FA, I am normally to fearful to disagree with you but on the point regarding the coral stand and its value to Akbar's business I do.

The Coral stand may be in use quite a lot, and my employers have used it on occasions, but you have to ask just how much use is it getting on non match days, and how much more use could it get if the catering etc... was in house rather than subcontracted?

Bradford City have Asian weddings at VP very regularly and they are quite lucrative! Normally, families will hire a venue, then organise catering, decoration etc... from other sources. Imagine how much money could be made if the venue was owned by a high quality, high profile Asian food outlet?

Where else could they pick up a licensed, 3-400 seater restaurant that is in a modern building, with a unique outlook, ample parking, great transport links and a 90 year lease, all for about 2 million quid? and they get an Iconic rugby team, historic stadium and about 10,000 potential extra customers! Imagine the marketing: Rugby and curry for £40! fill the place on a match day, and on other days too.

Liane, after how I was feeling yesterday until the extension and the realistic prospect of no club to support, I would accept any offer that guarantees our survival. I would prefer no Caisley involvement, but having him onboard is the lesser of the evils

The only downside is that Saturdays and sundays are the main days for asian weddings, so I can see us becoming a friday night club in terms of match day. But hey, if we have a team to support thats a bonus!

You're not alone in thinking this but as supporters we have little say in the matter.

I'd love for us to retain Potter given the job he's done this year. However I have a feeling he was never part of the plan and his success this season has made things a bit inconvenient. It goes without saying that I hope I'm wrong about all this and it's just a wild conspiracy theory!

At the moment I'll settle for a Bradford Bulls to support for the rest of the season and into the future, beggers can't be choosers.

I would love to believe that this deal would be great for the sport and our team, but if I take a step back and think of the situation as a whole, i'm concerned! I also get the impression that the RFL are concerned as to what the new owners would like to do to our club.

I just wish, the other parties that declared interest in the bulls would go public (if they feel that they have been neglected), i just want the best deal for the club going forward.

:31r5ymf4


The council still own the old hospital site? For certain? Thats ok then. I had a vague memory it had already been given over/first optioned to a developer (for housing) whilst we were all still excited about the £70m plan of a few years ago

:31r5ymf4

I'm glad you agree on me on this. I only brought it up as an extension of my question on whether the council still own the old hospital site.

:31r5ymf4
Again I'm glad you agree with me on this

:31r5ymf4

Don't know why you decided to bring up an agenda?

:31r5ymf4

I though my use of "the Coral stand by itself" after discussing the Odsal site would clearly mean it's use as a separate business (An Indian restaurant/function suite with paying guests ) from the rest of the site.

You seem to have literally thought my meaning was an empty building standing alone. Which is an odd thought.

:31r5ymf4

The Aagrah midpoint cost £4m or so. I would assume they will be wanting to target the same type of business.



This bit - I was trying to tie it all together. Best case scenario would be the new owner keeping the Bulls at Odsal and using the (Restaraunt) profits to subsidise the team to some extent.

Worst case would be selling (or just moving) the team to VP and slowly developing Odsal in stages.

I was just trying to work out the various impediments to worst case scenario...

I share a lot of the concerns of people on here, but without this potential investment from the ABC consortium, we would by now, have no club!!!!!! we cannot be picky here. Our situation is changing constantly. Up until now, we've enjoyed a lot of good will and indded donationd from other clubs and their supporters. the tide is now turning! People are annoyed that a deadline can be extended, and the way that the administrator and the consortium seem to be holding the RFL to ransom! But for me, I can live with us being unpopular, as long as we are still here!

I would take having a club over not however I will take exception to Potter not coming back and Nobby being put in charge especially if Potter is still unemployed. It's also the cloak and daggers, if Caisley came out and was honest with the fans about his intentions then I might feel differently.

If matches moved to Friday they would risk losing fans, my Dad and I are 10 year season ticket holders so (hopefully) we will have tickets anyway but if not and games are on a friday I wouldn't make it, takes me 2 hrs to get home on a normal work night (when i attempt it) nevermind a Friday! My dad, like many others, works shifts so every 2 weeks would not potentially make it. It is ok when it is just a few Fridays a year you can book a few holidays but you can't do that for every game. The majority voted to play Sunday in the pledge for a reason.

I expect the new owners will need to weigh up the costs of changing the days we play. It's all a way off now though!

not seen anything from GB on here for a while?..

Maybe he's updating his CV

ABC

Akbars. Builders. Caisley.

It's been what the B stands for that has been puzzling folk.

Not Branson - I think he got well a truely bucked by the broncos!

A Bradford Company. Nailed on.

nice thinking

But I did ask. Because I don't know. In particular, before anyone slags off the present marketing for underusing it, is there any evidence they do? So far, nobody has posted even one word claiming to know how much use /underuse it gets. So I just think its unfair to slag them off without knowing how good or bad or indifferent a job they do. On what factual basis is it alleged to be underused?


I don't see it. Large Asian restaurants have a chequered history in these parts, to say the least. There's the big chapel place off Hamm Strasse that has been shut for years, there was another one in Cleckheaton that was billed as the world's largest, that shut. I have no issue with how Akbar's run a business, but I don't have any reason to imagine this would be some super venue. With regard to weddings, there is already a big market in the area, for example there are two places on City Road and one on Legrams Lane, and I bet the competition is severe. Akbars (so far as I know) would be a new entrant into any "wedding venue" venture and why in the face of stiff competition would it necessarily be a goldmine? Note that for many Asian weddings also the sales of alcohol are Nil.


You're kidding? It looks over the pitch, sure, but it's hardly an attraction, especially to folk with zero interest in the Bulls. Parking is poor, there are hardly any spots at Coral Stand level, anyone else has to park at the top and walk down a ruddy great slope, then back up. What transport links? The M606? I can't see people flocking from far and wide just because the Coral Stand isn't that far from a motorway. And a 90 year lease is not a freehold. I can't buy into the bigging up, I'm sorry.


This was one of the issues I raised though, the suggestions as I understood it was that Akbars were scheming to NOT have the Bulls play at odsal, but elsewhere. I suggested that if that is so, then using Odsal as a restaurant seems nuts. We already do OK filling it on match day, why would Akbars do any better? Surely, it is only rugby fans that match day attracts?

Other days? But why would Akbars be able to fill it midweek any better? The fact is that the vast majority of big do's are at weekends, for obvious reasons. You just aren't going to get that many mid-week, cos people still have work etc.

I'm really not being negative for the sake of it. I'm sure that anyone with a business plan could if they worked hard at it turn some sort of a profit on any decent venue, if not get rich, my main issue is the implications people keep making that the Bulls marketing have somehow not been doing business that they could have been, when there is this asset that could be making millions more than it has to date.

A Bunch of C ????????? Charlatans ?/ Curry lovers / Conmen / Colleagues / Champions

Or insert your own....!

I'm not buying the location as an eatery business. Mumtaz might have started the trend up Great Horton Road but the newer successful curry houses of the non-greasy spoon variety are all on the border with Leeds. They are over the border enough for it to be a "Bradford curry" without actually having to go into Bradford. I'm not seeing proximity to the motorway network as an incentive to turn a stadium in whole or in part into restaurant facilities.

I'm willing to believe there will be a continued presence at Odsal but at this point I see there being far more coin for all concerned if it becomes a distribution centre / industrial estate and we move to VP. Find the centroid of Great Britain and I suspect you'll find it's not a million miles from the top of the M606.

I am very much of the any port in a storm brigade at the moment. I don't care if we play at 5am on Wednesday mornings using jumpers for goalposts and Peter Hood's faded hopes as a ball.

The council gets a big wedge of cash, the RFL get their money back, we carry on playing and hopefully all existing creditors are paid in full and thanked for their time and trouble. This time last week I would have taken one for the team and sucked Chris Caisley's faded hope to bring that about.

I think Virgin/Branson missed a trick. How much would it peeve Sky to have to say "Here on Sky" the "Virgin Media Bulls" playing at the "Virgin Media Stadium" Talk about good advertising!

Rename your ground to call it the Odsal Poppadome?

The council's deal with the RFL and the Bulls is conditional on the Bulls playing there. If ABC intend to shift the Bulls to VP then the lease they are apparently negotiating to buy back is worth nothing. For the lease to be transferred to ABC/Bulls would require the councils agreement which I'm assuming would contain the precise same stipulation.

If, and it is if the BMDC are prepared to let the Bulls out of the lease to move to VP there there is no way they would enter into an agreement which allowed ABC to retain any tenure whatsoever at Odsal as it would radically reduce the value of an enormous site.

The Bulls sold their lease to the RFL though. The RFL are the Council's tenants. Not the Bulls.

The Council must have consented to the sale of the lease so now they have their new tenants and that's that. It is the RFL who would have the power to refuse to let the Bulls out of their lease - except that that power counts for very little with the administrator. Not least because the Bulls that would be playing out of VP (if that was the plan) would be Newco Bulls. And not Odsal Tenants Bulls.

If (for instance) the administrator proposes to sell the underlease to Newco Bulls, how would the Council stop him?

I think you Tikka the pee

Nobby is the one talking to investors?? What we won under him was great, it was our glory years but this shouldn't be influenced by that. I think it is disgusting he is getting involved when Potter has said he will help.

You fiddled the cap under Noble , you were caught remember . What you won is tainted in most other fan's eyes