Feel sorry for the fans who were gullible enough to pledge the £500k despite our warnings that all they were doing was allowing the Directors who had got them into the mess to absolve themselves of thier personal guarantees and that Administration was inevitable.

It will be interesting to see how the RL community view this now because I felt that we got very little sympathy except from Tony Smith, and I'm sure there were some that were actually pleased.

As I say feel sorry for the fans but not the people who ran the Club into the mess.

If Bulls were liquidated would the quota players be exempt from quota rules like they did with Crusaders? They may do this until end of season as doing it longer wouldn't help if bringing in a championship team as players left over would be worse than what Widnes have this season.

the difference was we was ready to start it from the beginning again

as it was the Trust wasn't needed to help take over but it has proven to be a good connect to the club

without you and many others it could of been another story

It's all Iestyn's fault

The RFL didn’t buy the lease off them for that reason though.

Bradford had borrowed some money, as clubs do from time to time, however, they failed to repay any of it, so the RFL realising they were around £400k down & Bradford were in the mire gave them some more cash, but, in exchange Bradford gave them the lease to the stadium.

Unfortunately, the RFL spun everyone a yarn saying they’d done this to stop a predatory approach for the ‘Iconic’ stadium

.

I bet there is alot of teams in trouble. How many teams are spending more money than they can afford so they stay in superleague!!!

[urlhttp://therfl.co.uk/licensing/super_league[/url



Are you sure about that?

Questions need to be asked about the credibility/thoroughnes of the franchise application process.

but the money was used to earlier to invest in players and coach

the RFL's idea was to help replenish what they hadn't got money in the bank

I feel sorry for the fans not the club management. The number crunchers will have seen this on the radar months ago, a business does not go belly up in a matter of weeks. They were looking to take money of the hard working fans to fill a huge gap in their bank ballence and they must have known it was not going to work. As for the comment that Bradford is "an iconic ground" The ground is e, you need a telescope to read the numbers on the players shirts.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was case. Salford pumped in lots of money for their new ground (ditto St Helens, but the difference with Saints is that they have always had and will always have very sizeable crowds there compared to Salford). Hull KR's (long overdue) building work on a new stand may well be burning several holes in their pockets, coupled qith how much they spent on bringing players like Willie Mason and Joel Clinton to the club.

QuoteBradford Bulls - Grade B

Bradford Bulls provided a solid submission detailing a strategy, tactical plan and targets to achieve improved commercial and financial performance. The club has a solid fan base, a strong brand and good operating structure/governance in place. However the club faces some challenges. These include the local economic environment, poor recent on-field performance and an ageing facility. The application acknowledges these challenges; however the club believes that its business plan for the next three years will move it to a position of sustainability with good prospects for further growth. The club has invested heavily in its youth performance programme in recent years, and it is expected that the club will soon start to reap the rewards of this investment with improved performances and increased numbers of quality club-trained players.

This really shows the RFL and their license system for the sham it is!!!!

Absolutely! Sounds like their business plan was a complete work of fiction and should have been robustly challenged. The RFL have metephorically kick the tyres of the fanchise application and said "it'll be reet".

Doesn't say much for KPMG either!!!

We don't know what remit they were given or whether any of their findings were swept under the carpet. If they were told to do a thorough audit and did not highlight their concerns, then I agree, but I think this is unlikely.

Where are all the ex players and TV personalities who used emotional blackmail to get the Bulls fans into pledging money?

Just keep Sykes and get Elima IMHO.

It's true, we dont know but, they did receive a loan from the RFL last season and the RFL then took over the lease on Odsal due to non payment of the loan. Therefore, regardless of the findings during the licensing process, I think its fair to say the RFL knew the true picture but, at the time it would have been unthinkable to "demote" the Bulls and allow Halifax to be promoted.
Even with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been a very difficult call.

I wouldn't want Burgess anyways, he's useless. He was only on the pitch 5mins on Sunday and was blowing out of his . And please please please don't let me see the headline " Jeffries Returns To Wildcats"

I thought they were referring to Chase and the 'want away' Daryl Clark? - though who actually knows what's going on in the boardrooms and accountants offices of any of the clubs? I feel really sorry for the Bulls fans - when it happened to us it was the most depressing and worrying (Rugby related) time.

If Hemmings, Stephenson and the Statistics Bore of Bolton go on much more about how the franchise system is the best thing since sliced bread, I may just have to start watching the televised matches with the sound off! It seems, in simple terms to the fan on the terraces that "It Isn't Working!!!!" and if we carry on like this we'll have a number of great stadia but far fewer good Rugby teams left to play in them. And if a club does go under? Do the RL dole out a franchise/licence to the highest bidder with a nice stadium - or to a team that can play a good game of Rugby?

I think they are more than aware of the state of the game this is their monster and as long as they keep the truth locked away in the red hall cellar and away from the non biased media, sky can keep the illusion going.
The game is in tatters!!!

Thing is if bulls do get kicked out then that's less revenue and people involved in the game which can't be good and will have a knock on effect on other clubs. From a selfish perspective I'm glad we got our home game with them before they go pop.

I don't agree that the game is in tatters. It's just that one club decided to run itself at a level it couldn't afford. It is notable that there has been no attempt to recoup money by selling assets, i.e., players, and it seems that the Bulls club wants its cake and eat it. It wants to put a top drawer team on the park, regardless of whether or not it can afford it.

The situation in each club has been different. Crusaders were saddled with debts accrued by the previous owner. We were hit for six by the decision to call in the ground for PI, as otherwise we would have received a payment that would have sorted the tax bill out. Bulls have been relying on crowds of 10,000 that only bring in gate receipts as if there were 4,000, due to the cut prces.

You've got to feel for the Bradford fans, we've been there and it isn't nice. I don't wish Admin on any club regardless of what a small minority of opposing fans might say. I have to say, i'm rather disappointed with the previous management who knew the trouble and didn't even try and recoup some funds via transfers and/or loans.

They've overspent on their cap knowingly and for that reason i'd make a move for Brett Kearney & Elima

It's not the Bulls in isolation Slugger, there are big financial conserns at many clubs, either the image rights issue, the need for a benefactor, clubs living beyond their means, falling fowl of HMRC etc etc.
The constant in all this is the RFL overseeing all this.
Any club could go pop at any time and I wouldn't be surprised, that isn't what SL promised and the licensing and independent auditing tells us.
We only find out about these problems when something goes wrong and at some point the RFL are waste deep in the Shizen or have gone some way to cause it or cover it up.
SL is not only in tatters it also through trying to portray itself to be some kind of achievable best practice eutopia, encourages clubs to over reach and thus cause themselves and end up in difficulty, and unable to get out of it.
It lacks honesty and transparency and the RFL and sky peddle the lie.

I agree totally appalling. I was aghast at the appeal. My Hull supporting mate even chucked money in at their game at the KC; I told him he was nuts. A failing sports club is NOT A CHARITY. It was a disgusting abuse of people's good will and love for their club and, as suspected, was also a waste of time. Shame on all concerned and the RFL for allowing it to happen.