When the initial proposal was dropped for the £75m proposal I did think it was a pipedream and totally unachievable. The Council spearheaded that move and so now look like complete idiots. The initial scheme was less ambitious and could have been completed by now. As it is we're left as the main loser in this whole sorry tale.

You could argue that if the council were trying to engineer a situation to get the club out of Odsal they couldn't be doing a better job moreover I would even say that if the Council were trying to get the club out of existence they were on track to achieve that too.

Groundhog Day...

It's like a recurring nightmare.

I think it's the final nail in the Odsal coffin though hopefully not for the club. Hopefully the movers and shakers at the Council, Bulls, City and their ground's owners can come to some arrangement.

Otherwise, Halifax Bulls anyone

I personally think that's an absolutely excellent idea which should be pushed through at the earliest possible opportunity.

You are Tony Gartland and I claim my £5.

Can we have a pitch invasion with a coffin like the Fax fans did?

This is probably not feasible, but perhaps someone with more Legal or Accountancy or Building knowledge would know the answer. As we still have a very long term lease on Odsal could we not still move in with City (I didn't mind it when we were there before). Then, for odsal, remove the stands etc apply for a change of use (or whatever you need to do) and CHARGE Waste companies to use the hole as a dump. This would save us having too much maintenance charges and possibly even generate an income for a while, until the hole was completely filled in. Once we had the hole completely filled in there would be little outlay from the Bulls to just guard the ground I assume. Maybe somewhere down the road Bulls and City could joint finance the building of a new stadium on top of the now filled in hole? I have stated this very simplisticaly but it illustrates a potential way forward?? Please feel free to shoot this idea down if it is not legal, financially feasable or not technically possible. Even if we did not eventually (after VP became old and tatty) joint fund a new stadium the council would get back Odsal at the end of the lease in a much better condition than they signed over to us.

Who knows without sight of the contract? I guess all parties will be looking into the options now Odsal's future as a RL venue is effectively non existent past 2012.

Can't say I'm surprised. It was pretty obvious given the huge funding gap that was identified in the £75m scheme.

Moving to Valley Parade is the only alternative now, unless a viable way can be found for us to stay at Odsal. What happens with Valley Parade though? Doesn't Gordon Gibb still own it? It wouldn't be so great to have Bulls and City paying huge amounts of rent to play there. Also, the branding of the place would need to change and the concourses would need to feel less prison like (they are in the Kop anyway) for it to feel like a home for the Bulls!

The Bulls leaving Bradford would be pretty dumb, even if it was to Halifax and not to the other side of the country a la North American sports franchises.

As an outsider, its an another kick in the nads for the city of Bradford...

It could be grassed over and turned into something like Milton Keynes Bowl maybe!

The bad news is that the reversionary payment is due if the Bulls fail to play more than 90% of their home games at Odsal each season. The lease requires existing use.





Tell the council we will surrender the lease, allowing them to develop Odsal for megabucks, provided they pay us a substantial 7-figure lump sum to go away? Use that to buy a big share in another stadium.

Sorry...was that the scratting of groundhogs I just heard?

hope we take our own stewards to vp if we move. last time we were there we were always getting told to sit down by the football stewards. stood up for 10 seconds to see what was happening and got told to sit down or leave.

I see another £1.2m is going to spunked up against a wall on consultants.

I'd love to know how much of our money has been wasted on them over the years on projects that have never happened, add to that the cost of the thousands of "artists impressions" that have been commissioned but never become reality.

Maybe our local paper could investigate?

Im sure that setiment has nothing to do with your impending house purchase..

but ill jump on that band wagon aswell halifax blue bulls, halifax bull soxs, cmon lets start naming our new club

TBF this problem is not the council's fault. The funding shortfall has come from the college not the council.

Spot on.

We could have had a perfectly serviceable ground, at a fraction of any of the costs since advanced, but instead lunatic council pipedreams have always prevailed.

Asim echoed my comments about the cost of consultancies, I had exaggerated for effect, BUT I have no doubt at all that the total thus pished up the wall on consultants WOULD have been ample to make Odsal good enough for a decade or two more, without being flash, running -as it does - into very many millions of pounds of ratepayers' money. For nothing, save a sequence of dodgy cartoon illustrations: "Here's another version of a stadium you'll never have. My fee note is in the post".

You know what grieves me as much as anything? It's that any local authority which has had the awesome, renowned and inspiring Odsal Bowl as the raw material to build on, has failed to capitalise on such a world-famous and magnificent venue; instead, a place that once held 120,000 RL fans will very likely end up as a repository for a billion soiled nappies. Because as a sporting venue, folowing the latest debacle announcement, it is now irreversibly in its death throes.

Ah well, at least McNamaras' signing policy will have improved.

Forgive me if I don't laugh, it's just that the death knell of my club may as well just have sounded

Wrong time, wrong place but merely meant to lighten the mood a little.

However, you have got me worried FA. When you are beginning to feel the bad vibes then I guess the bigger picture is more than I could ever comprehend up here I have to say.

However, hopefully something can be done about this in the long term but a short term fix of VP will keep the name going in the short term.

I have felt for some time that one custom built arena for both sides would be a good solution but it ain't gonna happen is it?

(I realise the attachment that the Bantams have to VP from that terrible day in May 1985 but would a permanent tribute on the site of the ground not suffice if a new arena did indeed get pushed through?)

You've got to give them credit, they are consistant. They have failed to bring anything to fruition in the last 20 years. As has already been said, I'd love to know how much has been spent by the Council on Feasibility studies for numerous failed projects over the years. Probably enough to build 2 Stadiums and countless sports and community centres. The only way to get anything developed is to get major sponsorship from a Supermarket as part of any development. But for some reason this seems unacceptable, I mean who would want to create new jobs and business opportunities?

Who do the College think they are - Leeds Met? Stevie Wonder could have seen this one coming.

It's funny cos it's true.

Well not any of that supermarket's competitors or we'd have had a new ground built back in 2001/03. As it was the plan was called in by Stephen "Dodgy" Byers and scuppered.

I wouldn't mind going to VP but i knew Odsal would never be made into a sporting village so it's no suprise.

Ok who else has got a new ground / Proposed new ground and how did they do it? Hull – Proceeds of private telecoms sale Huddersfield – Forward thinking council (perish the thought) Wigan – Millionaire Whelan Warrington – dunno Leigh – Wigan MBC funded? Wakefield – self funded? Castleford – self funded? St Helens – self funded? I've popped this thread on the VT as well in case anyone else has any bright ideas. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=450013

Ok who else has got a new ground / Proposed new ground and how did they do it? Hull – Proceeds of private telecoms sale Huddersfield – Forward thinking council (perish the thought) Wigan – Millionaire Whelan Warrington – dunno Leigh – Wigan MBC funded? Wakefield – self funded? Castleford – self funded? St Helens – self funded? I've popped this thread on the VT as well in case anyone else has any bright ideas. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=450013