Bulls crowd given at 2,753 today, which is almost passable for this division. Hope you're not in for a prolonged hibernation, Frank

relegation is confirmed. oldham have 11 points Swinton 12 points....they have to play each other so one of them will get to 13 points minimum...........

I think you need to look at other factors rather than RFL in some cases they have tried to assist the Bulls. The sad fact is the owners haven't invested a little more to win key games.

Rather than budget squad wise to stay in the league they have relied on other teams goodwill with loans. They kept you in the league and this was not what most fans wanted. Next year you will be a club that can attract the very best players in league 1 you will also have more money to play with. All season ticket, sponsors and funding will be yours. Also you will still have the biggest support in the league.

The fans need to look within a little more, the RFL have helped you previously more than any team however they have had their fingers burnt so many times. I guess this time they looked for someone they can trust. All the other offers seemed to care more about the money to be had from owning Odsal rather than working to get the team forward.

Sad day for the sport and I don't feel any team can be secure in a sport with so little money. Good luck for the future keep the faith.

I think if you have a look at this board you'll see plenty of fans looking within from some leadership from the club owners. That's been sadly lacking unfortunately.

You can't buy players that are not there. Likewise, we can only sign players who would want to play for us too, and with our almost inevitable relegation, what sort of career choice is that?

The owners have signed better players then they had as they came available throughout the year (Smith, Tonga, Chisholm), and had shocking luck with injuries with them.

When it comes to key positions, such as in the halfs, we needed loan players as there are simply not players available to buy with 2 weeks to season start. Bulls owners have admitted that not signing Chisholm at that time was a mistake, but while all the player we did sign were in Bradford ready to sign on the dotted line, Chisholm was on the other side of the world.

You are right about the money for next year, and all sponsorship has been sold already too, which is a good thing. Are the current owners a safe pair of hands? Lets see what state we are in at the start of next season.

However, the long on short of it is how many fans come to watch third league rugby next year? Its a big ask, and its going to be a tough sell to retain the fans we have never mind winning back lapsed fans, or (incredibly) winning new fans.

one big positive, the RFL still have to have a professional team playing at odsal next year to fulfil the terms of the lease so most likely there will be another year of rent relief on playing there, that is a rather lot of money that the Bulls can save to use to fund players salaries that other teams in the Champ 1 won't have..... The fight back starts in 2018

Even if that's true what happens in the future without rent relief? I ask since a SL side with crowds of 10k olus couldn't survive at Odsal in its current state.

League 1 is a tough league at the top end hopefully my team haven will get promoted this year. As for next year Bradford will easily do a Toronto and go right back up your crowds are 4 times higher than any of the other teams you,ll have a lot more coin to spend and will be able to cherry pick all the best players at the lower end of the champ and league 1 teams.

The Future...... that's when Big Nige comes riding in on his white charger.... does a deal with the council, a deal with developers to build a new smaller stadium 12k-15k, plush new offices for the RFL and they then get the rest of the site with planning permission. He leaves a legacy for the RFL and becomes the new owner of the Bulls with Cha-Lo as his fellow directors........

Or he does the dirty and shafts the Bulls again by only buliding the Offices

Popup Cynic, apply to pie.warrior for an internship in cynicism, you little turdtle.

So for next year, I do not care what else is going on off pitch, but what I really want is a squad that has been selected more than five minutes before the start of the season, if loan players then for the season not just 10 seconds, has a preseason, has a core of home growns, and big ask maybe, but has a reserves side within which the homegrowns can develop at a pace that suits them not the needs of the first team.

In other words, what every other team in rugby league have enjoyed this season (see statisticians thread Dilligaf post for a summary of our season)

On the contrary, I would say they invested too much to win lost games. If I have one criticism of Chalo it is the KR game when the player they spent a £10k fee on got crocked for the rest of the season. My criticism is that they should have rested every single player that had any minor ailment, or had just joined us and therefore not up to gamespeed, etc etc and looked to the games that could be won.

So yes, I would say that the RFL, for their own benefit not ours, have seemed to do us favours, but the net cost of what you claim to be the RFL's magnanimity has definitely been overwhelmingly ours, not the RFL.

Good luck with your senility, keep off this forum.

Yep and how many of those were season ticket holders who went because it was already paid for.
Next seasons crowd numbers will be interesting. I cant see us selling many season tickets, but there will be the novelty factor of watching us actually win some games.

Things that would get the crowds back next season:

1. Owners start to communicate meaningfully.
2. Make some proper permanent signings and no more loans/dual reg.
3. Some good news regarding Odsal development.
4. Winning more than losing.

Agree Bullseye. If things are done right, most of the fans who attended yesterday will attend next year. Bit of a crunch period now for the owners. Hopefully things are going on behind the scenes to assemble a squad, full of HG players we can build on. A statement which only needs to contain "we're in it for the long haul", "we're keeping the academy to rebuild the club" etc I wasn't sad yesterday, just relieved that our fate's OFFICIALLY sealed and we can now start preparing for next season. It will be a travesty if there is a restructure.

Just on the development, i was speaking to some people i go with and mentioned the stadium rumours in the paper. They said they spoke to Jas Athwal right at the beginning of the season who said we would be in a new stadium in 2 years time. They said he's always been very open & honest with them about any situation when they've spoken to him. I''m not holding my breath as it takes too much common sense for it to happen. Private company buys stadium from RFL, Freehold from council. Council use money to build stadium at Richard Dunns. Rfl use their money to build new head quarters. Bulls get a new stadium to grow, Council get Bulls in a stadium that will enable Bulls to flourish, and bringing events to that part of the City. RFL get their own headquarters not having to pay rent and is in a good location easily accessible for all teams. Everyone's a winner and no favoritism.

If that's the case, then why not just come out and say that?

I can take a couple of years of grubbing around the lower levels, if there is a clearly defined plan that has been communicated to the long suffering supporters. What I can't be doing with anymore is the constant smoke and mirrors, the rumours about what the RFL are planning, the endless stream of know-alls who spoke to this or that person and so on. I'm just tired and burned from that stuff...

Give me a vision to believe in and I'm on board. But continue the way that things have been handled for the last year, and I just can't do it anymore. Sorry...

To be fair if we see something positive from the owners I will buy a season ticket again to put some money into the club... every little helps and all that.

The 2017 debacle isn't really anyone at the clubs fault, its down to massive mismanagement in the past (Green) and the stupid RFL -12 Championship stipulation.

I personally think we should have rebranded as was suggested to draw a line under the past and move on.

Let the FAX, Wakey and Shuddersfield fans lap it up now as I believe we will be back to bite them on the ar$e.

It's a crunch period for supporters too. If the owners handle this right they could go into 2018 quite optimistically. Handled badly and we'll see crowds/season ticket holders drop below 1k.

I want to come back and get behind the first team. I don't want to feel like I'm taken for granted and have got used to doing other things on a Sunday. I suspect I'm not alone. I've had enough of deals behind closed doors. I understand things not being announced until they're signed and sealed but then don't go around telling every Tom, Dick and Harry about it informally then. That only pi55es people off and potentially raises false hopes.

I hope that if there is a re-structure we're not dropped in it at the last minute and end up as cannon fodder again. I'd much rather us know where we are even if it's C1. At least then we can build a side to get out of there.

Just No.4 in my opinion.

Most fans outside these forums really dont bother too much with the other stuff in my opinion. They simply want to see a winning team. The problem at this level is the reality that the standard is really not that great and when you can go and buy a Giants season ticket for cheaper than say a Fax one or a Bulls one then the floating voters will go and watch SL most of the time. Ive struggled the last few seasons to get "up" for the rugby and its more out of habit that I go and the social aspect and this is following a team that usually does quite well. I really do not know how people go and watch teams lose every week and keep going back.

Ive loved our games against Bradford over the years and hope you are right and Bradford do become competitive again but I honestly believe you are done as any sort of force in RL. With the stadium restrictions you are right behind the 8 ball when compared to most other championship teams. Fax is actually a good example of a team living month to month and just getting by while been severely restricted by the stadium we play in(luckily for us its a pretty nice stadium). We have managed to get the hang of just about living within our means and still been able to put a competitive squad on the field, luckily our commercial side is still pretty good and that brings a lot of money in.

Its tough to get back once the freefall begins which is what happened to Fax but there is the hope that if we can do it then its not beyond the realms of possibility that Bradford could do it too. Actually getting out of the yearly mediocrity and stability brings a whole set of new problems when you actually get there.

I'm not distressed about being in Champ1, just damned annoyed that we weren't in that division THIS season, which is where we should have been under RFL rules, as I understand it. We've just wasted a year watching a club with no chance of winning anything. I've little faith in the owners and maybe even less in the coach, but I'll be back next season as I wouldn't know what else to do.

Without a multi-millionaire owner willing to drop cash into a black hole (such as Leigh or London) I can't see how any team can compete to gain promotion to SL, (where of course you get given over a million and a half pounds just for being there).

Its good to hear you say Fax are bringing the money in, but wasn't there rumours of huge cuts throughout the club just a couple of weeks ago if they had not made the top 4? I mean, that sounds like the sort of thing Bradford would do; spend beyond their means to achieve something, and then miss it completely and have to 'cut their cloth accordingly'

Indeed. Had Fax finished 5th it'd be a different story. I bet Batley will be cutting their cloth since they finished outside the top 4 now.

3) Good news about stadium development - should take care of that concern.

A finances question - I assume we are renting out part of the car park to that construction company - Irvines is it? Their equipment is all over the place.

And also we seem to be renting out the stadium to a film production company at the moment.

And next year we will actually have some sponsorship cash I think.