I like Bradford Bulls, the proper one, the one with all of the history. The one that no longer exists.

This new club is an embarrassment, they have taken the long suffering fans for guilible suckers again and again. Their actions have been well below the standards you'd expect of even a barely competent amateur club. Chalmers has consistently acted like a petulant toddler who blames everyone else for his own actions

Do you see why this appears ever so slightly at odds with the previous:

Reading comprehension isn't your strong point is it. Maybe try reading in full sentences

Ah, the Northern club of pre 1974?

I know what you mean about Craig Chalmers, he reminds me slightly of our owner Derek Beaumont. But I feel sorry for Bradford Bulls fans, (like I do with Bury & Bolton football clubs). It's like the RFL are insistent that they return to Odsal after 2020. Why (apart from the obvious) should this matter with the RFL. 3 years ago Widnes were given the green light to re-locate to another part of the country, when their CEO Steve Rule approached them about the idea. though thankfully for all Widnesians, this never materialised.Let Bradford play in Dewsbury, with NO punishment, and let's see how they fare. There is no way Bradford will do a Swinton or Oldham, and not play in their 'home town' for about 30 years is there ? As for my club Leigh, I'm amazed we can afford to play at the LSV. But then again (Wigan/Leigh Council) take all the proceeds from food & drink sales, and also 10% of all match tickets sales. So while we averaging over 3200, I guess it's worth their while to have us using the stadium. BUT if we were in League 1, with gates of around 1400, we also could find ourselves with feeling that we need to 'play elsewhere'. Even if you think 'the club' Bradford Bulls deserve the current situation they are in, personally I think it stinks. Are they being helped by the 'governing body' of our sport, not from where I am sitting (right now) they are not !

I'd love to see Bradford back in Super League, and I have no qualms about acknowledging I regard them as a bigger club than us. I think the sport needs them, because if they can end up like this then really so could anyone. I don't know what the answer is, but for the sake of the fans and the town if not the current entity of "the club" itself, I hope one is found.

Whatever the answer is, abandoning the fans and the city certainly isn't it. The RFL were right to say that this is a bad move

If the application we put in was threadbare and lacking credibility, then if Chalmers is being sincere we should have no problem in giving the rfl as much info as they want. I don't think they mean concrete plans about a new, purpose built stadium or anything like that because clubs have relocated in the past without any such plans and they were not put in special measures.
In some ways this might actually be a good thing because it's almost forcing Chalmers to show his hand, in a sense. So it might actually put to bed this whole dispute about whether or not he's just fleecing the club, an argument I am particularly sick of and have been for months.

What I [ido[/i have an issue with, and think is highly unprofessional, is the timing of this press release by the RFL and even the very fact that they have chosen to communicate with Bradford via the media just as much as they have directly.
Why on earth is a professional sporting governing body releasing press statements of this nature at 9pm on a Friday evening before a bank holiday weekend. It's so unprofessional it's almost beyond belief. Are you seriously expecting me to believe that this was the earliest this statement could have been put out? Did it even need airing on twitter in the first place? If you want more info from Bradford then ask them for it, you've had the application for a week already.
I can't help but feel like they timed it this way on purpose to do as much damage to the club's reputation as they could. Knowing full well that the club would be unable to respond, anybody thinking about buying a season ticket over the weekend will likely not bother now.

But as always in these situations, and seemingly more and more often involving MY club, it's the fans who ultimately suffer. I'm f*cking sick of all the off field drama at Bradford. It's draining. I just want a rugby team to support and instead we've had close to ten years of administrations, liquidations, special measures and circumstances like this one where everything surrounding the club is suffocated by uncertainty.

The statement by the RFL is atrocious in that it references leaving Odsal as a "poor decision" without any explanation whatsoever. If the owner of Bradford says we cannot afford to stay at Odsal then what element of leaving is it that the RFL deem 'poor'? The ineptitude of Bradford however is exemplified by putting out this article this morning which is clearly penned before the RFLs bombshell. www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article/ ... from-odsal Why someone didn't ring the owner and tell him it needed an urgent update is beyond me.

The statement by the RFL is atrocious in that it references leaving Odsal as a "poor decision" without any explanation whatsoever. If the owner of Bradford says we cannot afford to stay at Odsal then what element of leaving is it that the RFL deem 'poor'? The ineptitude of Bradford however is exemplified by putting out this article this morning which is clearly penned before the RFLs bombshell. www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article/ ... from-odsal Why someone didn't ring the owner and tell him it needed an urgent update is beyond me.

It's just odd that we were considered capable of running a reserve team just a few weeks ago when Keighley were denied that right. Yet we tell the RFL that we're not staying at Odsal because it's too expensive and suddenly we're officially in special measures and the move is considered "poor" by the RFL

Exactly, Bradford need to challenge this 'unfair/bizarre' decision by the RFL.

You don't want acknowledge it, but it's simple.

Bulls wage bill is unsustainable. You don't have the income to sustain the expenditure. Bulls have no capital to put to a new development and nothing in the business plan to suggest they ever will...certainly not in 2 to 4 years.

Bulls need to go PT now!

Build properly. Stop chasing dreams.

Quote ="Pumpetypump"The statement by the RFL is atrocious in that it references leaving Odsal as a "poor decision" without any explanation whatsoever. If the owner of Bradford says we cannot afford to stay at Odsal then what element of leaving is it that the RFL deem 'poor'? The ineptitude of Bradford however is exemplified by putting out this article this morning which is clearly penned before the RFLs bombshell. www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article/ ... from-odsal Why someone didn't ring the owner and tell him it needed an urgent update is beyond me.'" This whole thing is just embarrassing from both Chalmers and the RFL. Too much personal nonsense in both those statements from entities that pretend to be professional.

Quote ="Pumpetypump"The statement by the RFL is atrocious in that it references leaving Odsal as a "poor decision" without any explanation whatsoever. If the owner of Bradford says we cannot afford to stay at Odsal then what element of leaving is it that the RFL deem 'poor'? The ineptitude of Bradford however is exemplified by putting out this article this morning which is clearly penned before the RFLs bombshell. www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article/ ... from-odsal Why someone didn't ring the owner and tell him it needed an urgent update is beyond me.'" This whole thing is just embarrassing from both Chalmers and the RFL. Too much personal nonsense in both those statements from entities that pretend to be professional.

I know it's easy to blame the RFL but maybe they are the ones speaking and acting in the fans interest. The plan to play away from Bradford and move back is a good idea. However the RFL might feel they want to see the plan and how this will be funded. Maybe all they can see is a move to Dewsbury with no real way back from that with the business plan or lack of one in place.

Another possible situation is the RFL's back door dealings to buy Odsal and try and help the club have now backfired with the club now leaving them with a long lease on an empty ground.

It's easy to look at this and believe the RFL want to punish one of the possible biggest draws and therefore money generators and get ris of them, but i believe this makes no business sense. But i do believe that Chambers may want to find a break even solution where he doesn't have to invest and with no real future going forward.

I know as a fan it's easy to think one way, but there maybe thinks that concern them that can't be made public knowledge as they will not be allowed to discuss clubs finances.

Bradford have reportedly been in 'special measures' for a while and the use of the phrase "will remain in" suggests that to be true. So nothing to do with the relocation plan.

The argument that Chalmers put out was that it was unsustainable for Bradford to remain at Odsal. However in the latest statement we are told that all the money saved from not being at Odsal will be put into players, either academy or first team.

So either the latest statement is a lie or Chalmers previous statements re Odsal costs are a lie.

Numbers don't add up for Odsal. Poor facility and high wage bill.

Bulls want to save money by going to Rams, but want to throw even more money at players and not invest in a return to the city.

Of course RFL are unimpressed.

Only Toronto have a bigger wage bill in that division. Crazy!

Which essentially means Bradford want to spend on players rather than infrastructure. Which is what got them (and plenty of other clubs) in such a mess in the first place.

I don't know what inside knowledge you have on the championship club finances, but Kear has stated in the press that oor bill is lower than all the teams in the playoff spots, bar York.

I know who i believe

He's also stated that he expects his goalkicker to have an 85%+ success rate.....

I know they keep repeating this on the Forty20 podcast but it’s still no closer to being true.

Not that that makes Chalmers or rfl any less culpable for whatever it is that’s going on.

That’s true to a certain extent. There was also overspending on full time staff that nobody seemed to know what they did, poor accounting practices, secret loans from RFL, property deals to try and claw that back, thinking you could get away without paying vat by calling season tickets memberships etc etc.

To cut a long story short something much murkier than just a bit of overspending on players has been going on for at least 10 years now. Involving RFL and the business men that still seem to be queuing up to get involved with it.

As a fan it’s getting to the point that I simply can’t continue to be taken for a ride. The fact the games governing body are up to their necks in it leaves a really bad taste that puts you off the sport as a whole. Some of the garbage we get thrown at us by opposition fans off the back of decisions made by other people whether they are connected to the club or not and completely out of our control as fans just add to that.

So 6 professional clubs playing in the Wakefield postcode!

I don't follow the podcast.

I don't expect you to take my word for it. You will believe what you want to believe.

Special measures is not something imposed on a whim...there are financial issues at Bulls, all centred around budgeting on making the play-off final.

Bulls pay ridiculous FT wages.

The Yorkshire Sydney