I think the fact that Adey, not for the first time, is willing to plough the lonely furrow on our behalf is great. But I feel for him - it seems like taking a thimble of water to the towering inferno. Because if theres one thing our parochial family love, its a conspiracy theory and any opportunity to cry favouritism.

And long it will continue until someone at the RFL twigs that a cursory statement on this deal doesn't really cut the mustard.

There never WAS any money. The club was always spending at least as much, and in later years after the return to Odsal very considerably more, than it received. Jonesy got his thong in a tangle yesterday by saying Bulls used to call themselves "the People's Club". he was wrong or course - it was "the People's Team". Although that was a typical naff Caisleyism, the underlying point was entirely right: Bulls had (and have) no wealthy owner or backer. They therefore depend more than most on the support from the fans. When the crowds started to fall away, this perpetuated the vicious downward spiral of less cash = less good team = less good performances = less crowds = less cash = less good yeam = less good performances...

whether the release yesterday was rushed is difficult to say, but at least they got the relevant details as to what they had bought out pretty quickly having seen that was a major omission. The RFL would no doubt have liked to emphasise the market value issue, the question they no doubt would not want to answer is property development market or sports club rental market value?

As much as I support the actions of the RFL in this matter I can just imagine the apoplexy on here from the usual suspects had the RFL 'bailed out' Wigan or Saints, irrespective of the facts. Even the more respected of posters might drop the use of Rot Hall & other disparaging names. I hear it was all on the specific instructions of Gary H.

could you possibly justify when
keighley got into financial difficulties did it get help from the rfl? did the rfl by their ground?


When hull kr went into administration did the rfl buy their ground? The answer to these questions is no! Both clubs got shafted by the rfl and never got any help. So gentleman and ladies could you possible justify why bradford got help and other clubs get shafted?? i would be very interested in your explaination?

Probably not , but as they were potentially the last hope , then a neccessary evil unfortunatley

Remind me again who Keighley's current landlords are?

Remind me again when the Bulls went into Administration?

It's the RFL Adey.

Thought you would have known that

Well i'm a Rugby League fan first and a Leigh fan second. This is good for Bradford, England and Rugby League. The way I see it, the only people losing out are the council, who like most councils are skint and are having to sell off any assets they have. I've even started a thread on the positivity of this for the England National team and even a poll too on www.internationalrugbyleague.net

Well i'm a Rugby League fan first and a Leigh fan second. This is good for Bradford, England and Rugby League. The way I see it, the only people losing out are the council, who like most councils are skint and are having to sell off any assets they have. I've even started a thread on the positivity of this for the England National team and even a poll too on www.internationalrugbyleague.net

Its not even the council losing out, as the council leader confirmed in the press today.

The only losers are the developers who were looking to coerce Bulls out of Odsal to VP, so they could do a deal with the council for the land and then make a fortune developing it.

Since developers sit well below politicians on the scumbag scale, and only just above investment bankers, seems fine to me?

To be fair, our situations are (were) different.

We (Keighley) didn't sell our existing lease to the RFL for a reported seven figure sum.

The RFL helped us re-negotiate the lease (which was due to expire) with the Co-op and ended up our landlord. As far as I am aware it didn't cost the RFL anything and we pay for ground maintenance/mods etc.


As long as Bradford and the RFL are getting a fair deal and as long as the RFL treat the rest of RL in the same manner then I can't see what all the fuss is about.

They all are , thats why it is unfair to compare , the only issue where it is relevant is the Licence criteria scoring one , that does affect other clubs directly , as thay are in competition at that point in time

Er, yes. It did. The RFL owns Cougar Park.

Would you care to comment?

LoL, I love seeing the small town fans being getting wound up.

Where is this reported 7 figure sum come from - last time i read it was undisclosed

I am LOVING all these bitter comments



Bitter Fax fans, its like the good old days.

Odsal is currently a grade "B" so unless there is some serious deterioration I can't see it dropping below a "C" at the next license round.

Having said that, I'll bet it's a money pit.

Fully concur with your sentiments Mick.

Read the forum debates regularly but rarely post ... Adey is a gem.

The RFL do not own Cougar park, they own a 60 year lease from the co-op.

For pulsator2k7
The 7 figure sum was reported in the national press [urlhttp://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/rugby_league/4083298/Its-an-Ods-on-winner.html[/url

PS don't lump me with the bitter and twisted, as long as the RFL are fair to everyone I don't care.

The announcement was definitely planned for yesterday anyway so I don’t think it was rushed.

What? Do we have a person here who actually believes that a successful rugby league team builds up great pots of spare cash and stashes it all away?

Nah. You must be on the wind. Nobody would be that naive




It's nothing like that. They just knew it was you, that's all

This post is a classic

[iFax4Life wrote:This is wrong, so wrong what kind of precedent is this setting???
I don't care the ground has history so did Station Road, Watersheddings, Thrum Hall, Central Park and Knowsley Road but all these clubs at those grounds had to do it the hard way and raise their own money to fund new grounds or move to grounds shared with football clubs and improve them.
Plus how come they have done this with OUR money, that is the fans and other clubs money when the RFL won't even give Championship clubs any of the Premier Sports money, it stinks.

No coincidence that Fat Controller comes from Bradford then never heard of a 'vested interest'???

Plus the ground was a public owned 'assset' are the local council taxpayers happy they have subsidised (yet again didn't the Council pay for the improvements a few years ago and that block at the far end?) the RFL and a professional rugby club? Any public asset should be put on the open market when being cashed in, especially in the current climate of budget cuts and services being cut, did the Council get the best price for this site or its true value???

What are the RFL going to do with the ground now plus who and how are any jobs and improvements that need doing going being paid for,.
There are lots and lots of questions but like the North Korean regime the RFL won't tell anybody anything its a closed shop. How I wish we could do a Freedom of Information request on the RFL.

I absoluteley hate the RFL even more now this deal stinks[/i

What's changed then? Why is Odsal no longer a financial millstone?

Genuinely not trying to stir, just looking to understand. We're constantly told (and it's constantly said on here) that Odsal is hammering the club financially, why is it suddenly now manageable because the RFL has thrown you some cash?

Gor blimey, guv. Look, the point is, [iexactly[/i a la Odsal, they've taken over a long lease.


Noted. But in this context, fair doesn't involve acquiring everyone else's ground.

In our context, "fair" would seem to be the sport's governing body working out an ad hoc solution to a problem at the time the problem arose. It's not a first, for example a similar sort of thing is in place at Keighley (I don't remember the RFL getting a bagging for that), and I genuinely think it's very unfair on the RFL for people (not you) to imply that if this deal had been proposed by any other club, they would have refused.

Of course, the legendary Bradford Northern/Bulls, and their legendary ground, are hardly comparable with any other case, and I think it's jealousy arising from that which is I truth behind most of the whinges.

As for "Fax4life", what a bitter and twisted Violet Elizabeth Bott we have there. I would suggest his libellous remarks about corruption in the case of Nigel Wood, on the spurious grounds that he comes from Bradford, are all you need to know