For the next 500k, if there is no buyer or at least significant investment and no more take up from the fans then its administration. But do we have a buyer waiting like wakey did? If we do then ok, I can see where we might go, if there is no such buyer its bye bye, which is why we can't just welcome administration, we don't know if anyone will bring us out of it.

I share your fear.

Duckman

Wakefield had two interested parties Parkin and Glover it got touch and go for either until AG took the plunge whats not coming through for the Bulls at the moment is any overt interest.
It looks a proper mess from where I am looking in

yep, thats (one of) the difference between the wakey and bulls cases. And it looks a proper mess from the inside looking out too don't worry.

Parkin has been mentioned, but he was dismissed out of hand less than a year ago, no idea if that has any credance.

Thinking long term, if "Bradford Bulls" are actually wound up and cease to exist, is the future that gloomy? If I am being too simplistic, say so, but if that does happen, the RFL will be the owners of a very large stadium in Bradford, in the middle of which is a big piece of grass with rugby posts at each end. They bought it so that an iconic stadium wouldn't be lost, and so I assume that they want rugby league to be played on it. The lease with Bradford Bulls would be null and void, because they wouldn't exist anymore, but what would stop a new company agreeing a lease with the RFL, called "Northern Spirit" or something and applying for membership of the rugby football league? Doesn't the buying of the ground mean that rugby league will be played on it, and is why the RFL bought it, as otherwise the winding up of the Bulls would be seen by the original lease-owners as an ability to sell the land to someone else?

The other Super League clubs could agree, I assume, to allow the new company, under the new lease with the RFL, to take the place of the Bulls in the top flight?

I'm just thinking of the potential possibilities. Your situation is much different to Wakey's, because the Bank of Ireland would have sold the ground and so there would have been nowhere for a new club to play. It seems nailed on that whatever happens to the current club, there will be a rugby league club playing out of the Odsal, as the RFL own it.

Ten of us have just returned from a meeting with the board. It lasted over two and a half hours. That they should be prepared to give up a whole evening to seek to address the concerns and answer the questions of supporters ought maybe to tell you something.

I can only speak for myself (although I would not expect any differing opinions from those present), and for my part I am totally convinced of:

- The gravity of the situation

- the club's approach to the fans being the only viable option left to the club if it is to avoid administration.

- that the club will go into administration if insufficient fans support the pledge, and the outcome of that would at best be severe and at worst oblivion.

- the board has not communicated well. But it has told it how it is.

I have no hesitation now whatsoever in supporting the pledge. Because I understand the consequences if we do not.

The bit in bold is the part that I fear some fans are still not believing. I have seen and heard comments from suggesting that it isn't really going to happen.

I just hope we aren't all on here in a few weeks time saying 'if I'd realised this would happen to my club, I'd have pledged'. By then it will be too late I'm afraid.

Indeed.

If the pledge take-up is insufficient, I would expect the club to petition the High Court for an administration order within days.

The pledge has to be successful. After the conversations at length we (BullBuilder) have just had with messers Hood, Bennett and Duckett, it's pretty clear that we must reach the target.

There are quite a few issues in regards to the cashflow that can be overcome if the pledge is achieved, however, not doing so will, in all honesty, result in administration, which could finish the club off.

Finally sum one else has picked this up. I know this isn't the boards doing but the mixed messages are getting real tiresome.

Don't worry overmuch about any second amount. That will probably take care of itself if the pledge take-up is sufficient (and especially if it is more than sufficient).

The club had a handful of days to explore the options and decide on what to do (there was only one option).

A share issue is out of the question while you have 80% of the shares in the hands of non-board members. You would anyway have to convert to a plc and then issue a prospectus - neither of which the club could realistically do anyway as things stand.

You are not actually reading what they said, you know. But the messages were far from as clear as they could have been, for sure.

One was talking specifically about investors in the shares of the company. The other was referring to investors in much wider terms. That could include sponsors and other stakeholders.

I think they have a far clearer understanding now of how their unintentional failure to use straightforward language and to provide more background has been seriously counterproductive; and has contributed to sending unintentional mixed messages.

Because the interested parties don't necessarily have to be equity investors. What they DO have to be is convinced that the club is worth committing funds to. Trust me!

Unfortunately the worst of the sledgers/doomongers are in the T & A which most potential investors would look at to gain information on whether it is worth investing.
Unless the pennies drop and the lightbulbs switched on with all those "Fans" thinking it will alright on the night who don't pledge, they better have a good long look at themselves if the pledge falls way short! NO MORE CLUB!

I think the penny has already dropped with most people. The problem is that the messages being pushed from the BOD are giving people little or no hope. The people sitting on their hands are looking and seeing the struggle to make £500k and are thinking that should we battle through we then have to do it all again. Had they come out and said that if we raise £500k by Friday then this is our plan to raise the rest, then there may have been some hope, Or if they had said we need to raise £1m by the end of April again we may have had hope. Instead the message we are getting is that the speccies have to raise it all because there seems to be no other plan in place and no other investors 'queueing at the door'.

In my opinion: If the club gets the £500k - and especially if it exceeds that - the club will not need to come to the speccies again.

If I did not believe that, I could not say I support what they are trying to do.

I believe they have presented it badly. I agree that the PR in recent days has made things worse not better - totally unnecessarily IMO. And I agree that concerns have been needlessly sown that need not have been.

I very very strongly urge the club, once this is all over, to take a long, hard look at their PR and fans liaison because it is crap, whatever they might feel. And have said that to the BOD.

It was crap under Caisley too, for those with short memories (Sky blackout, anyone?) anyone remember how many times we fans got it in the neck for his pronouncements? Remember his assurances over Harris that made so many of us look fools?). But it was less important then, because the club was buying success ultimately with money it did not have, and so fans were less concerned because all seemed generally well. It was NOT well, though, that was the problem.

But it would be a total tragedy IMO if the club fell over because of crap PR and misunderstanding how they need to engage with the fans. This can be fixed going forward, and I believe there is every prospect that it will be. Ten of us saw maybe the first clear proof of that last night, and it was encouraging. I am convinced that in future the club will listen to and sound out the fans far more effectively than it has in the past.

But if the club does not get the funds it needs this week, we'll never get the chance to see it put into practice. And you take your chance with whatever - if anything - might follow.

Adey - can you fill us in on what was said last night?
Why do you think they will not have to come to the fans again? Where will the money come from if not?
And...how exactly have we ended up here?

Unfortunately I suspect they have a cunning plan from the Professor of Cunning at Cunning University.
The message we are now getting from people that seem to know much more than the rest of us (and I do not mean the BOD) is that yes pledging money to the current bunch is a crap option - BUT IT IS OUR ONLY OPTION.

Totally understand your sentiments in regards to the above. I was one of those who attended the meeting last night and obviously it's difficult to relay all of the points that were made and agreed / disagreed on.

We didn't allow the BoD to pass us off - hence why we were there for 2 and a half hours. The conversations got down to the nitty gritty of what actually happened which you would not have been able to do at a fans forum or in a press release.

The BullBuilder board is made up of a wide base of professionals from various walks of life, so we had a broad spectrum of questions and not everything was relating to finances. There's some legal stuff historically and potentially in the future that the club could not disclose, or that we could not disclose to the wider public.

Ultimately there is a [ureal[/u plan in place for the club to survive, but the current financial problems that are there mean that the Quest for Survival needs to succeed.

Peter categorically said, that if there was someone else willing to invest and take over (with the correct checks and the clubs best interest at heart) then he will gladly step aside. This is not new news and he has said this ever since he took over.

I'm extremely surprised by that. Did the meeteing reveal the following,

Has there been a meeting of the shareholders?
Does the confidential information Ryan spoke of include a valuation of the club?
Does Hood have the capacity to negotiate the sale of a majority shareholding? (ie 50+%)

Well Adey, you've convinced me sufficiently.

No cunning plan. Just a plan for surviving this next month, which buys them the time to follow through on all the rest of the plans - which sound far more encouraging.

And yes the pledge IS a crap option. But IMO it is the only option to avoid administration, and is less crap than any of the other foreseeable alternatives.

Adey you need to get this in T & A to counter some of the rubbish being posted there. You seem to have the confidence of most loyal posters on here, your opinion is valued and you have worked tirelessly to get at the facts. Get these facts into T & A headlines now before its too late. We have ONE CHANCE only to save our Club and we must not miss it.

Thanks to Adey and the Bullbuilder team for persisting with this, and getting at least some answers.

Whilst I still think there are lots of the ways this could have been better handled, I'm convinced enough to now commit my pledge.

As has been said, it might be a crap option, but its basically the only option.

Why should you be surprised?

Yes, the whole question of the shareholdings was discussed, and at length. The board is fully aware of the massive hindrance the current structure poses. They pointed out that about half a dozen people bother to attend the AGMs, and the average age is apparently 83 - and I believe that was not a joke. So we have a very active shareholder base, as you can see?

Some of what was discussed cannot go on here. If it could, I suspect a few of the negative views towards the BOD would need revisiting, but I appreciate I can hardly urge that without putting up the detail.

Hood cannot speak for anything beyond the Board's 25%.

If the shareholders ever felt they could have done a better job they could have convened an EGM and sacked the BOD. That they have never done so rather suggests to me that they either cannot see a better alternative, or one at least is sat waiting ready for if/when the BOD fails.

An insolvent business has no value for the shareholders.

You'll get nowhere trying to reason with some of the vermin who ruin that forum, mate.

Bullbuilder press release imminent. Bear in mind it can't address all the issues, just talk in more overall terms.

But yes, we have one chance now IMO.

Today.

Carpe Diem.