Not sure if anyone else has picked up on the paragraph about the stadium in the exec summary of the clubs SL bid doc just released...

"In addition, plans are being drawn, exploring all options for the stadium footprint and adjourned sites. We have a five-year timescale in mind for redevelopment or new build in or around the existing Odsal site."

There are more than a few nods and winks in that paragraph to suggest something could be on the horizon in relation to either the land behind Odsal (behind the Southbank) or the old Richard Dunnes site.

I still cannot believe the club are even contemplating a return to a stadium that has sunk the club on more than one occasion without some kind of plan in the background.

To do otherwise, Wood & Sawyer might as well throw all their money in a fire pit and watch it burn. But neither are daft and a bookie knows better than to bet against the odds.

Oh... and Happy New Year everyone!!!

As it stands, no rugby will be played at odsal so why are these of concern for a group who are gearing it up for Speedway and Stock car racing?

Has anyone thought of writing to Nick Knowles?

You would like to think there is more going on behind the scenes than is in the public domain wouldn't you.....

Odsal as is works for no-one and isn't a viable long term option.

A new stadium adjacent to the current (as intimated in the press release) would make perfect sense. They could also perhaps keep the existing ground and use this for stock cars, other motor sports, concerts etc., while sharing some of the new stadiums ancillary facilities.

A brand new stadium on the Richard Dunn site would be the most sensible option. Especially if Bradford PA can be brought in on it as there are a number of organisations set up around redevelopment/building stadiums for football grounds.

I'd like to believe there is substance in the plan for a new build but we've been here before haven't we?

Once or twice!

Reading the excerpts from the SL application it was a little obvious it was more a positioning statement for the next 5 years rather than a true application. Read like 'We'll be in Odsal for a year or two and will then be ready'

It read more like a "this is what we'd like to do if we won the Euromillions" statement to me.

For anyone interested there's a couple of photos on the startrax Facebook page of some of the work undertaken. Mainly just the posts for the fence/barrier going around the stadium. But work has started. https://www.facebook.com/startrax.info/

For anyone interested there's a couple of photos on the startrax Facebook page of some of the work undertaken. Mainly just the posts for the fence/barrier going around the stadium. But work has started. https://www.facebook.com/startrax.info/

I saw those photos. The place looks even more of a dump now doesn't it?

Depressing.

The hidden tragedy of the Bulls roller coaster has been turning an upbeat sort of chap such as yourself into a right misery. Its like [iA Christmas Carol[/i in reverse.

I guess that "Back to the future" seems like the norm for us.

I'm not sure if that is "depressing" or not. It is what it is. It's just that we always expect the future to be sooo exciting, full of bells and whistles and all that.... and above all to be, well, 'new' and something different, and it seems that our future is to be anything but.

All that said, it seems I'm being ungrateful and even churlish, so I suppose that I should be really happy that the club carries on and that games will be played and we'll be back at Odsal. So why don't I feel happy? ,Cos, in truth I don't.

Because we've been through the thick end of ten years pain to wind up back in 1990? I can't see why people are getting excited over Stock Cars??? May be fun to watch but it's not going to make a jot of difference to us other than it's another entity that Odsal can have a decent attempt at finishing off.

I didn't like the idea of Dewsbury at first but it felt like a new start, team full of lads wanting to play for Bradford and not going to take any shenanigans from anyone, some decent rugby being played (albeit it in dreadful weather so some errors) and I felt optimistic that things may be turned round and there was a master plan in action.

Little did I know the master plan was a reset to 1990

It's not 1990. We were in the top flight then.

It's more like late 1950s.

Yours grumpily

Essentially it boils down to whether you think adding stock cars makes Odsal a viable and sustainable ground for us. If you do then great, look forward to the sunlit uplands of Odsal. If you don't, then its actually a little difficult to feel positive about our future. I personally think Odsal cannot be transformed into an affordable and sustainable home so the stock cars feels almost irrelevant.

We have to move on but there's no evidence that there is anyone with even a vague plan on how to do that. I find it just as worrying that there's no evidence senior people at the club have come to the same conclusion about what a hopeless cause Odsal is. If they were to come out and say we know Odsal can't be our forever home anymore, but we need to move back in whilst we explore our options, I'd feel a little better.

For me the ground has become a bete noire but the real issue is who owns (and invests in) the club.

If you mismanage a situation to such an extent that you have to sell something you once owned and now have to pay rent for it. If you run a bed shop and decide to takeover a rugby club in administration which is x times bigger than the business you own.
If you sign 40 players and none are a scrum half. If you buy something and travel all the way from New Zealand and don't even have the funds to open a bank account....... I could go on.

Are these issues with the ground?

Not with Odsal directly, but they are issues with the opaque nature of the RFLs approval of bids which in turn COULD be about Odsal. They turn down investors with money in favour of the litany of paupers you mention. You don't have to be a conspiracy theory nut to think they've done that for a specific reason. Its just we don't know what weird long-game the RFL have been playing. Is it that they ultimately want to realise some sort of investment potential of Odsal so required owners that are in the RFL pocket or that they could control, rather than appoint someone rich? Chalmers himself was an RFL stooge who just happened to go completely renegade.

This is exactly my issue. The transfer of the Odsal lease to the RFL has seen the ground deteriorate so that it's worse than at any point since the part-refurb in 85-86.

I'm struggling to see why the RFL took the lease. I would suggest it's incompetence on the part of the RFL to try and cover up/plug a financial hole for the loans they had advanced the club prior to 2012. All they've got is a financial millstone. If it had investment potential it would've been realised yonks ago. The RFL turning down investors to give the club to Chalmers suggests they wanted "their man" running things for some as yet unknown reason.

Well Nigel is in charge now - everyone knows this even if it's not officially confirmed. What are his plans for Odsal? Has he got any? I worry that he hasn't and all we have is a ruin of a ground that is getting worse. While Wood remains in the background we supporters are expected to just back the team and not ask any awkward questions - even if we did we wouldn't get any answers. The RL media won't rock the boat - too many vested interests.

I fear it will all end in tears - probably once the TV money runs out next year.

Accepting everything you and Pumps say as based in fact and that there has indeed been some form of conspiracy that has not been in the club's, or its supporters' (and In OK's case owner's) interests, why is Wood involved if he doesn't have any plan/investment for the club's advancement? Unless the Chinese guy's turned up.

Why indeed? I'd love to know. I'd be all ears! Unfortunately he won't even confirm he's in charge when it's obvious he is.

Has there been any sign of advancement at all anywhere?

On field side seems to be well managed TBF. Off field social media side seems a lot more professional now and first time in years we have had shirts and merchandise available before xmas in years and haven't seen any complaints about quality. I suppose you could say club have had plenty of time last year to sort out the merchandise and its in their interests to get it right as its first source of income they could tap into with late release of season tickets. And I'd expect season ticket sales to be significantly down this year with uncertainty around fans being allowed back in. Superleague bid documents that were released seem quite well thought out too.

Areas where there needs to be better communication are long term plans, ownership and investment. Also some clarity around Odsal. Other than in season ticket marketing material I don't think its been officially announced that we are moving back and whether its a short term measure or longer term. Also what terms are we coming back on? Is rent split between us and Stock cars, is their a stadium management company now. I noticed on one of stock car releases their actively marketing upper level of Southbank for corporate events mid week ( something we should have done more with TBF). does that mean their senior stadium lease holder and were just taking it for matchdays?.

He is very cagey about being the visible face of the club, but every interview with Mark Sawyer now has him specifically saying that he's urged Nigel Wood to come forward and take a bigger role. Sawyer wasn't really on my radar before our latest melt-down but I have a huge amount of respect for how he's had to juggle his primary role at Dewsbury with being caretaker of our club. Understandably he wants someone else to step up so he can get back to his first love.

So perhaps there's a steady pair of hands behind the scenes which fits with what Sawyer says about capable Nigel Wood being involved. But did Nigel ever strike you as the shy retiring type? I'm not sure why he isn't becoming the face of the club, unless the minority stake his family have bought is literally the extent of his interest?

His handling of Thrum Hall put a stand sized hole in the side of the good ship Halifax which they have never recovered from...the more he hides the more worried I get.