Oakes is a very classy player, he's impressed me from the very first game I saw him play. A proper winger's centre, that's three tries in recent weeks he's been instrumental in - the great try Milnes scored against Fax was thanks to his quick hands and two more again yesterday.

3,414 the crowd, which just beat ours at 3,361. Get down to LSV next week where it will be considerably warmer and see if we can get over 5,000 on!!

Also need to note that next seasons central funding allocation is based on this years final position table - the lower we finish the less funding we receive.

As far as I can see - we need to increase attendances and finish in the top 5 to remain sustainable with the current setup we have.

Not an easy task!

They are supposed to be normalising the funding distributions so that final league standing doesn't make that much of a difference anymore. Every club should get the same split imo regardless of where you finish. Stop encouraging a boom or bust scenario.

Hardly think the opinion of a fan is going to change or encourage anything within the Bulls "management team".

However, I would hazard a guess that Chalmers will have a good idea of how next years funding will be distributed.

As for a fair distribution between the clubs - not sure if that has happened to date - its usually a results based reward.

I don't expect us to be pushing Toronto (ha ha!) - but 5th might be achievable and if I am proved correct - will help fill the coffers for next year.

Sorry that comment wasn't aimed at you. I just meant evening out the funding would generally help move away from clubs going down that route.

Did they? I was charged £5 for upgrading and that was at about 14.40..

Hmm, it's only second hand info that I have but apparently they put an announcement out over the pa system about it?

I didn't hear that, tbh. It would be a strange thing to do though when the option of transferring must make a bob or two on rainy days. Long before I got a permanent stand seat I've availed myself of that option quite a few times.

There were a large number of junior players from various clubs who were all seated in the stand during the game, along with parents etc, so I guess that may have given the impression of it being fuller than normal. Around where I sit it actually seemed quite a bit less well populated than normal and the terrace looked very thin. To be honest I was quite surprised at 3414, though I guess the kids and entourage would have been included in the attendance even if they were invited for pre-match and got 'freebies'.

Thought Irvine was in a joint role and split his time between us and PA.

It was but it seems now he's fulltime at PA.

That can't be right. This season we were getting a promoted team's central funding allocation. As long as we finish above 13th place, our central funding will increase next season. Why would our current setup become less sustainable when we receive more money?

We didn't "lose" Wilson, we received a massive cash offer for him which we couldn't turn down. Everyone has his price.

Ethan Ryan - don't know the ins and outs but his agent & Gledhill discussed his options on the podcast they do - about 2-3 episodes ago. The agent was saying his heart wanted to stay with Bradford, but every other variable meant this was the time for him to prove himself in SL.

Damian Irvine still works for the Bulls. He has an official capacity on gameday, in the concourse and at events, walking around. He is very approachable. Is he jobsharing perhaps with BPA?

All I’ve got to go on is the 2017 accounts which as expected didn’t make for pleasing reading. Someone covered the debt. I expect that will also be needed this year as we’re on a very low level of central funding.

Hopefully with around £350k or more for finishing in the top 5 that will ease matters, I think we had only about £100-150k this year can anyone confirm?

Kids taking part in on the day events get in free, but the parents still have to pay.

I never understand companies house documents - the debt you mention, is that the ~£600,000k figure at the end of the account?

Yeah I think that's it.

Shame Adey isn't on here anymore. Think it's a loss. As was the 600k.

That's quite a loss - since that was the year we went into administration, did we receive any funding allocation? I'd expect not given the RFL's previous genius policy of redistributing funding from financially insolvent clubs to everyone else.

Don't think we got any central funding for 2017. Also think the court case with the ex players was part of the accounts, plus lost majority of ST money.

The accounts at companies house will be making full use of the small company exemptions so really won't tell you an awful lot - there will be no p&l on there for a start.

What's the name of the company we operate under now? I can never keep track.

Okay just taken a quick look.
It was the company's first year of trade so we know that during 2017 the company made losses of roughly £580k. We'll never know the breakdown of that though unless someone has access to the full accounts.

In addition to that, the company had debts (owed money to others) totalling £790k, of which roughly £115k were due to paid within the next 12 months.

There was also about £96k sat in the bank at the balance sheet date.

A horrendous year but fully expected.

So we know someone stands to make some decent money when the land is flogged otherwise no-one (other than a Bulls fan Euro Millions winner) would drop that amount of cash down the wishing well...

Who's the masked money man?
Woody?
Is Chalmers more minted than we know?
Or is Madman Fookrash about to hove into view?

I can't wait for the film!

Am I over simplifying things by saying that either:

A) we have a hidden investor; or
B) we have no hidden investor and will go bust.

If that level of debt is being accrued on ACs shoulders alone then we're surely effed. Or am I missing something?

It certainly seems like the losses were covered by an investor.

We are currently trading under the name of "Bradford Bulls 2017 Limited".

I expect the 2018 accounts to make for slightly better reading - presumably we received some form of central funding in our first year as a League 1 outfit and were probably paying out significantly less in wages than we were in 2017. Then in 2019 the gate price went up, we lost McNally and Chisholm and got £100k for Wilson - maybe 2019 will look better still? Who knows. I'm trying to be positive.