Story in express about SL clubs wanting to try and buy the lease apparently. Haven't read story so is anyone could post full story it would be appreciated. Tweets below from Aaron Bower.

There is a fascinating race developing to buy the lease of Odsal from the RFL. They are open to selling, and various parties want to buy. One is Wakefield chairman Michael Carter - who has told me he and other club owners would be interested in it as an investment opportunity.

Just as it looked like we Might get Through a whole season with no off field drama.......

The Odsal lease being dragged into the RFL/SL war? Great stuff.

If an imminent sale of Odsal head lease were true (and that is a big 'IF), then the RFL may be looking to line up a sale to the likes of Chalmers. the man who became the custodian of the proud Bulls name when as was reported at the time other, better looking, high investment bids were on the table in early 2017.

Any sale for the Odsal Head Lease by the RFL may not be happening just yet, but if it did it has to be expected that it should in fact be done so on an open and transparent basis.

Any assignment of the head lease by the RFL to a third party (e.g.. a consortium involving Chalmers) would in any case HAVE to be approved by the Bradford Council Executive who are led by leader, Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (who is trustworthy), and her Executive (6 Councillors, inc Hinchcliffe). The Council Executive, without the interference of others, would have to consider and vote on such a key matter at an Executive Meeting, and there is no such meeting until 12 September 2018 - fact.

Still the whole story may well at this stage just be (yet more) smoke and mirrors. Just recently Chalmers was apparently looking to relocate our club with Bradford Council's blessing. That was thought to be largely pie in the sky by certain Councillors, and that proved to be the case. All this talk of leases may be nonsense and AB may be just stirring things up, as of course is his right as a highly credible journalist.

In addition, can I say that a fellow female, Kersten England, is the Chief Executive of Bradford Council.

Her role is however, limited. She has no voting rights re policy matters such as the future of Odsal. Fact.

Unlike the Councillors (who keep themselves at a distance), Kersten England may possibly be friendly with certain persons, but again as Chief Exec she herself has no voting rights. That, rightfully, is the job of the Labour led Council Executive. They have to have the utmost integrity. They will surely do what is right for Bradfordians, and us Bulls fans, as we hope would the current Bulls incumbents. It is good to see that Damian Irvine may have some influence.

Kersten Engand's role as the Council's (highly paid) Chief Executive is to implement instructions and policy matters. She does not have the authority to decide or vote on policy matters, such as a re-assignment of the head lease of Odsal from the RFL to another party, even if that were a likelihood. Kersten takes instructions from the Council's Executive, the 6 Labour Councillors led by Cllr Hinchcliffe. Not the other way round. Fact.

I see the phony wars have begun already.

As far as Damian Irvine is involved, I have nothing against him, but he is one of the names that was oft bandied about during our troubles - he didn't come through then and so there's no reason to do so now.

In fact, any fellow males from that time can do one.

Irvine has been assisting up at the club on the commercial side for some time now apparently.

Surely a club owner owning the lease of the ground of another club is a conflict of interest?

Don't think anyone could argue otherwise. The only option is to sell it back to the Bulls, at the price they brought it for.We shouldn't get it at a cut price, and the other club chairman certainly shouldn't get it, as you say it's a conflict of interest. Hudgell in particular isn't exactly fond of us.

I don't buy the part that they see it as an investment, the lease isn't worth much if you don't have the Bulls playing there. The council own the part the money is in, which is the land. What would happen if Hudgell & Carter own it and the Bulls won promotion replacing Hull KR or Wakey (which isn't exactly an impossibility) Do they whack the price up forcing us out of our home to weaken us?

If the RFL want rid of it, tough, they shouldn't have brought it in the first place (it was a disgrace they did) They're not losing money on it as we pay for all the maintenance etc.

Well, you cant be an "influential person" at two clubs. (RFL operational rules C3.1.2 and associated declaration) and I'd argue having control of the lease you would be able to "exercise direct or indirect control over the affair of the club" So another club owner/chairman/CEO shouldn't be allowed to have the lease in my view.

It would be typical rugby league though, we're already in a situation where there is a conflict of interest with the governing body owning the lease, what's pretty much the only scenario that's a worse conflict of interest? another club (that will in the medium to long term, hopefully, be a direct rival) owning it....so yeah, I fully expect this to happen.

At least you'll get some interesting threads and comments to mod

Interesting that the money they want to withhold would cover the bill nicely

Found it quite amusing that the club kept insisting he didn't work there, then Look North (or Calendar, I forget which) cut to Odsal while they were showing one of the England games and stated "Damien Irvine of the Bradford Bulls is here with us". He didn't correct them.

Some interesting replies to this intriguing thread.

If the head lease for Odsal is up for grabs (and again that has to be a suspect 'IF') let's hope this time that if a transaction is brewing then the RFL, and also the Council Executive (acting independently of the RFL), will look in rigorous detail in to the true background of all those who may apply for our head lease from both the UK AND abroad, and in particular examine all of their many recent business failures that may leave creditors (inc Bulls fans) many tens, and hundreds of thousands, of pounds out of pocket.

The Bulls supporters do not wish to see (or deserve) a person to own the head lease for our iconic stadium at Odsal (whether directly or indirectly) who has, for example, had at least two business failures (and been involved in another recent failure) in the past 12-18 months. Such a person (and their cohorts) would not be good for the Bulls, would not be good for Bradford, would not be good for Rugby League and should most certainly not be allowed to pass any fair and objective fit and person test carried out by Bradford Council, who are of course the final arbiter of any such lease re-assignment decision.

With regard to the RFL's governance 'duties' let us not forget the RFL's dreadful and well documented recent (and arguably ongoing) record in respect of the Bulls ownership, a fact which must surely raise questions as to whether or not the RFL hierarchy (both past and present) are themselves fit for purpose. In the real world any top company executives with such a bad track record would surely have been dismissed by now as being totally incompetent.

HC, Irvine's probably contracting. Will work for himself so correct in saying he's not working for the bulls and probably couldn't be 4rsed correcting someone during a short TV interview?

Keeps the reported headcount down but gets a role filled...

Technically, ANY club that is a member of the RFL should have full access to utilise Odsal Stadium seeing the governing body hold the lease contract. We don't want the RFL showing any bias do we.

Sums it up nicely.

As a Wakey fan, I see this merely as MC and the other SL Charimen seeking to ensure that something they (the RFL) paid the old regime GBP 1.33m for is not sold back to the new Bulls regime at a cut price GBP 750k (which is what in their accounts the RFL are now saying it is worth)as it is worth more than that

That seems fair enough to me.

Are you saying that the rfl have been disingenuous with their valuation of the odsal lease?
You might want to be careful how you phrase your opinions.

It's clear to me that if Rimmer had been in charge rather than Wood the RFL would never have done that deal on Odsal. Now he's in charge he seems to want to get it off the RFL's hands.

Many of the SL chairman can't stand Chalmers it seems so they don't want the lease sold to him. Not that I think he could afford it TBH, even at a knock down price.

RFL rules prevent other club owners having a piece of it anyway.

I don't expect this to be sorted quickly nor do I expect the value of the lease to ever get back to £1.3m.

The man's obsessed with us. Have Wankfield got a ground to play at next season yet?

Can we still walk away in 2019? If that's the case we should just walk.

Who knows Keith?

Realistically where would we go? Neither Valley Parade or Horsfall are suitable. We'd never afford the rent at VP and we'd be at risk of being told we're not wanted at the end of any contract. Horsfall is little better than a school field and would cost heaps to bring up to standard.

It's owned on behalf of ALL professional clubs not just SL.

Specifically it’ll be the contractual terms of the head lease between Council & RFL and then the sublease between RFL & Bradford which will determine the legal rights of the 3 parties.

Is it just me or is one of the in the know s from last administration back with a new username trying to stir again?

Probably Mat but nothing's been said that isn't in the public domain anyway. So much for being in the know. Innuendo doesn't count.

But if the lease now has less time to run surely the price should be reduced.