are there any ex academy and now fringe SL scrum halves needing time on the pitch we could loan?

I guess the suggestions for Cutting £400,000 from the OP is because, raising revenue is extremely difficult. If it was easy then the previous regimes would have done so.

Also raising revenue whilst possibly losing better players and sliding down the league table would take some pretty good talking from those attracting sponsors.

There are so many clubs teetering on the brink, yet we still have calls to raise the salary cap to match the NRL. To me that would just see the clubs who are doing well financially overspending too and leaving the league on very shakey ground.

I still think the salary cap should be replaced with a break even cap. But maybe that's a topic for somewhere else.

I do hope all the clubs struggling can find their way back to solvency.

Salary caps only work if the clubs raise enough revenue to pay the salaries, what should be in place is a ceiling that clubs can pay up to as long as they have the income ie a max of 50% spent on players. Income should not include any loans that are repayable or funds secured against assets.....

That, or something on those lines, is what we used to have when the cap was first brought in. Back then, saving clubs from themselves was higher on the agenda, but we have to assume it was the clubs who wanted this safety net removing?

For starters how about cutting back on all those match day stewards that seem to have been "set on" under the OK regime? i'm told they get 30 quid a game, 30 less would 900 quid a game (please don't tell me we need them for health and safety reasons)

The merchandising is massive this season, lets hope the Bulls sell thousands of replica shirts. Maybe a deal with Asda to stock up with Bulls merchandise in all their stores in the Bradford area?

As for the playing staff, i really do we hope we do not lose any of the current squad, especially Sammut, didnt he recently tweet he was going no where?

Replied to someone with something along the lines of "I ain't walking out on Bradford mate" I think.

Wouldn't be the first or last time someone said words to that effect, then left a week later though.

I agree with the sentiments regarding the team. Losing Gale just isn't that big a deal except for some competition for places. Losing Sammut would be a big blow. (Purely from a team pov, nothing to do with the financials, which I appreciate are more important)

Yay! Let's get the begging buckets out again. That is a great idea.

I think the poster you quoted may have actually meant that the club should attempt to obtains additional sponsorship and/or investment to raise some cash, not a pledge MkII

Perhaps so, but did the board not say that, due to the current situation, they are finding it increasingly hard to attract sponsors?

Therefore, that idea will pretty much be a non-starter.

I don’t know if the Foxy Bingo promotion is still available?

All you had to do was deposit a tenner, the wife got thirty quid to play & you put in a promotional code for the club of your choice, which allegedly received fifty quid.

Apologies if you’ve already been down this route earlier in the year.

I would be concerned if the club shared the same pessimistic view as yourself. If something is "difficult", I wouldn't say it was a non-starter. It is what it is "difficult", lol.

ME in slight / pop at club again....surely not !

It would surprise me if we keep our better players. If the reports are accurate and the players have been asked to take a 10% pay cut , it's likely that both agents and families will be pressing for a move. Many of the squad have already been through troubled times and loyalty to the club must be stretched. For the new signings it must be a kick in the teeth.
It will be a massive task for FC to keep team spirit high.
Any club with room under the cap can cherry pick
One question I have is whether the cut is a straight 10% or whether there is scope for an "incentive"-- that is if the income streams improve during the season ,players salaries have first call.
Incidentally what dent will the 10% make? I know it depends on how near the salary cap the club are but I don 't think that amount has been (or is likely to be ) published.
Finally is it proposed to cut ALL wages including coaches and admin staff?

Seem to remember salary bill (including off field staff) last year was quoted somewhere between 160k-200k per month. Cant imagine its much different this year. So a 10% cut would equate to between 192k and 240k. Puts a decent dent in 400k if staff accept it. Maybe Robbie saying we may only need to lose one or two players wasn't that far off the mark.
Wonder if they've considered asking players to take a 10% cut on basic pay but increasing win bonus so that if they win matches it negates the cut. More wins we get the higher attendances are likely to be which would pay for extra expense.

A good idea and point, more wins = more bodies in the crowds, if we can get up to the 12k attendance figure the extra income generated would and should along with slight cost cutting erase the 400k figure, have to say lucky this has been found out in ore-season and not 2 month before the end of season when there would be little we could do about it.

It's all cut this and cut that, may maybe we should be looking on how to make up the 400K and giving ourselves a chance at staying up.
its catch 22 if you start cutting the squad you get poor performance's which means poor gate receipts, better try to make up the 4K

LOL????????

My apologies. I did not realise I was having a discussion with a five year old.

By quoting what the club said? How is that a pop at the club?

I am fairly sure that if the chance of sponsorship (of any meaningful amount) was available then we would have got it secured by now.

Also, as an aside, given that the club have already released the home shirt for next season, I wouldn't have thought that any potential investors would be too keen on the idea of their logo not being on the shirts that have already been sold. Another "barricade" up there perhaps?

haha, I held back from detailing how you must live in a grey house, with grey walls and a grey windows as every one of your posts carry a tone of boredom and misery?

Cheer up Mystic, it's not too late to change the big man's mind, a succession of good deeds and I'm sure you will be off the naughty list!

You can't , Wakey are still using them

From today,s T&A
The Bulls squad are poised to meet with players’ union League 13 today as they seek answers and advice regarding the club’s latest financial crisis.

If we have to cut players I would rather we cut any of the backs before Sammut. Gale seems the obvious choice. Wouldn't have thought we would be getting Evans back now.

Has 400k gone missing from the club or have the previous regime just set budgets that were 400k to much for the season and that would be what we would be down by if we were to continue with the current budget?

What I find hard to fathom out is that when the wages we're paid late, Omar "released" funds from his property portfolio and "proved" to the RFL that there was actually capital in place to ensure the smooth running of the club for 2 years.

A lot can happen in 6 months!

OK certainly did ensure funds became available to cover the cash shortfall last year and I wondered at the time how he had done this - whether he had written a cheque for £900k and loaned it to the Bulls, or secured an overdraft against his property holdings.

Given he seems to be trying to recover money from Ryan & Co for the money owed to him for his shares and not the OK Bulls company for the loan I would suspect he used the second route - so he would be at risk if the Bulls default on the terms of their facility with the bank.

The problem for all our recent and current owners seems to be they spend up to or above what they have budgeted for costs ( rents, salaries etc) but that the revenue never comes up to what they expected from ST sales or fans paying on the gate. Though the current problems do seem to rest in OK and his team being financially clueless I think I shared his view that after rescuing the club at the end of 2012 more fans would have turned up last season - when infact the gates went down. That's why I think if we weaken the squad much further the risk is even more fans take their bats home and we get into a spiral of decline from which there is no escape. So if you don't make some investment in 2014 Bradford will drop out of the top league.