 2003 did the Bulls invest in the ground building the Coral Stand for corporate stuff. Before then the Council simply did enough to get the game on and nowt else. The club and the council simply didn't have the cash to invest in the stadium necesary for large scale developments. The ground itself is built on contaminated land making building more problematic than at other places.

It had one year with the title, as planned, during which time estimates vary as to how much investment came in, with £800M being a popular figure among the press. Whatever the number was, the area between the city centre and the water front has been redeveloped to an extent that it's barely recogniseable from the place I lived 7 years ago, with new shopping centres (like Bradford wants), at least one new museum and a new indoor arena.

I think it would have been a good thing for Bradford to have won. Shame for them really.