Well as the OSV scheme is dead, surely the most sensible way forward to to leave Odsal. And by that I do not mean go to VP.

The OSV was in line to cost in the region of £80 million. But Saint's new stadium has cost only a third of that coming in at £25 million.

Surely the club is not in a position where it would be unable to raise that sort of cash? I know the board are not wanting to be lumped with large debts, but a new stadium would surely go some way to paying for itself?

As for getting out of the deal we have with the council, given the way the council have cocked up most of their recent dealings with private companies to their own loss, I'm sure there's some loophole to get us out of having to pay anything to leave Odsal.

even if we could get out of repaying remaining portion of odsal settlement (currently 1-2 million Iirc), How is leaving odsal going to mean we can suddenly raise £25 million? Only benefit to leaving odsal in terms of money raising is potential of partnering with a supermarket ala sts,wire etc. Current figure being floated around to put a roof on pop side and bring it upto standard is £8 million. surely if we could raise significant capital it would make more sense to go down that route. whether we can raise capital is another matter entirely.

Except that I'm old enough to remember when there wasn't much to choose between Leeds and Bradford as places, but the Leeds Council had a forward looking plan, whereas the Bradford Council has, over decades, consistently failed, consistently fooked up, and consistently run the place down until we are where we are today, where comparing the centre of Leeds with the centre of Bradford is a bit like comparing a modern cruise ship with the wreck of the Titanic, which on a night attracts a similar number of visitors. If all those decades ago the Council had had the balls and the vision to make a new Odsal Superdome or whatever happen, we'd have reaped the benefits. Instead the succession of Odsal farragos is a microcosm of the procession of appalling decisions and lack of ambition that has got Bradford to where it festers today.

I too simply cannot believe that your revolting council would hold us to ransom if we were able to get out there and self finance a new stadium somewhere else. However I have to admit to being entirely ignorant about the way that new RL stadiums at Saints, warrington and Leigh etc have been funded. Who of them did it alone without council help?

As for siting we've said before that we barely have to move to pop into Kirklees (half way down the M606) or Calderdale (Buttershaw ish). Perhaps to save apoplexy from Fax it'd be best to go the other way and be the Kirklees Bulls.

Or....4.5 miles down the Road in Pudsey we could be the Leeds Bulls

Both Saints and Warrington had a big cash handout from Tesco, I believe (a simplified version of the actual agreements I'm sure). While Leigh's Sporting Village was built with the help of their council who could see the benefit to the town and surrounding area of such a scheme

As for moving to Pudsey? Why go that far. Aren't Park Ave trying to get a ground built at Thornbury? Surely getting in on a joint venture with them is still an option?

Whilst thats fair comment the numerous helping hands leeds have received financially from central goverment which were usually at bradfords expense certainly helped to accelerate the relative rise and decline in the cities respective fortunes.

Wasnt that scheme just a load of hot air from their chairman (since departed I think?) which died a death pretty quickly. Havent heard it mentioned for several years now.

Well even so, it wouldn't be a bad place for a stadium. And we could have it done so the away stand is called the Dick Lane....

True as far as it goes, but not quite the whole story? Don't forget what did much of the damage was making Leeds a development area, qualifying for regional development grants and the like, in the 1980s. Bradford did not qualify.

The funding of the new St Helen's ground is far from cetaintiny.

Really? Cos they've gone ahead and built the thing. Tut, looks like someone's gonna end up red faced.

It wasn't a lot of hot air, and the chairman has not departed. We are in a recession. Any plans that the chairman had have been shelved due to the economic climate. Who knows what the future may hold but i would love to see Park Avenue and the Bulls link up at some stage. Park Avenue cannot progress much further up the non league pyramid at the Horsfall Stadium. They would be forced to move.

Nowhere near the whole story, I wrote one paragraph, this has been going on for several decades.

On that one point, development areas weren't picked out of a hat. The fact is that, however they did it, the council at Leeds got themselves on that gravy train, and our lot at Bradford didn't. If that was the one thing they failed in then maybe, but sadly you could pick just about any from hundreds and they've consistently made a complete porridge of the lot - usually at vast expense to taxpayers. Mind you, consultancies have done very well out of it.

We are where we are, & I have noted Bradford's continual demise since I moved there in '92. Not that I am entirely to blame. I am interested in what critics would do to reverse the trend, especially given the financial situation we are in. I don't have time at the moment to pen all my thoughts, but am not generally in favour of big gimmicks, which I fear the urban pond is, though I recognise the improvements around the city hall.

I blame the flight by people out of the city to places with Leeds postcodes...

Very true.

You can add in other things, like the centralising of the railways, which made Leeds the hub and turned Bradford into a branchline; the motorway network, which again aims for Leeds, there isn't even a mention of Bradford on the signs until you get to Wakefield. Our branch, the M62, wasn't completed until many years after Leeds had the M1 heading to its heart, and equally importantly well after many national and international companies had already chosen Leeds as their 'Northern head office'.

There are many things we can blame Bfd council for, but they in turn have been buffeted by things beyond their control, like the, previously mentioned, Thatcher government's decision to give that development area status to Leeds. This was hardly a carefully thought through measure in any sense - Leeds certainly wasn't in a worse position than Bradford, was it? The government, stung by accusations that it was letting the North rot, decided to throw money in a few, limited, directions but the scattergun missed Bradford.

I think, Adey, you once pointed out Bradford's (maybe) unique ability to vote in councils from the opposite persuasion to the prevailing government, and it may well be this which is the biggest contributor to the city's position, rather than any particular shortcomings, of the council, both now and previously. That said, they haven't helped over much either, like the supine acceptance of the latest development area AGAIN going to Leeds.

Amazing what you can do with Photoshop...

There's no proof that's Saints' new ground. It might say "Sainsburys" when it's finished.

Not sure it was a scattergun, mind - the Tories had Leeds in their sights for both parliamentary and local election seats in those days. So they reckoned that by providing all this central government largesse, bypassing the local authority, the grateful population would express their thanks through the ballot box.







Which of course they did. Except they voted instead for the party that they THOUGHT had brought all the good things to Leeds! The Leeds council played a blinder, and continues to do so. Our muppetry of fekkwitted donkeys, by comparison...

Unfortunatley I still pay my charitable donations.

It also doesn't help when our esteemed council leader also happens to have a nice little sideline on the board of the reprehensible "Leeds City Region" project.

I see the latest wheeze dreamed up by these people is a £1billion transport fund taking money out of the budgets of all the West Yorkshire councils - no doubt so we can all pay for our beloved neighbours tram network, which they desperately need because Manchester has one.

Leeds is Europe's largest city without a tram type network. I don't fully know how transport is funded locally but do know that the government decided all authorities had to bid for funding to the catchy titled local sustainable (no, really) transport fund. We contributed to it in Leeds. A lot of groups pooled their bids together. It was unsuccessful. So transport funding & planning in one of the largest metropolis in Europe is down to a lottery, with the uncertainty & huge cost in money & effort that entails.

Bradford must be the largest city in the UK without mainline railway station; around 300K population and on a branch line, you really couldn't make it up.

I bet Leeds will get its trams before we are reinstated onto the main line. I can't imagine where their aping of Manchester will end though; Manc has trams so Leeds wants trams, Manc has an arena, so Leeds wants an arena, anything else they feel 'deprived' of, I wonder?