Hello BM, long time no hear!

I think the value of the lease depends on which lease we are talking about, though whichever lease, it would remain separate to any intrinsic value the land would have as part of any development.

I think under the 'old' lease from the 19whatevers, the council had an obligation to keep the ground up to standard; ie. well beyond a splash of paint here and there. This changed though after the superdome fiasco. At the time the Bulls left VP and returned to Odsal, the lease was re-negotiated and under the new (last but one) lease the club received monies from the council but took on all responsibility for upkeep.

This was perceived by many as a 'council giveaway', but turned out to be shrewd move by the council (for once) and a bit of a poisoned chalice for the Bulls. This turned out to be the capital which largely fuelled the run of success, but much as all of us cheered every victory, it seems the 'windfall' was being squandered by the then board who made little, if any, provision for the future.

We have been in austerity mode since 2005ish, and whatever anyone has said about the current lot, I don't think they were the actual architects of this mess and they have been, in effect fire fighting, or fighting off financial chickens coming home to roost, since they took over. Clearly they haven't been all that successful at it. And now we are here - wish we weren't, but we are.

It was a strange one was that. The club never really used it after an initial splash, I did wonder if there had been some copyright issues at the time to account for its sudden disappearance.

I'm sure I read that only about 3p goes to the artist from every sale on itunes of a single.

Don't think there'd be enough interest for it to make a difference.

I noticed that Sale RUFC owner Brian Kennedy has had his bid to take over Glasgow Rangers turned down. Now that he has unexpected cash on his hands, I just wonder whether he might be interested in becoming the North's "Mr Rugby" by owning a league club too.....

mmmm didnt i post something like this on a previous page

In theory it would a good deal if he wanted it he is worth £3250 million he could easy build us a new stadium but as sale havent had one and still play at edgeley park

I emailed sale the other day to try and see if the message goes to him if he would be interested

not sure having a investor who also owns a union club is best idea although its a case of needs must I guess. Their was an article the other week about Sale moving into salford stadium and it mentioned that Salford might be training at Sales training ground. Comment from Sale coach was along line of it being good being able to see the salford academy lads training with a view to poaching them. story was pretty hastily edited to remove that paragraph iirc.

Pretty sure this is happening, I have a mate who runs his business out of the offices at Sale's Heywood Road and he's mentioned Salford's academy having been down there

Oh well. Better twice than none at all.

I hear Brian Kennedy has some spare cash. Has anyone thought of contacting him?

Not sure, has his Rangers deal fallen through? You'd have thought someone would have mentioned it on here

I understand your comment but BK does not own Salford RL only Sale RU. If he did own us there would be no mileage in having one of his teams poaching players from the other.

To be clear he hasn'tshown any interest in buying the bulls speculation atm just incase we start getting ahead of ourselves.

Sale have seemed to do well under his ownership though he dosent seem to get to involved just.let's them get on with it.

First time poster - taken me 4 days to get this account!!!

Been a supporter since 1968 - through good and bad - but none in my time as desperate as this. And the sad thing on Tuesday - I wasn't surprised - I expected it with the decline we've seen since 2003 but accelarated since 2008!!

I sent the attached e-mail to the club on Wednesday - to date no reply

Peter

I wrote to you a couple of years ago on the subject of Leadership - in the dark days of 2009 when our decline as a force in Super league accelerated. There was no leadership then in changes of the coaching staff which may have reversed that decline, but that lack of leadership pales into insignificance with what we see today. If people are not leaders in positions like you hold, you hope they are good managers who administer the club effectively. The evidence suggests you are neither.

You as the temporary custodian of my club should hang your head in shame today. Not for the cash flow situation, that can happen for a number of reasons, but for the inept way you have managed this situation. You talk, sorry write, you haven't been brave enough to lead the charge in the media, delegating that to others, about the withdrawal of the overdraft. Again that can happen given the economic times we are in. But the withdrawal was inextricably linked to a decision the board made! Did no one consider that, was there any discussions with the bank? Also, the decision of the RFL to use the proceeds of the ground sale to offset other debts seemed to take the board by surprise - why? I run a division of a multi national business turning over £70m as my responsibility. If I made decisions a tenth as inept as the board has, I would be worried for my future.

But - we are where we are!

I have followed this club since 1968 - it's been an important part of my life - and 3 of my 4 children - my 4th is just getting interested. I have 3 season tickets. Will I pledge £300 - probably - but not out of any wish to see you continue in role - but because of my love for this club. But I, along with many others would have been far more willing to part with cash if:-

You had been open and honest about the problem - it should have been communicated in a much more open and transparent way - such as an extraordinary supporters meeting Monday evening - advertised at half time on Sunday.
If I knew categorically where the next £500k is coming from
If I knew what sacrifices the Directors were making
If I had a report from a respected independent Financial Accountant that the club would be debt free and should be able to trade profitably without selling players and operating at a maximum salary cap providing there were no extraordinary items and attendance's/revenue hold up.

You have clearly known this day was coming for some time - well over a week given my experience of preparing mail shots, Internet changes etc. When professional organisations plan major changes they have a robust communication plan addressing the needs of different stakeholder groups. Your plan seemed to be - Give us some money - we have a short term problem but everything will be OK after that - don't worry!!!

I imagine you are monitoring the Internet message boards (still given the ineptitude demonstrated in other areas, possibly not!) - you will know that I am not the only person to love this club! You had a chance to get this right and engage those current and past supporters in a partnership to save this club - instead you seem to be like a beggar sat on the street with his hand out - with the suspicion of passers by that you have a BMW parked around the corner. I don't see how you can rescue your reputation with the supporters - I sincerely hope you have beefed up security on Good Friday - I will not condone any violence but I fear emotions are running so high that some idiot could try something.

When you took over in 2006 we were clearly a club in decline, not helped by the Leeds legal dispute etc. That decline has accelerated due to a lack of vision by your board and a lack of engagement with supporters. One of my happiest Bulls memories was the 2000 Challenge Cup final and I remember driving up the A1 and we had a banner next to the road saying 'Bulls - The People's Team'. I really believed we were at that time - I felt involved in my club - now I feel I am viewed as a walking piggy bank to be raided.

You need to break your silence Peter, you need to address the points I have made, along with those made by other supporters. You need to convince us that you are the man to the this club forward - that you have a vision and a plan to get us to that vision which you need to share with supporters. You might get your £500k, but without it you will never be trusted again!!

If it is "all down to Peter" why do you think:-
- the players are fighting to save the club, this is not jus about keeping their jobs
- other teams are helping us
- other directors who have been dormant for so long are getting involved

I'll tell you why. It cos they know the FACTS and who has shafted us.

Midfield Bull, suggest you pick up phone to Ryan and get the info you need to help you make your own decisions pal

Given the prejudging nature of your email, in which you make it clear you have already set yourself up as judge and jury, and given how busy they are right now, I have to say I am hardly surprised that they have found better uses of their time than to reply.

Maybe if you instead took the trouble to ASK first, before you reached you verdict, like Staffbull did - and like I did - you might have learned a few things?

To be honest given tone of that email, answering it would be pretty low on priority list given current situation if I received it.

Guys
I admit they are probably busy now, and they have had some real problems to solve - BUT - it's clear they haven't been up front with people - Adeybull - watched your mails and admired them but you admitted they misled you!!! I can live with mistakes, even a little incompetence but not trying to engage with the most important people in any club - the fans - well that needs some explaining!

Simple for me pal - Peter is the leader of the board - hence he has to carry the can! The board have had some significant problems to solve over the last 5 or 6 years - to me this outcome is that they've attempted it in a vacuum without trying to engage the supporters

Sometimes things for good reason need to be confidential ie: if I as an employee had say been diagnosed with an illness and had to tell me employer I would expect and have the right to expect my employer to respect this.

Perhaps alot the information (or contain information) could related to people, would we want our employers telling everyone who asks?

To be fair the director of any business takes the hit when anything happens where his company is put at jeopardy. You are there and have a responsibility to keep the company running and running well.

Regardless on what is said, once this is all sorted and we have overcome the current financial problems Peter Hood has some big questions to ask himself over his position at the club. Unfortunately I feel he has lost trust within the fans and I've no doubt in investors as well, he feels the need to drip feed us information in regards to our situation as a club as if there is something to hide. If there was more information to hand in regards to what we face other than the boards "word" then some more cash may have left my account.

Atki

I fell into the same trap as I suggest you have, that first day. I jumped to conclusions before finding out the facts. So I'm not really that smart, after all - it is all too easily done though, especially in the heat of the moment.

I felt I had been made a fool of because I backed the board, against any number of ridiculing and sceptical outsiders, over the sale of the ground to the RFL. And it was not nice to be told by, amongst others, those highly-supportive chaps over on Substandard that our chairman had left me hung out to dry. Especially as I had no-one else to blame but myself, and what seemed to be my poor judgment. And I will not deny I was angry.

And so, seeing now when you sent your email, tbh I can hardly berate you for saying what you did at the time.

Very early the next morning, I became much better acquainted with the facts. Ryan rang me at 7.20 am, in response to a short email I sent him early the previous day - where I asked wtf had happened and what could he tell me. He admitted he had been so busy on Tuesday that he had not even had the chance to turn his computer on till 10-30pm that night.

I have since become better acquainted again, not least as a result of a long discussion I had on Friday morning. And, to the extent that I can judge, I believe (and woe betide if I have been misled, but I really really do not think so now) what I have learned.

And, provisionally at least, I regret jumping to hasty conclusions. In particular, I am pretty satisfied (as far as I can be) that the situation that we are in now arose since the last fans' forum. And that therefore, at the time, in general I was not being misled. Spun a bit, maybe; but not lied to.

There remain some unanswered questions, mainly regarding the RFL loan/advance/whatever that we knew nothing of before (although the leakers out of the RFL last year clearly did). And, to the extent that they never said that part of the Odsal lease sale proceeds were to be used to repay part of that immediately, yes you could say we were misled. Looking at the wider picture now, I can perhaps understand why the club would not seek to draw attention to that. I would not have, in their position.

But overall, if I was to point the finger at the club anywhere, it would be that they are hideously under-resourced in next-tier support for Peter, Ryan, Andrew and Stuart. Hideously. Because every spare penny has apparently been spent on the football side, not on admin, support and marketing. Rightly or wrongly, through necessity or whatever. And, amongst other things, this clearly impacts on the time they have to engage with the fans, or to put into how they do it.

Ryan told me Friday lunchtime that they had not even had time to see what Nawest had said about pulling the facility, and were not aware of it, until family had mentioned it the previous night. As an example.

So when we berate them for some of the pants communication (or lack of), or for Peter's sometime difficulties in engaging with the fans personally at the right level (on a one-to-one I have found him far more effective and friendly and open than I ever assumed) I have increasingly come to realise that we are blaming symptoms, not causes.

No-one is perfect - although I think too many fans expect both players and club officials to be as near-so as makes no difference - but I'm perfectly satisfied that those people running the club have been working their 'nads off for ages, and doing it to the best of their abilities and with nothing but the club's best interests at heart. Had the shareholders - amongst whom the current board has always been a minority (and until recently very much a minority, at that) not agreed, they could have replaced the directors at any time.

As a fan, I'm not sure I can really ask - let alone demand - much more?

And there is.

But remember, the club has to keep on good terms with all parties on whom it depends or whose support it needs. So it is not always that easy to put the full tale in the public domain.

Even so, I have implored the club to clarify and explain better a number of key issues that are causing some of the supporters to have concerns and reservations. We saw some of that happen late yesterday lunchtime, regarding the bank. I am hopeful we will see quite a bit more again regarding the other concerns, and soon. I suspect they are just so snowed under right now; but this is IMO pretty important.

Adey have pm'd you, but your in box might be full!