with the financial troubles at bradford bulls who are meant to be one of the big well supported clubs, it just makes you wonder who's gonna be next to be in a mess. i'd be very worried if i was a salford, london or cas supporter as a club like bradford with the support they have getting in trouble just shows that it can happen to any of the big clubs too.
ive no doubt though the rfl will bail them out which is an absolute disgrace because the club has not been operating properley and been spending money they do not have, but the rfl will not allow a team like the bulls to capitulate, if it was wakey, cas or any other smaller teams for example blackpool, they would be just left to fight for themselves and would probably end up going out of business.
what will mr lewis and mr wood do now? the rfl and the super league is turning into an absolute joke!!!
but the rfl will probably say everythings rosy like they usually do about the game!

Bradford were a big, well supported club. Several years ago. Their crowds have fallen and income has dropped. A club only getting £3-4m in turnover is not a big club.

So why have they been spending more than that when they dont have to worry about relegation ?

I'll bet it's still more than double what London, Wakefield and Salford generate.

That is a cracking point, Starbug. Why indeed !

I have no idea. Maybe they were trying to generate/re-ignite interest by trying to maintain a decent team but failed. They obviously had the cheap season ticket deal in an attempt to get people back but that seems to have hit finances.
Maybe the stadium costs were too high. Without knowing details of Bradfords accounts its hard to tell. But like I said with income of only £3-4m it means they aren't a big club. They're a formerly big club in the midst of a big decline.

Mainly because you do some forecasting when you put together a budget for a season, theirs looks like it was dependant on having more income than they are generating.

By a million pounds ?

I’m really not sure how you get from Bradford Bulls in financial trouble to the Super League and the RFL being an ‘absolute joke’?

You only have to look north of the border to see that a large club with a huge fan base (Rangers) are not immune from potential disaster through bad management

Unlike football though, the RFL and Super League has introduced a franchise system and salary cap designed to help clubs – the former so they can invest in the future without the threat of relegation and the latter essentially to save them from themselves!

If the management at Bradford are too incompetent to run the club successfully, that is their fault, not the Super league or RFL

The franchise application process included finances. So how did Bradford get a licence, let alone a grade B

Gotta think big Starbug. Think small and you don't deserve to be in SL

This begs the question as to how good are the experts who pored over their business in the Licence Application Process. Any half decent auditor would surely have seen holes in this plan?

But considering that when the licences were given out Bradford apparently owed a huge sum of money to the RFL , and had no means to repay that loan , do you not consider that an issue ?

That is why the RFL s involment in this is relevant

Dubious statistic in all but London's case. I'll go with you that perhaps it may and it's a big may be double however that is counteracted by what appear to be massively OTT overheads on Bradford's parts. Turnover is not much use if your running at a loss.

This has clearly blown the myth once and for all that big gates = big money.

A club watched by 5,000 people working within a budget and making 1p profit a year is a success.

A club watched by 10,000 not working within it's budget is a failure and it loses 1p and the bank calls in the debt and no one covers that 1p.

It's basic simplistic economics but it's true. So as regards your point it wouldn't matter if Bradford had a turnover of 10, 20, 50 million run as it is the result would be the same.

...

like has been mentioned the rfl are relevant in this because they must have had some knowledge of what was going on before they handed the licenses out, and to give the bulls a b licence, whats going on?
i fear for the other teams that have b licences i really do and god help the c license teams what state are they gonna be in?
whilst woods and lewis are in charge the game is gonna carry on like this, its about time that the hierachy changed and somebody actually took over who has a clue about rugby league.
franchising aint working, we've had wakey, crusaders and now the bulls in trouble and like i say im sure more teams will follow suit, the game needs a new direction now with new people in charge and quick!!

=#FF0040Potentially libellous comments removed. When throwing around accusations, please think first. Mintball

Greece got approval to join the Euro.

The two most likely explanations are that the Bulls hid the scale of their financial issues from the RFL/KPMG during the license application process, or that the current crisis has evolved out of an entirely unforeseen turn of events.

Image rights? Inland Revenue. It will be one or the other if not both.

Surely if it was the image rights issue , the club would have stated as such , they would be stupid not to , that would at least get them some sympathy from the general RL community as other clubs might also have the same problem

They have lost their RBS facility too which has (or it seems) to have wiped out any liquidity they have, it wouldn't be hard to imagine them forecasting a decent season with the players they have, add around 3500/4000 to each home gate for a decent team it doesn't take long to hit the million.

Throw into that the RFL taking back their money in one lump sum out of the Odsal lease and you've got a problem.

average attendance including those 3,500/4,000 already , anything above that is a bonus , generally sports clubs are far too optimistic with their estimates , its not like they have only just taken over the club , they have a lot of recent history to work with

This is just really solid analysis. I am aghast that the powers that be haven't drafted you in to sort out the bank of england. I think you should read it out in front of some business moguls and record their facial expressions.

Assuming they did owe the RFL a fair wedge, not really. If they had folded the RFL would have received a few pence in the pound on their investment. By allowing them to compete at the top level and carry on for a bit longer the idea is to manage the debt and generate a better value return.

Acting as a good creditor would if they could.

IF

and its a big if, they did allow them to continue in order to manage the debt then the question surely must be should the RFL if it is financially involved in clubs be in a position to award licenses or should this be and independent process by some accountancy or law firm etc.

Adam Pearson's takeover of HullFC revealed a lot of skeletons in the closet. For years us Hull fans had been told that the club was making profit and was an 'A Grade' club. What was revealed was that while the club was indeed profitable, it was being run on a shoe string budget and just 1/2 bad seasons (and reduced crowds) would have caused severe problems.

That 'bad' season came last year, and the club lost 300K.

Adam Pearson has since come in and paid off the debts and sorted out a payment plan for a large off-shore payment related tax bill.

the scary thing is that HullFC where graded by the RFL as a 'Grade A' club, with a top class ground, averaging 13/14K, appeared in 2 CC finals and a Grand Final in the last 7 years and turn over £1million in merchandise/shop sales alone. If things were looking that bad at Hull then I dread to think what other SL clubs books look like.

Everyone. Every club in SL is going bust. FFS.

Then let The Championship be your saviour brother.

Hallelujah!!!