Always funny when people start talking about sports clubs being "run as a business" and "investment". Surely everyone understands it is simply not like that? Sign up to run a club, sign up to a black hole, which will greedily suck in whatever money you leave in the vicinity, that's it.

Nobody but nobody ever makes a "profit" from their "investment" and if universal advice exists then to every club owner in the world - get out now and cut your losses!

No owner can truly make a club only spend what income it receives, because this is impossible, all have to draw on outside funds, beg borrow or steal. That is not to say you shouldn't have a businesslike approach, of course you should and I'd wager ours is much improved on recent administrations but that said, we must surely still be piszing loads of cash down the drain, and somebody surely must be constantly dipping into somewhere to keep funding it. This is not just us. This is every club. Please people, be realistic.

to the best of my knowledge.

All clubs cost money to run, they are, as you say, a bit of a black hole when it comes to cash. The decision is really, do you want to just tread water, stay afloat and hopefully not go too far backwards or do you really want to challenge. Treading water is the easy, far less costly, option whilst challenging is where the event horizon makes an appearance, sometimes at close quarters.

I was under the impression he was out after this one. T&A article [url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/14306783.Star_man_Gaskell__I_could_pen_new_Bradford_Bulls_deal/HERE[/url seems to suggest same.

Gaskell signed a 2 year deal pretty much as soon as we were confirmed as relegated IIRC. (I would be very happy to be wrong here though) In fact most of the squad we retained from SL at that time ended up on 2 year deals. Worryingly - especially considering our current form - we have very few players contracted for 2017 as it stands.

I hope the rumours about Morrison are true.

But no decision to be made in our case, well, except for anyone who may I suppose be out there who is prepared to accept us "hopefully not going too far backwards" and becoming another Batley, Hunslet or whatever.

That is not an option for us. Many reasons, first and foremost there would be no appetite for it, crowds of 300 beckon. Second, we are already straining all financial sense being at Odsal on 4000 crowds, we urgently have to get back to previous levels for there to be any chance at all of a Bulls team playing from Odsal.

I think I am the same as most people, in that I am not interested in some ised parody of a Bulls team limping in the lower reaches of the leagues, if our city can no longer make a SL club work then better to pack it in altogether than have a thousand Northern/Bulls legends and a million Northern/Bulls fans spinning in their graves.

I don't see point in waiting. We'll probably beat Dewsbury and Workington who are ravaged by injuries. Then i'm sure we'll be told everything is OK again. But i don't think Lowes is the man to coach us to victories over tougher opposition (which he has failed in every single time this year)

For me i'm going to be watching our attack closely next two game. For me in attack we either score from a crash ball or a kick. We're just not scoring tries with good rugby & passing.

What will you do for the other 78 minutes? (And I'm being charitable. Attack? We can't handle attack)

I expect us to scrape past an injury ravaged Dewsbury. I’m not sure that an unconvincing performance is what we need though.

Uncle Ken on his white charger again?

Well, we've had a bit more success than a Batley or Hunslet, even discounting the SL years, but that is, more or less, what we have been for most of the club's life - it may be a shock to some, but it's the glittering success of latter years that is the aberration, not the current position. Hunslet were once efore my time one of the great clubs of the game btw, but nothing is forever.

IIRC, we were only ever getting crowds of 300ish in 1963, an earlier bad time which led to collapse. No-one wants to go back to part-time rugby, with gates of that size, and certainly not me, but is infinitely preferable to [ino[/i rugby though, so if that happens, well, qué sera sera. I suspect gates would remain a fair deal better than that though, given a reasonable side for its division.

Of course, you're correct to think a city the size of Bradford should be able to support a top division team and I'm sure it will again. Though I do confess to wondering just when, to be honest.

Steve Ganson has certainly helped us out in appointing James Child.

Anything and everything will happen on Sunday, mark my words.

Dewsbury were going toe to toe with Leigh for about 60 minutes until Leigh up'd a gear and blew them away.
Expect a similar story when we play them, only for Dewsbury to be the one to up a gear and destroy us

Quite possibly

From the interview with Morrison I heard on Radio Leeds on the way home on Sunday, he argued that it was the combined effect of being short-handed due to injuries, and the effects of the Easter programme on a small squad of part-time players, that led to Leigh basically running away with it.

With a full week of rest - together with their desire to put one over on the (perceived) big boys from up the road at Odsal - will doubtless mean that they'll come at us all guns blazing on Sunday

It's all very laudable to say you want run the club as a business but you have to realise what that business is. To a certain extent the laws of supply and demand do not exist as the supply is fixed i.e. the number of games.To be a successful business therefore you have to increase demand i.e get more spectators, and/or cut costs. Increasing demand is done in one of two ways, being successful or playing exciting rugby or preferably both. It is clear that at the moment the Bulls are doing neither. Perhaps the Bulls should realise that there is more to it than 'Build it and they will come".

At the moment it seems to be "knock it down and they will come!"

Sit down for this but I get the feeling we could get a really committed performance and a good win on Sunday. This is not a new found optimism or change of heart on Lowes, I just wonder if last week might have engendered a backs-to-the-wall mentality which, coupled with the slightest bit of humility from Jimmy, might combine on the field and deliver.

(No I've not been drinking.)

I wouldn't underestimate Dewsbury. A few of their young lads and reserves look like decent players, and given a chance to step up from reserves footy to play a once mighty team will be motivaton enough for them. Likes of Brad Delaney and Jack Teanby especially that have come through their reserves look very good players.

Unless we show significant improvement, I think Dewsbury will turn us over.

I've been thinking - what is the best we can hope for on Sunday? I’m not sure of the answer actually, but the above would be a start. Ideally we’d absolutely wallop Dewsbury to give everyone a bit of faith – of course the problem with that is I don’t think it’s at all realistic and it would be completely papering over the cracks. The game against Sheffield was the culmination of a lot of mini problems that plenty of fans of been highlighting here and there ever since the start of last season – it seems now that the floodgates are open and a competent performance against Dewsbury would be a welcome start, but now more than ever we need to find a level of consistency that has been missing our entire stay in the second tier. (Yes, we won plenty of games last year, but how many were the performances we felt the team were really impressive, barely a handful and we’ve gone backwards from that. We certainly didn’t seem to string two or three consistent performances together).

From a fans POV, yes we want to see some good performances, but I think this is one time we are justified in asking for the club to do it’s talking [ioff[/i the pitch, as limping over the line against an injury hit Dewsbury simply isn’t enough. As far too many people have said, the silence is deafening.

Very well put. Agree 100%. The point about the Sheffield game being a culmination of of problems that have been apparent since the beginning of last season is bang on.

I'd like to think that last week was rock bottom and we can draw a line under it. I'm doubtful.

:38bwwpsu

Oh, where to begin?

I'm not sure what your first question is - if you mean in a future where we remain in division2, which is maybe the most likely, I'd guess we could get around 2k, for a reasonable team [ie middle to top but obviously it's a guess and, I admit, we're in the land of who knows?

No, I'm not really doing anyone a disservice. For the greatest part of Northern's existence there were no divisions, just Yorks and Lancs leagues all shown in one gigantic, 30 to 32 team division, in which the club, like many others went up and down like the proverbial bride's nightie. Truth is, over many years, whilst we certainly had our moments, we were never a Wigan, Saints or whisper it softly, a Leeds. We were in good company, of course, as neither were anyone else, even though teams like Huddersfield and yes, Hunslet, had their shortish periods of dominance. There was a brief flirtation with two divisions in the early sixties, but it never really took on until the early seventies when we were promoted to the first division in its second season.

where did I suggest we shouldn't try? I only mention that as a viable way of running the club for an owner who may not be keen on actually investing sufficient money to make improvement possible. I would never suggest that it [i:38bwwpsushould[/i though.

I can't think of many or any instances where a team has been in terminal decline under a coach & the coach has turned it around. Sure, you are good enough to paper over the cracks.

Its a difficult one to call.Not the place to go looking for gaining consistency.The pitch dictates the game 70/80 meter sets will have you over the try line not short of it.Requires a gameplan that must be adhered to,stray away from it and it will be costly.

Not a place for performances,its a grind out job to get the victory. The victory being the goal regardless of performance or result.

Good luck.

Away against Dewsbury, on paper at least, we should win with ease.
Dewsbury did push Leigh for a lot of their game but fell away towards the end. However that team has been hit with injuries and are down to bare bones. The question is "do the Bradford players have the mental strength to get out of their current funk" and I'm not sure they do and a lot of that's down to the coach and his staff and I really think there needs to be a change for any real improvement to happen