Yes we can. It's a 150 year lease which was described at the time by Mr Caisley as "virtual ownership".
Getting into debt is probably not a great idea though - that way clubs have gone to the wall.

why?

I don't think you can. I can't see how you can borrow against something you don't own. Where's the collateral?

Same reason it would clean graffiti off the town hall. The benefits might not be immediately apparent in the ledger, but the alternative is to do nothing, sending out the signal that the council have given up on the city, so everyone else might as well too.

Well my family has borrowed money against a lease on lan d which is a 99 yr lease, for farming reasons.

That's the post I was hoping for. I firm sense of City's proud history and respect for the sense of grief and yet a pragmatic forward thinking approach.

There are lot's of problems associated with building on Odsal which means it's not an attractive proposition to developers, to be honest if there had been interest in it the council would have been happy to sell it off long ago and get rid of it. If it ends up being used for anything other than a stadium it will be landfill, and not the big money raiser for the council that some seem to think.

No we don't and don't you forget it.

Weren't there some new rules set down a couple of years back about minimum facilities at super league grounds?
I've been looking for the document but I can't find it anywhere.
Some of it was about carparking. VP doesn't have any supporter carparking at all. If we were to move stadium would we have to comply with new rules?
Perhaps grounds like Belle Vue and Headingley get away with it because the clubs are stuck with the location and the nearby housing.

Forget parking. The pitch is simply too small. We were slated for having a small pitch at Odsal before it was made bigger. VP's playing area would be unacceptable for other than a temporary relocation whilst a full time ground was redeveloped.

That's why I stated overall. Parking at VP is unacceptable for a 21st Century stadium.

It's good enough to meet UEFA competition requirements, in fact with the car parks behind the Kop and the shop complex I'd imagine there is just as much parking "at" VP as there is "at" Odsal

I wonder how the 15 and a half thousand people who were there on Tuesday with no public transport managed it, if there was nowhere to park.

Having said that, due to regulations, 21st century stadiums in this country aren't allowed to have too much car parking, bad for the environment and all that.

Having watched some of these UEFA competitions on on TV I would argue that their standards are not too high.

IIRC BC are the tennants of VP with an agreement with the owners to stay there for a given period of time.
We have a similar comittment with Bfd Council for different reasons.
The compexities of an amalgamation for playing facilities by BC and the Bulls together with the council's need to replace RDC are incredibly difficult. There are too many interested parties who are able to say NO.
I do think that BC and Bulls need to move forward as they both have serious potential financial problems just over the horizon.
Common sense work together. but....

City currently pay circa 300k a year in rent to play at VP, using a relevant local example at a shared local authority backed stadium Huddersfield Town paid over 600k in the last year figures are available for.

The shared stadium dreamers have to remember that if (and it isn't going to happen) the council shell out the £30m plus needed to build a suitable ground somewhere then they'd need to recover it and pay for it's running, hence there is unlikely to be any financial benefit whatsoever to City in moving.

Thanks for that. Those figures are indeed interesting. I belive that BC are on a full tennants repairing lease whereas Town are not. Still, there is a masive difference.

Shop complex? You mean on canal road?

Edit :-
A little bit of digging and I found this...
[url=http://www.bradfordcityfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/CoralWindowsStadium/0,,10266,00.htmlOfficial BCFC site[/url

Half way down the page it says..
"Supporters are advised that there is NO public car parking at the stadium and there is very limited street parking.

On the Bulls site it says there is parking at the stadium for permit holders - I suppose this means technically there is no parking for anyone who just wants to turn up and park but there are a lot of spaces up there these days. I'll ask next time I get chance how easy or otherwise it is to get a space. Of course there are the two all-weather pitches right across the road which are normally enough - especially as the police and stewards have the traffic on match days fairly well sorted.

I used to live in Manningham fairly near VP. On match days they used to double park up and down every street. It was slightly worrying because nothing bigger than a car could have got anywhere near the flats I lived at during matches and if there had been a fire it would have been burned to the ground before anyone could get a fire engine close.

The point about parking wasn't about people's opinions of how good or bad it was. I just thought a minimum had been set as part of the stadium requirements.

No, I mean off Burlington St. You can't turn up and park on the day, as it is full of corporate guests and people with season permits, which is exactly the same as the set-up at Odsal.

If there are any requirements with regard to car parking then it is people like that the SL will want to see OK, not the average fan, and there's more than enough room for them at Valley Parade.

So it's not AT the stadium any more than the Richard Dunn carpark is?

The land the car park is on is a good 45 second walk away from the club reception, and is included as part of the stadium, so totally different to Richard Dunns which has nothing to do with Odsal Stadium.

It's not joined to the stadium itself due to the road, which cars need to move along to get there.

So you have to cross a road just the flipping same!

Maybe they could arrange a shuttle bus.

Or an armed escort perhaps?

Yep, with all those nasty "locals" about it's much needed.

city has parking behind shop on burlington for corporate guests + permit holder the same as we have area behind coral stand.
For general public we have use of all weather pitches at richard dunn. City have nothing hence all congestion and annoyed residents in surrounding streets.