Well they also own other grounds, do the clubs that operate from those stadiums have a franchise for life? No they don't, if this was purely the case then they would. I'm not dressing anything up, it's there in black and white, as you have done so already, you'll make your own judgement up on it, more than to be likely clouded by anger, envy and sorrow though so it's understandable why people seem quite so bitter.

I don't need to convince myself of anything, I can see it for what it's for.

STAGGERING!!!! REALLY??!! I can barely believe it. I wish Bradford no ill whatsoevr; I don't subscribe to petty glee at other's misfortunes, but this cannot be the way for a fair sport to progress.

Good. Then you'll obvious see that the RFL have performed a rescue operation, and nothing more, secured against a very fragile asset. I have no problem with it, it's one that they had to perform in the short and medium-term interest of the sport. They've been somewhat disingenuous in the way they've tried to sell the deal to the fans of the sport, but to have a third Super League club crash within the space of a year would have serious implications for the credibility of the sport, certainly in terms of sponsorship and advertising revenues.

Bradford are still regarded as one of the top clubs in the competition (by outsiders, if no one else), even if they're living off the success they've enjoyed in the recent past. They have a large enough fan base to operate as a going concern, if they cut their cloth to suit their purse.

1. I see the RFL buying the lease to Odsal to stop your club going to the wall and trying to dress it up as best they can so they don't appear to be doing anything underhand.
2. I see the RFL making up some nonsense about preserving historical grounds when what they actually want to do is to get everyone into modern stadia and they don't care 2 hoots about history.

I imagine Bradford are happy because they have secured the immediate future of their club.
I imagine the RFL are happy because they have avoided the negative publicity of one of their "big" clubs going t*ts up.
I imagine any fan of Rugby League in general that is not a Bulls fan sees this as what it is, which is a blatant act of support for one club when they have refused to help others.

As for your dreamworld of the RFL developing Odsal in the future, how long has this been in the pipeline and yet nobody has been able to afford to do it, but you think the "cash-rich" RFL will have the finances to do it. If you believe any of what you have put on here then you are as mad as the people in charge of our game.

This.

If it means going under tough,no club as the god given right to be bailed out while others have struggled.I wouldn't loose any sleep if bulls fell by the wayside.R.F.L are a joke and corrupt.

I wouldn't lose sleep, only maybe for Wakey but I wouldn't want them to fold. Hardly good for the sport in general and wouldn't wish it on their fans after experiencing what we did last year. I wouldn't want any RFL charity we'd never here the bleeding last of it. Anyway if and when we get sorted off our own steam we will have much more cause for celebration

After what we've been through,and still going through....ie....ground upgrade and NM decision,I find it hard not to be bitter over today's anouncement.

Wouldn't want to lose any club tbh and I've always had plenty of time for the Bradford, they've got a good set of fans.
All I can think of is during all this, is if this was Wakefield that had been helped out in this exact same way, say for example when Ted was looking for help, i'd imagine a lot of those fans at Bradford and other clubs would suddenly very much have a problem with it.

Anyway I just want to get the season started and then get good news about Newmarket and it will all be gravy.

Couldnt have put it any better, Bulls fans dont want to believe this is a rescue package, fair enough , but theres no doubt thats what it is.
Lewis and Woods dont give a toss about 'evocative grounds', theyve been shutting them down for years , and if I hear one more Bulls fan say Odsal is in a prime location I'll boil my head
PRIME LOCATION FOR WHAT EXACTLY ???? ITS NOT SYDNEY HARBOUR FOR GODS SAKE

It must be bad.....for the first time I actually agree with a Cas fan

DITTO!!!!

In principle I agree. I practice, I think we had better be careful what we say and do whilst this adminstration rules and debases our once proud sport. I think we have to play a longer and craftier game and just support Trinity and nothing else in this game.

Any way you look at it, the RFL should not be getting directly involved in the playing facility provision and financial affairs of any club unless it is by clearly defined rules that apply to and are equal for all clubs. At the most, I would say this should be in the form of emergency loans to prevent clubs folding provided they agree to prescribed criteria for future financial conduct. This is a massive conflict of interest. How can you allow a club to slip out of the top league under any circumstances if your 'market value' rent is dependant on their success? The market value rent of odsal must be huge incidentally. If it's not, I would like to know how prime land in a big city isn't. I'm sorry Bulls fans, I wish you no ill at all. I'm a big believer in the RL family...or at least I used to be, but us scraping a last ditch SL place doesn't even begin to compare to the impact and implications of this. This will run and run.

At the inception of SL we were amongst a number of clubs unfairly booted out because we would not merge. We won the right back where everyone should; on the pitch. Most of this bitching we are seeing here comes down to the sad day when who plays in what league was altered to being decided in board rooms. In my view it will be the slow death of our game. As one poster states, back in the 60's Wakefield and Bramley assistedBradford in their hour of need. Now we argue and see untransparent and potentially damaging decisions made regularly that pull the game apart. This is all gross mismanagement of a sport. Will the FA or FL be buying Fratton Park from Portsmouth, or would they buy it's lease and part administer the club if that was the scenario? You don't see this happening in fair and serious sports, any of it - today, SL franchising, the 1995 inception disgrace that affected us, the treatment of Keighley being denied promotion twice, yes even Halifax's treatment this year...and much, much more. It has been wrong from the start so today does not surprise me.

Fair enough in some ways Adeybull....I hate this bitchin n bickering. But 2 wrongs don't make a right and this all boils down to another post I've put...see franchising etc....we need fairness, equity and transparency in our sport or it's a slow road to oblivion in my view. As someone said on heer if it was us in your boots I'd have snapped their hands off too, but I can't see this as right and would be a little red faced if it had been us, as I was when we got in ahead of Fax, though our previous treatment in 1995 had me feeling we were owed a big one. I wish Bulls and their fans no ill but this means we now need clarity and a clearly defined set of rules that are as fair and equal to all as possible. The debate must now begin on this in my view

Oh dear.

Guys, after some pretty long - and very interesting - chats tonight, I now have a much clearer understanding of what this is all about, and what lay behind the RFL's decision.

Funnily enough, it transpires that what the RFL said in the press release was pretty well as it is. And, whilst this action almost certainly saved the Bulls from having to move to the hell hole that is Valley Parade, as a poor junior partner in a relationship that would likely have seen the slow but steady demise of the club, it was far from a rescue. What WAS rescued - from the developers - was the stadium, and its superb location for the future.

Oh, and the reason the RFL did not look to buy YOUR ground was because your illustrious former chairman had already sold it. Simple as that. So quit complaining at the RFL - the responsibility lies much nearer home.

The RFL have made a catalogue of appalling decisons over the last few years, this being the latest, so I'm not confident they know much really, As I said, hate the bitchin, but the governing body of a sport that ought to be duty bound to be impartial should not be, in effect, entering into a business arrangement that ties them and their interests together like this, with one of it's member clubs, whatever this sell, rent back, lease or whataver else it may turn out to be, is. It just cannot, under any circumstances. Do something like this for one, you have to do it for all. How do judge equity in varying situations? The questions go on and on and on. Big error of judgement in my view

Have posted a lot on this and am pretty ticked off about it like many on here, but would point out that, thus far, we are singularly apoplectic about this looking at the other sites. Maybe the odsal mud hasn't hit the fan yet, but I am beggining to get the feeling that maybe we should keep our powder dry for now? Focus on our own house? We won't change the RFL and their behaviour that is for sure.

Someone's been blowing smoke up your ar5e Adey and given your position, you'll no doubt have been a very receptive audience.

What the RFL said in their press release was NOT 'pretty well as it is'; if they gave two 5h1ts for 'evocative' RL grounds, why the hell have they been shutting them down for a number of years? Do you believe for example, that if the ill-fated sports village had ever come off, the RFL would have ridden in on their white charger to stop the builders filling in your hole in the ground?

They've rescued your club because it set the standard for SL many years ago and has been dining out on that ever since, despite operating out of a slum and being financially mismanaged for a number of years; they've compounded that poor decision by making a clumsy attempt to spin the story, showing their usual level of contempt for the sport, its fans and a large chunk if its member clubs, by working from the assumption that we're all too stupid to see what's really going on.

Oh dear nothing - you've been rescued from financial ruin by the sports governing body; man up, admit it and stop the smug attempts to perpetuate their lies. RFL Bulls it is I guess, and you only need ask a Shudds fan how long it takes to shake that kind of thing off.

You seem to have assumed a massive point here. Wakefield never wanted the RFL to 'buy' our ground we asked for a loan to bail the club out whilst the NM decision was made. The RFL have not bought Odsal by the way as I read it its the lease. Wakefield were leasing their ground now explain the difference between how the RFL treated Bradford to Wakefield?

you seam to make it out like its jealousy like that other simpleton far from it

I would of been ashamed if I had made comments like I have read on this forum,
would you not think it would be wise to just keep quite rather than brag about the clubs win fall.

If you had a 150 year lease with about 145 years unexpired then your position was secure. No developer could have bought the freehold from the Council (if the Council were the owner) and thrown you out unless they bought you out of the lease.

The RFL saved you from yourselves because if you hit severe financial difficulties (say you owed money to the HMRC and another Club) you would have been forced to sell the lease to a Developer maybe and made yourselves homeless or had to move to Valley Parade. In doing so the RFL have secured your future at Odsal.

As Bren2k has said someone has been blowing smoke up your bottom. We all have a good idea of whats gone on and all people want is the truth to be told and not some lame Fairy tale.

As I have said Bradford have done nothing wrong, they have pulled off a fantastic bit of business and I say well done - we would have done the same if we could.

Guys I have to say some of us comparing the 2 situations of trin and northern (sorry cant help being a traditionalist) seems to be convieniently ignoring a number a salient factors. Firstly in the latter days of the richardson era we were not run with sufficiently sound business practices to justify any one with finance investing in us. Our present owner could have done so at the time but chose not to - as indeed would I had I the money. Secondly BV was not owned by a cashg strapped public body under pressure to cut, sell assets and make people redundant.

The RL higher ups would rightly have been pilloried had thery thrown money at Trin in the latter days of the richardson era, and it would not have been in the long term best interests of the club.

I struggle however to buy the notion that developers were on the Odsall horizon - why there but no where else in the country? If they are however I would be concerned as a Northern supporter. My landlord is my boss, my boss is trying to reduce the number of clubs in the top flight close to other clubs in the top flight. My boss has the right to get rid of me if I can't operate financially well. The higher ups in my club are struggling with raising operating capital. There are potential buyers on the horizon looking to builkd on the land I tennant.

I'd like to see a bit more good grace offered to our friends at Odsall - irrespective of the circumstances fans are fans and they are not to blame for the failure of their club higher ups.

Only if they payid their bills though. If they didn't, then the lease would be up for sale along any other 'assetts' and then a free for all would have taken place.

I see nothing at all wrong from Bradford, but the RFL are now seriously compromised going forward and, even if everything they ever do in relation to Bradford is fair and clean, they will always be found with the smoking gun in their hand.

Now if the RFL had 'engineered' a third party to do this, then there would be nothing but praise for their efforts (from most anyway).