Most of the theories kicking around at the moment on social media. Add another one if you hear it!

My feeling is a mixture of those reasons are valid.

Given the other clubs who've bounced from ground to ground but never had anything mentioned about special measures along with the timing of the RFL's announcement does seem to weigh heavily on there being a lot of spite behind the RFL's actions.

I'm sure the T&A reporting on the matter mentioned that the reason for the special measures was down to the move to Dewsbury and Bradford not being able to put forward enough evidence to support their expected income. But given the RFL announced this just after the Bulls announced their season tickets, it does seem that the announcement was designed to seriously damage the Bulls ticket sales.

Rimmer is the living embodiment of Arnold J Rimmer and he's finally found himself in a position of power so is enjoying himself immensely?

Clearly the RFL throwing their toys out of the pram because AC is not playing the game according to the rules he was put there for. Be interesting to see if the RFL go under before the Bulls. Perhaps they should be put in special measures for their mismanagement of funds.

I honestly think this is the start of the end of the RFL as governing body for the professional game. The fact they are going to lose a shed load of cash from the Odsal debacle and then have run cap in hand to Carter, Hudgell and Davy shows they are massively unprofessional.

The costs of maintenance on an empty ground, loss of income on the ground the 'owned on behalf of all clubs' and the fact they've borrowed against it makes me think the SL chums will make a power grab for the top Champs clubs and make SL 2 divisions and of course the avg crowds will be taken into account and Chalmers and Hudgell will no longer bicker and argue about who killed who...

Rimmer and co will get the Side Show Bob's outfit and have nothing more than ceremonial role buggering up the Challenge Cup

I’m not trying to be argumentative, but I don’t understand why an unused property, possibly for two or more years would require regular maintenance. There are examples os property developers buying listed buildings and not maintaining them, allowing the building to rot decay until they fall down, allowing developers to erect new development. Obviously I don’t know what legal requirements are for an abandoned Odsal, perhaps someone on here does.
Thank you

I think I saw 'wreck-it' Ralph Rimmer leaving Odsal as I was going in before yesterdays game.

Maybe he just turned up for his lunch.

I was in the camp of the first option to start with. I think they genuinely had a right to be concerned given size of our squad and at the time knowing the running costs of Odsal with us being in it before the announcement.

Had the RFL's statement said something along the lines of "We have put Bradford in special measures as they already have a large squad and would like to protect the players and make sure current contractual obligations can be met. Once this has proved to be the case we will lift the speacial measures and ensure Bradford have ample time with ins and outs to put together a competitive squad for 2020"

instead of the petty pathetic shoot from the hip unprofessional piece of guff that came out leads me to believe number 2

On the basis that it is reported player bonuses are being paid today out of yesterday’s gate receipts, I would say it seems like it has nothing to do with you leaving odsal, especially considering the fact you were in special measures before chalmers announced it

So you choose to believe League Weekly who said they were plans for a 15000 seater stadium on Richard Dunns last week and we have paid wages late before. Both are incorrect.

It’s a pretty specific thing for them to report, and Chalmers glossed over the special measures in his latest article. Take that along with the fact it had previously been stated you were already in special measures as you were blocked from signing a player then it seems a reasonable view to conclude that the speciial measures weren’t connected to leaving odsal

In addition JK was quoted as saying the first he knew that you were in special measures was when he read about it in an online article - the CCJs etc

Lots of smoke with which to think a fire is about to start

What's this about the RFL going cap in hand to Davy, Hudgell and Carter?

Lots of smoke created by lick-spittle journos who won't ask the RFL the proper questions such

How did you pass the Bulls fit financially to run a reserve team not 2 months before changing your mind?
Why did you change your mind soon as it looked like Chalmers was leaving?
Why did you offer the club to Chalmers before Admin closed?
Who keeps whispering in the League Weekly Twitter-rats ear? Really, who would from the Bulls say to any twitter-rat that they are paying players bonuses from yesterdays gate?
Why did you take out a massive loan against the leasehold in May 2018 and is this the reason you are getting ty? You're financially as inept as the previous Bulls regimes and have tried to put the squeeze on Chalmers and he told you to fek off what are you going to do now?

They offered them the lease presumably in an attempt to pressurise Chalmers into signing, saving their face.

That’s certainly an alternative way of looking it, but JK was quoted re lack of knowledge of special measures when clearly club knew and then there’s the CCJs which can’t be blamed on the RFL

I think Mr Rimmer feels he has been proverbially bent over and shafted by AC - at least, the statement released would suggest his rim is sore from said shafting.

Recentlly was it? I didn't not recall reading about it tbh.

It is but it's a logical one in a very strange situation.

£4k of CCJs ... lots of confirmation that other clubs have them but no other clubs named.

The special measures mentioned by one of said twitter-rats referred to the RFL not sanctioning a contract when Bradford were 'trying to sign a Super League player' (note the leak specified no name) but that categorically didn't happen according to their chosen one Chalmers himself. Their chosen one...The RFL's man. Handpicked by Rimmer if we are to believe Chalmers latest column. As far as I can recall it was not referred to as 'Special Measures' at the time.

What we know is that recruitment for 2020 was complete in early July but strangely Bradford said they wouldn't make any announcements until mid Aug. That to me suggests that Chalmers saw this coming and knew full well what the RFL would do when he confirmed he'd walk away from Odsal. The RFL's man goes rogue and suddenly August is international smoke everywhere day....

Unfortunately, these would be journos won't ask the RFL outright because they'll lose their access to the 'scoops' but there is a lot of questions THEY need to answer before tuning on Bradford.

Start with 'Why did you contact Chalmers and ask him and Lowe to take the club?' then follow with 'Why did you make the club restart in the Championship on -12 and not start from scratch in League 1' and take it from there probably ending with 'If as you say Bradford are financially unstable, and we've no reason to question your judgement, why are you not endorsing a move to Dewsbury that will save them roughly £500k per annum?'

At this point, I wouldn't trust Rimmer as far as I could throw his predecessor....Everything, from the first intervention of the RFL has been down to them.

They spouted about the precious lease and preserving the dump for RL (and we all swallowed that BS - really, who'd want the place?).

They choose Khan then shafted him to the tune of half the funding, then when he failed (big shock that one - no RL knowledge and financially one hand tied behind his back) they shafted him again (though he took his case to court and won)

They picked Green, that went well... but perhaps not well enough for their liking so this time they hand picked their chairman using their veto to over rule the administrator and stop Thorne buying the club out of administration.

Meanwhile they have steadfastly refused to sell the lease - thereby stopping any serious interest in the club, have borrowed against it and then devalued it. Now they are left with a hole in the ground, no income and council tax to pay and they will need to keep it up to 'standard' to keep up their stated aim of preserving it for Rugby League.

I am not saying Chalmers is the messiah or even a naughty boy...but the constant Bradford, Bradford, Bradford whilst the RFL pontificate about finances and people who usually pillory the RFL for their loses suddenly sit and nod sagely in agreement is utterly bewildering.

I'll try dig out. But IIRC it was in one of the first announcements of us leaving.

It wasn't a direct consequence "Sign the lease and Special measures will go away" - The RFL aren't that daft to say that. It was more "We need clarity on projected income & expenditure for the next year in order to officially lift Special measures and have evidence to justify it to any other member clubs. Signing the lease would give clarity, therefore..." I would assume AC's answer was short & sweet.

Joe Brown and Jordan Lilley signed at the end of May and I believe the club as been in special measures since then.Milnes and Storton signed contract extensions a few days later and these deals have been refused by the RL.There have been no other signings since.

I don't think it's our of spite (though the statement they released was frankly amateurish and did come across as full of bitterness and should have been handled behind closed doors professionally.

The special measures needs resolving as a matter of urgency.

It's being reported that the RFL changed the locks on the stadium Sunday night. Still don't think they're acting out of spite?

Interesting. Thought the lease ran until 30th of September.