As we have yet another shambles at the Bulls (hurting staff and supporters)time has come for Wood and the RFL board to face up. In just a couple of years the RFL needlessly bought the Odsal lease for a 7 figure fee presumably checking that their tenant is good for the rent! / offered Hood et al a huge 'loan' and then withdrew it / approved the Khan takeover / In May gave Khan and Bulls the financial all clear / approved the latest group of directors three months ago.

These are all decisions made by the RFL board. Lets see if any of them do the decnt thing.

Responsibility for Bradford's numerous failings lie entirely with the people in charge at Bradford at various points. Nowhere else.

This !

Whilst I think that the RFL are pretty useless, they can't be blamed for this on-going mess.

I thought the RFL bought the lease to allow Bradford to repay a previous loan to the RFL. Unless I'm mistaken where did the RFL offer and then withdraw a loan?

I think you managed to get the loan and the buying of the lease the wrong way around. The RFL offered support in the form of a loan to Bradford. When Bradford could not pay up, they paid up with the lease.

I fail to see why the RFL need to make more loans to the Bulls. It will not help in the end loans just cripple the club even more. You can't borrow your way out of debt. I'm sure they would kill for another benefactor. But don't be fooled not all benefactors are the same.

Some pump their own money in, others pump in loans. The two are not the same. The Bull's were saved by Khan, but he turned out to the the loan type of benefactor rather than the throw good money away benefactor. But it comes down to the level of micro management if the RFL have to manage every clubs incoming's and outgoing's, to make sure they don't take on more loans than they can afford.

I have no dislike of the Bulls, but it does grate on me when people take credit then lay the blame at others door.

The RFL have bent over backwards to help the Bulls. In spite of that, BOD after BOD have done nothing to quell the imbalance between earnings and expenditure, seeing them as some kind of cash cow.

Maybe now, we will see proper trimming of costs, a playing roster to match income and an RFL that says "no more!"

Or maybe we won't and pantomime season will move into overdrive.

The problem is,the current management have now stepped aside and they themselves are now owed substantial amounts of money on top of the £580k the club already has to find.
The club needs winding up and relegating asap

Whilst I don't agree with winding the club up, there surely has to be some drastic action taken this time. Whoever steps in this time needs to be properly vetted by the RFL to ensure that they are the right people for the job.

Hate to say it though, I honestly can't see much of a future for the Bulls. Suppliers will surely now lose what little, if any confidence they had in them.

It seems I am a day or two behind the times, which in the life of the Bulls seems a long time.

Either way I assume the cost cutting measures are still being implemented.

But if the current management have gone, then that just leaves Mr Khan to manage alone or bring in new managers (which I assume can't be afforded).

Winding up maybe the only option unless he can manage the club himself. If the club is wound up then he will only get the same value for his shares that has already been offered.

There is no simple solution for him or the Bulls. He has a lot to lose.

You can vet people all day long. In the end you put a plan forward and on paper it can look amazing. On paper the current owner has the money to bank roll the club. But if he decides to make loans rather than capital investment that's his choice.

At Saints we also have benefactors and they are all great on paper. But if in 10 years time it all turns out to be directors loans and the fans can't cover those loans with increased revenue then there we all go.

Couldn't the other SL clubs give back their share of Bradfords funding that was not given to the bulls last year. That would clear the debt. Oh hang on at least 4 of those wouldn't even be able to pay that back.

Just get rid of them. They're clearly not fit for SL. Just get rid. Sorry if that seems harsh but tough crap. That's life. That's sport. Let someone else have a go.

I thought the title of the thread was about Nigel Wood's rock music band. :p

I do think it would be better if they just do what Rangers did in Scottish football and go down to championship 1 and just start again.

Rangers weren't as iconic as Bradford Bulls.

Merry Christmas everyone.

It's nice to know that satire is alive and well

As beware shadows says you can vet people all you like. But vetting doesn't tell you their future intentions. If you have a man saying they're willing to put money into a rugby league club it's difficult to turn them down. But you don't know what they're going to do in a years time. That's why it's better if rugby league clubs can sustain themselves without the need for consistent directors funds.

If Caddick walked away from Leeds it would make little difference to the club. If someone like Neil Hudgell did it's a potential disaster.

In a perfect imperfect world we could adopt Gutterfax's million pound ' deposit ' system, that would stop all this bloody nonsense, and clubs could concentrate on building themselves instead of lurching from 1 crisis to the next

I do like the concept. But what would stop a prospective owner. Loaning said million against the value if the franchise. Then refinancing against the club. That's what the glazers did to take a debt free man u into a heavily debted club. Sadly sporting clubs are treated as businesses and so all weird kind of shenanigans can be done in the name if a club.

I would still say a breakeven rule needs to be applied. Anything over this should be tied to owners not clubs.

The franchise is worthless , so unlikey any financial body would lend against it

A breakeven rule would be impossible to police , the United deal was probably a one off, only Leeds as a club have any sort of asset that has any real value to borrow against

Just to clarify the million quid deposit/bond thingy....if it had been in place, Messers, (sic) Khan, Whitcut, Moore, Calvert and Watt all have great ideas about rescuing the club and turning it around, but none of them had the courage of their convictions to actually put up some cash at the risk of them not getting it back.
IF OK had deposited £1,000,000 which would have been fed back to the club over the 2 years of the franchise/licence remaining, then you can be damn sure that the "Belinda Carlisle and Rick Astley concerts, the club shop and the coral suite Business Plan" that was written on the back of a beermat and was accepted by the RFL would not have been acceptable to him as a way to get his cash back into HIS account.

It's Ironic that the clubs outside the top 6 or 7 are now starting to realise that "living within their means" without the threat of relegation while they cut their cloth was another massive plus of franchising, just as licencing is about to be binned for the joys of overspending to avoid relegation or to gain promotion and the undoubted financial security that will bring to clubs





I doubt the fans of clubs dreaming of SL fully appreciate the amount of money that it will cost their benefactors to keep them there until they get their average gates up to 10k.....£1,000,000+a year soon adds reality and perspective to chairmen who claim they are "ready for superleague" .
7,500 average at HKR in 2013 will have cost the clubs owners £500,000 to balance the books....it's been 25 years since Fax had an average that large, 40 years since Featherstone got anything like near it.....and with the return of the wondrous P&R there'll only be one short term solution to going straight back down...£'s and lots of them!

Wouldn't it just create a situation like you have at London where a club are only in existence due to a benefactor propping up their losses. Creating situations like the one a few weeks ago that's now been forgotten about on here.

As for fax, few etc I personally as a Bulls fan don't see a problem with given them a go in superleague. Why not?

Of course they'll have to wait as the RFl can't simply boot bradford out as the latest embarrassing "crisis" doesn't breach te licence the club is still operating for now. Unless it states small mindedness of people from Halifax as a reason for removal of superleague licence in the operating rules.

Oh dear.

Indeed.