Sorry if this has been discussed numerous times before but i was on this forum the other day and read someone say "we all know Odsal is a huge drain on the clubs resources" and that McNamara could only still be in a job due to the tightness of money.

Please can people explain how Odsal is such a drain on resources?

Do they employ lots of people to come in each week and polish the concrete?

Its very old and very big!

It's like owning a big old house. It costs a lot more to maintain than a brand new house. A lot of the stadium is old and in constant need of maintenance, like the terracing and crush barriers. Newer stadiums aren't crumbling as much and so cost less to maintain. Then there's the stuff like the utilities some of which is 70+ years old. Apparently it cost £75k to sort out a blocked drain a year or too ago.

Anyway, between 1986 and 2003 the council picked up the tab for all this work. Now the club must pay for it but get to play at Odsal (which is still council owned) more or less for free. As a result the club is handicapped by having to pay a shedload more cash to keep the ground up to standard in comparison with every other club.

35k fella and the ground is one of the Bulls biggest problems, what on earth did we rent it from the council :@

There's a lot of room around Odsal. Why don't they build a multi-purpose sports facility. It would be an ideal location.

Before someone from Keighley points it out, it's only fair to note that we received a substantial sum as 'compensation' for changes in the Odsal arrangements.

One the other hand, compensation is what it was - not a 'handout'.

One man's compensation is a Keighley fan's handout

The people from Keighley never give us any thanks for taking this huge financial burden off of the council.

I suppose that's one way to look at it.

P.S Thanks

Er, cos someone got his costings wrong.

The name escapes me.

Glasses, tache...af's buddy



Seriously though, I think your club could do worse things than publish details on how much Odsal is costing them compared to how much they thought it was going to, if only to focus a few minds on why you're not chucking money around.

It would certainly help put things in context.

That's on the assumption that some one did actually do some costings

Plus, I expect there will be a hefty insurance tab to pick up.

And policing and stewarding.

I do wonder what due diligence was actually undertaken, I must admit. That said, the club was between a rock and a hard place at the time and I suspect time was limited. What IS clear - cos Caisley said so - is that the budgets were based on a crowd increase in 2004 c/w 2003, but in the event the crowd reduced and has continued to do so. I suspect that - and the ruinous Harris signing catastrophe - are at least as responsible.

I just get the feeling that the Odsal and Harris deals were driven by gesturing and posturing rather than any well thought out approach.

The public liability insurance on an area that size will be obscene. In fact there are probably only a couple specialist insurers in the country that would do it.


Then there is the rates Odsal covers a really big area.

It's a hard life when you've got to stand on your own two feet.

I've got a mate who's dad gave him a massive deposit for his house and paid for everything during his time at Uni so left with no debt, overdraft nothing and because his mum and dad were divorced due to means testing he had to pay less tuition fees. I hate him!


That must be how Peter Hood etc. feel when they look at the likes of Huddersfield and Hull getting state of the art grounds built by the council

Yeah, but he can't have any sense of achievement

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

What has his bird's bush got to do with anything?

This sounds like a good moment for Adeybull to slip into Sid James mode again.

Of course they did. They got that lass of The Apprentice to do it. Think she said it would cost us £25 / year.

Or maybe it was someone else, but there was deffo an "ooer missus" type moment on this board the other day.

Unless I dreamt it?