Yes and Huddersfield and Leeds in a magnanimous gesture are going to increase the size of their academy's by 50% with associated costs. Or would they just pick the best off and drop the rest plus some from their existing rosta to balance the numbers out. I'd bet its the later resulting in less players getting coaching at the top level.

And of course where is the ownership, management, coaching, investment and players to start from scratch in the Championship? I drove past odsal last night, and didn't see anybody queuing.

You've answered your own question there...

It is a perfectly reasonable position and not a "banal expectation " to ask for more transparency. We as fans do not need to be told all the commercial details but we do deserve to know answers to a few headline questions from both the bidders and the League. I've given up hope that a journalist will ferret around and reveal anything. It's a pity that we don't have journalists of the calibre of David Conn (Guardian) investigating this whole saga.
I fully realise that life has moved on from the time of the Trevor Foster/Joe Phillips rescue but can't some people take a few lessons from their conduct regarding openness and engaging the fans. More recently both O'Connor and Glover acted in a way which involved the support base rather than taking them for granted.The Rugby League community in total good faith contributed £500,000 to try and save the Bulls -- those contributors (not just Bulls fans) deserve better. The Rugby League and trade media were quick to point out how wonderful our sport was at that time-- we're repaid by the confusion of the past 3 months.
Incidentally this thread seems to have moved away from the title subject

[u"The RFL may feel suitably pressured by this, especially given the influence of Chairman (let's hypothetically suggest Davy and McManus) in their summary of the consortium bids."[/u

and now

[u"Their levels of influence, remains to be determined"[/u

The sheer precision of this 'conspiracy theory' is compelling. Especially when backed up by those renowned business gurus Carney and Wells.

Only a moron would believe that Davy and McManus - whatever their score on the vociferous scale

- can flip Hetherington, Lenagan, Pearson, Moran and Hudgell + Watkins and the non execs. the idea that these highly successful businessmen will be bounced about by mcmanus and davy is laughable.

What makes you think Hudgell and Pearson are not aleady "flipped"?

Probably correct and the more players who are involved at academy level the better for the game.

Cherry picking the 'elite' juniors may sound like a reliable way to get your hands on the best but with kids it doesn't always work out that way; the ranks of all sports are littered with 'star' juniors who, for whatever reason, don't make the grade at open age. There are also the solid performers who don't blossom until later, it is they who will fail to get academy positions if places are reduced and it is they who will never get the chance to reach their full potential.

I think they are two successful tough minded businessmen who will make up their own mind on an issue. The suggestion that they will be manipulated / flipped by davy & mcmanus is ludicrous.

I think the overwhelming majority of club owners - which may well include the Hull owners - have made up their mind and the RFL executive know what they want (and have done so since the bulls went into admin).

You are a smart poster do you think McManus can get Lenagan and Moran to do what he wants rather than what they want? Do you think Davy would be able to get Hetherington (caddick), Pearson et al to do as he wants? it is just daft to suggest such a thing.

Think we are at cross purposes.

No-one gets to run a SL club unless they are pretty strong-willed and autocratic. They will have made up their own minds.

I am pointing out that those who may be ranged against us may be more than we woukld like to think.

Dont think Odsal would be viable in the Championship. Means a groundshare or development of Horsfall.

Indeed.

sorry about that.

I think you are right.

No, you havent said it, you have insinuated it.

Anybody can put a business plan together. Its putting a viable one together that is desirable if making a £2.5m or whatever investment, however much time they are asking for payment. Clearly knowing how much it is going to cost is the starting point with a definite figure attached to it. As for income, well, who can say for certain even if they did succeed in getting the stadium, staying in SL and keeping all the young players what that income is going to be and when? now factor in not getting the stadium or not staying in SL or not keeping the young players. factor in the £1m contingent liability if we dont play at Odsal. Expecting a business plan without answers to these drivers of income is just totally unrealistic, as the business plan would be complete guesswork or lies and we've had enough of that recently. Unless of course the bidder is a sugar daddy that can throw cash at the problem, clearly not so in this case. So if the RFL want a viable business plan, they have to come up with some answers. otherwise Nobody is going to put a plan together where all of the risk is theirs, and totally undefined, its a waste of time and money.

Anyway, lets hope there are decisive developments this afternoon, uncertainty is undermining anything positive.

Sorry I don't agree with you at all but its all immaterial now. The bid was obviously so full of holes the RFL are buying the club themselves.

Or the RFL position was just so full of holes, no change that, so intransigently unhelpful, that the SLE are buying the club so that any purchaser knows what has to go into their business plan cost wise, so that they can then work in the income side.

on the honourable/dishonourable issue, the phrase " be transparent " would have been more appropriate than honourable.

Seems my throwaway line a while back about the RFL purchasing the Club has boomeranged though in the shape of the SLE inc RFL. While this will stabalise the situation it will put a lot strain on everyone in anticipating whether the Club gets a sports minded Investor and whether the outstanding debt can be paid off prior to the cut off point of going down a division. I hope this now means all the Coaching Staff and Stadium Staff will be re employed forthwith and the Players can concentrate on getting into the playoffs assuming the points deduction still stands, I think in fairness it should as its in the RFL operation rules! This still assumes Guilfool doesn't play silly buggers and trys to draw the situation out!

You appear to be confused. SLE(E)Ltd is buying the club. The RFL bought the lease.

Not confused at all. Whilst they maybe classed as seperate organisations they are governed and administered by the same people that govern and administer the RFL. The only difference is that with SLE the clubs get a say at the meetings. But anyone who thinks they have any real influence in what happens is rather naive, as was proven a couple of weeks ago when the talk of voting out the Bulls was all the rage and it emerged that the clubs vote isn't binding and the decision would be made by the powers that be anyway. So the ultimate decision on what happens to the Odsal lease is up to the RFL CEO Nigel Wood. What ultimatley happens to the Bulls if & when the bids is successful is up to the CEO of SLE, Nigel Wood. There is no problem with this, in fact it makes sense to have one group in charge of all areas. But all thats different in reality is the bank account they use and the name on top of the headed paper.

You said the RFL was buying the club. It isn't, except to the extent that it is a shareholder in SLE.

And the same bloke signs the contracts for both! And the same staff administrate it. They are different in name only but if you want to believe they are truely different entities then carry on. I'll stick with my take on it and we'll move on. Good luck for the future. It might take a bit of time but i'm sure your club will rise again.

Staying at Odsal as a Championship club may not be viable. But leaving Odsal would be terminal. Support would disappear very quickly.

Odsal might be viable in the Championship, but almost certainly not in Championship 1 , which is another reason they needed to take control of the situation,

Might be viable but if the rfl gave any consessions on either rent or ground maintenance to make that possible do you imagine there would be no complaints about 'the rfl subsidising the bulls again'?

From who?

There are a subset of supporters from many clubs who think we've received enough or too much support from the rfl and that we are a drain on the games resources. If there was either a suggestion or evidence the bulls weren't paying "a commercial rent" for Odsal I can't see them not putting forward the point that we were being favoured again.