I'm done if its liquidation. I have no appetite to support any other club. And before you say it would still be Bradford, yes it would in name only.

The club I've supported all my life is the current club. A mess it may be but that is what I'm emotionally attached to, not a phoenix club.

So i'm in the camp that says anything is better than liquidation.

This

But the current club is itself a phoenix club - brought into existence in 1964

I'm too young (just) to remember that, but it doesn't alter the fact. So a 'new' Bradford club wouldn't be the first time.

To be fair, since we moved house to Leeds (sorry!) last year, we've shopped mostly at Sainsbury's - must admit it feels better to not be bolstering Ken's retirement fund

Perhaps so, but all of us below the age of 52 (and most just above it) won't remember the previous entity anyway, so the club we've supported all our lives is the current one. The fact the current one is a phoenix club is irrelevant really, it's just like saying we have no emotional attachment to the pre-1964 Bradford Northern too.

I can understand both sides of the Phoenix club support debate tbh. I'm not sure how I'll feel until (if) it happens, but I can't see me feeling the same about a new club as I do about this one, even if the name and the stadium are the same.

Well indeed. If we were playing in Champ 1 with a skeleton team in front of a few hundred people at Horsfall, I could probably get into that. If we were to spend next season with a massive points deduction and a skeleton team playing at Odsal with all of the same problems, bad feeling, and another ten bob millionaire in charge, it'd just be too grim. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would probably still turn up but it'd be bloody awful.

I guess what I really want is [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_(psychology)closure[/url and a club. And I really don't think that's very likely.



With regards to a Phoenix club, I think it was FA who made a sterling if wordy effort to distinguish between the club and the holding company. A few years of no RL in Bradford and I probably would give up. A sustainable semi-pro club playing in Bradford Met wearing red, amber, and black, but which is in no way commercially connected to the current incarnation would have my full support.

I agree with your sentiment that anything is better than liquidised (no it's not predictive text, just feels like we've been through a blender) but if there is no Bradford club, after following them since 1962 I could not change allegiance to another club. As a 12 year old I was heartbroken when they folded in 63, but they did come back with genuine people at the helm, Trevor Foster and Joe Phillips, I just hope against hope that people of that ilk get involved again but it's a long shot.

If we think about the “phoenix club” option it still requires an owner to finance it. A significant sum would be needed before it began to recruit players and coaches, buy kit, rent a ground, recruit admin staff etc.

Someone once involved with the club recently told me that they thought a phoenix club could be set up if someone like Karl Harrison came on board as he’d have the networks to pull a squad together. This assumes that there would be someone willing to pay for it.

A ground would also be needed since Odsal would be unaffordable to any phoenix club as you’d be saddling yourself with the running costs again. VP would be even more expensive. Horsfall would be probably the only option. I’ve no idea if it’s up to standard but looking at some grounds in League 1 it probably is. However there would be rent to pay.

The squad would be part time and run on a shoe string, how many paying spectators would pay to see that? 500 at the most I’d say. What’s the point if it comes to that? Some may still be up for it but most wouldn't, would it be any more viable than it is now?

I was told not long ago from someone who knew him, that Karl Harrison would be well up for getting involved in a Steve Ferres like role at the Bulls. That being the case, I wouldn't be surprised if he was up for this too providing he had some form of financial backing.

That’s the key. Whatever form the club is in, phoenix or otherwise it needs a backer, and for me it needs a backer that has real aspirations. Treading water in League 1 will only lead to further agony. The club went under in 1963 on attendance of several hundred. League 1 attendances would be at that level at best.

That may be, but this incarnation is the only club I've supported and I couldn't see myself doing it with another club (Bradford Phoenix or not)

Horsfall is up to standard for the Championship imo, assuming a smaller crowd. Not sure what it actually holds but 4k would be pushing it I imagine.

It's a horrible place though. There's a stand on one side that has had seats fitted since I used to run there as a kid. There's a running track between you and the pitch so set aside any expectations of being in a small, close ground. There is also a stand that gets wheeled out, literally, for games that holds about twenty. They put that behind one of the goals. Remember when we used to change ends at half time? Two big lads and a wheelbarrow and you can take the stand with you.

On the opposite side is the club house for the ground. It appears too back directly up to the park behind. There's a precipitous drop over the other side of that wall and what looks like a two story building from the stadium is about five when you're in the park. Assuming it's a thought anyone is having you couldn't develop that way without taking a chunk out of that park.

btw, Horsfall for me represents one thing: coming so last in the 1500m that everyone thinks you must be injured and they give you a round of applause for sticking with it.

So in many ways it's perfect.

Interesting https://www.castlefordtigers.com/article.php?id=5153

Interesting https://www.castlefordtigers.com/article.php?id=5153

The T&A's office junior reckons a major announcement due around midday. So probably not then.

[urlhttp://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/14998961.Major_announcement_over_future_of_Bradford_Bulls__imminent_/[/url

If it's liquidation then I am done with RL. The Bulls have been too big a part of my life to not have bitter feelings towards the game no matter how unwarranted they are...

Watching clubs like Sheffield and Gateshead being sacrificed for Hudds and Hull should have been a massive warning but sadly we didn't get out turn to jump into bed with anyone with cash so whilst many in SL still have their cash daddies and think the games rosey they too have their head dangerously in the sand.

Had Tesco gone ahead would we still be here? Evidence from every other team that managed to find a marriage says not yet here we are...There's some interesting articles online about how leaving Wilderspool allowed Warrington to expand and become self-sufficient, but given the times those boats have sailed, we missed ours and seem to be about to pay maximum price....

God I hope I am wrong...I will miss Sunday afternoons in the stands with my girls but I guess it wont be long before they fill the void

Brace yourselves everyone, looks like our outcome is about to be revealed...

Quote ="Blotto"Interesting https://www.castlefordtigers.com/article.php?id=5153'" Respect to them

Quote ="Blotto"Interesting https://www.castlefordtigers.com/article.php?id=5153'" Respect to them

Whilst I'd be done supporting a professional team, I don't think i'd stop with RL completely. My son plays juniors and I get as much enjoyment watching him than I do watching Bradford.

If he was ever lucky enough to go pro, then I'd be only following a club to support him.

Think they have to given the Solomona/Sale situation.

Exactly. As much as it is admirable they're refusing to pick the bones until the situation is resolved, they would look very hypocritical if they did when they're currently going after Solomona and Sale for abandoning his contract.

Different situations sure, but it still wouldn't help them.

That's agents looking after their clients interests,nothing more.

Understandable

Good luck everyone. This could be it.

Can we get to 450 pages before the fat lady clears her throat?