At the forum, you should be in the Front Row, Mr Grizzly!

Not far off to be honest!!
No time for questions from the audience. This caused quite a stir to say the least as one of Nigels critics had come prepared with 2 pages of issues / questions that hed handed out coppies to everyone before the event started.

Stadium news was a the main take away. Plans have been drawn up for a new stadium in partnership with RFL and local council to create an RFL head quaters/village. From the sole image that was shared it looked a stadium fit to host international games and semi finals. Possibly finals but unsure of the exact size from the picture.

All dependant on levelling up govt. funding, city of culture funding along with investment from RFL. But plans are being discussed and the apllication for funding will begin.

And yes i was thinking what your thinking. We have heard it a million time before!! To be fair to Nige he did seem very positive that we could get something new built. Whether it be on the grand scale of the 1 pic that was shared or not remains to be seen.. ill believe it when i see it!!!

My general consensus:
Mark Dunning spoke well and is clearly passionate about the club. I really hope he can turn things around in the future with Brian Noble’s support and guidance. He feels that the squad is ‘comparable’ with the other part time teams and that the gulf between us and the full time teams is on show for all to see. MD did address the fitness issues of the squad, said it will improve.

The CEO and Nigel Wood didn’t really answer any questions fully. They skirted around the issues and blew hot air. NW displayed an image of an ‘Odsal Sport City’ development which he said has a 10/1 chance of coming to fruition. This I am led to believe is a Bradford Council project. He did become quite emotional when he spoke about his involvement with the club and the personal vendettas that he feels some fans have aimed towards him. Some people I was sat with supported him, a large majority didn’t. The CEO confirmed that the Young Bulls scheme has only 50 paying members. According to my quick maths that’s a £90,000 deficit in funding for the academy which is alarming.

What really left a nasty taste was how hostile it ended. At the start of the event we were told that questions would be taken from the audience. At the end of the event the host then said that no questions would be taken because they had run out of time. A small minority of fans voiced their disapproval which ended the event on a rather sour note.

I hung around a little bit at the end and spoke to a few people connected to the club. Some fans had approached NW for questions which he was fielding. Again, it did become rather heated between some fans in the aftermath.

A rather strange evening.

Really annoys me does this. Why have a fans forum if there’s ‘no time for fans questions’. Joke of a club. Not surprised fans were annoyed.

I’ll hold my breath but if the plans are true then maybe there’s a future at Odsal. But they do realise we need results on field to stay in the Champ when it become 10 and 10. Also we still need blooding funding, otherwise we will end up being in the same situation but in a new stadium? How does that help.

Remember the good old days when we had the “OSV” thread and the match day thread was preserved for whether Platt and Sykes were good enough?

I’d give far better odds than 10/1 on any form of new stadium in Bradford in the next 10 years. We’ve seen / heard it all before, at least in 2008, we had recent successes in mind which we could draw some inspiration from. If we couldn’t get OSV off the ground when we were recently World Champions, we won’t be getting anywhere near now.

I can't decide if those running the club are just utterly clueless or remain totally dismissive of the supporter base. These events should be used to engage with supporters and address their concerns or problems.

Unfortunately, with the advertised start time it was all rather predictable that they weren't interested in hearing from supporters. A club run by absolute clowns I'm afraid.

Get an appointment with Wood or Hirst, both will speak to you, I’ll guarantee it

Make an appointment? Jesus wept, isn't that the whole point of a forum? If our CEO needs feedback from this forum to realise open dialogue and transparency is needed, then he is more incompetent than the Chairman. In the meantime, I am fine to spend my time and money elsewhere, where I don't need an appointment.

If you know if your local councillor is on the planning subcommittee, you might get better info on any council-led levelling up stadium plan.

Hirst seems like a decent bloke, but having to rely on a volunteer as CEO sums up where the club is.

I think offering to speak 121 with fans is probably well intentioned, but most are past the point of going to that effort.

It’s very clear that the fans and Wood will never see eye to eye - he’s not going to open up about past failings and he doesn’t have the vision, resources or nous to drive the club forward.

Was the potential league re-structure touched on at all?
Where is this new stadium proposed to be built? On the Odsal site?

https://twitter.com/andrewfoster101/sta ... 6513945604 Andrew Foster's take on last night above.

https://twitter.com/andrewfoster101/sta ... 6513945604 Andrew Foster's take on last night above.

To be fair, I remember Niggle talking about this in the T&A about 4 years ago, I think if you search it it's still there, but then they talked about moving the RFL HQ to City of Manchester Stadium so I assumed the plan was dead.

Volunteer or not, he really ought to be able to read the room and understand supporters frustrations. I understand questions from the floor was promised when commencing the evening (to keep folk quiet) and then low and behold.. they ran out of time.. shocker. Very poor form, but unfortunately typical of the club nowadays.

It's like you could have scripted it. Even the most optimistic of fans must realise now that if you can predict it's going to happen, and it does, it's because they're running a s*** show.

Very disappointing - heart breaking in fact.

Good set of questions just brushed aside as none of your business. Maybe when he's trying to sell season tickets people might respond in kind.
The loan, the lease, the 500k, the choice of owners plus the admin and liquidation is the greatest scandal in British RL history. Only one man knows the whole story and he isn't telling.

I thought the tone of the responses was remarkable. And it was also interesting that despite there being a widespread belief that our players are unfit, Nobby wondered off muttering "ridiculous" at the suggestion. I feel for the CEO, he's doing it because he loves the club and an event like that won't be pleasant.

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... city-plan/

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... city-plan/

Noble's response to the fitness question was disappointing. Would expect much better from him. Another yes man?

Has anybody had sight of (or found online) the document which was shared at the fans forum?

It looks to be endorsed or produced by Bradford Council and is titled “preliminary study” from June 2022.

There is a wider plan that Wood refers to for the surrounding area (Bradford Bulls are listed as a stakeholder and asked a number of questions about park & ride / stadium access).

I can’t find the preliminary study which the club shared but I’m sure it will be an interesting read.

How many pages did the OSV thread get to? With the declining level of interest I don’t think we’ll reach 10% of that one!

If there's a Council document about it you could send in an FOI request to see it.

Ahead of you there - sent one earlier this week!

Hopefully at least gives us a bit more background around the plans (although until building work starts I’m pretty sure mos will be very sceptical).

Perfect. 40days to respond I think?

Fair play mate. I hope your successful. I do think the council will find a loop hole to aviod sharing it but i do applaud your endeavour.

Can't see it being commercial in confidence or taking too long to reply.