Just think how much money some of those agents have made out of the club over the years with their inflation busting deals. I wonder how many of them will be digging deep in their pockets to help out.

It's a fine line between managing decline, whilst not showing weakness to one's competitors.
On most occasions, the business will carry on and "hope" that things improve.
The clever ones will re scale their business.
From the outside, there has been no visible change, but I guess the true picture will become clear over time.

Until there’s proof I’ll keep my powder dry on that one.

So, the RFL allegedly loaned Bradford £700,000 last year, yet they let us go to the wall presumably because they still had a tangible asset in Odsal.

However, if it comes to light they have loaned London cash, well that will have disappeared down a black hole.

No problems with that.

I think I'm right in saying the RFL have lent us money in the past too. The only time they didn't cough up (just before the last ship sank) was when the writing was well and truly on the wall. The PI for Newmarket scuppered the last chance the old club had.

I find it very hard to have any sympathy with the Bulls, some of their supporters were hardly sympathetic towards us when we were in trouble although I do feel for the 'genuine' fans.
I cannot see them raising this huge amount of money so quickly-certainly not by so many giving £100 so if it comes to administration then they can get ready for the points deduction can't they?
Somehow I think they're going to come out of this smelling of roses just as they did in the 60's I remember the begging bucket coming round at Belle Vue and they never looked back after that!
The RFL will not allow them to fold!

I'm not sure they have lent us money other than the standard loans available for ground works etc. I may be wrong but I don't think they ever lent us money directly to keep us financially afloat. They have certainly given us some leeway in the past, our promotion bid where they accepted promises that were never fully honoured ,the Pearman affair and CVA, the first franchise when we did promise temporary stands which we never erected and so on. Had they been tougher or demanded certain things promised actually happened we'd have been stuffed.

We have never received the spoon feeding some of the chosen clubs get but on the other hand we IMO have never been treated as badly as some like to suggest.

It's very sad to hear, but not unexpected. And for the majority of Bradford fans i truely hope they come out of this a much stronger club. I certainly don't want to see any RL club go out of business, and as we know more than most, often in these situations, the heart can lead the head.

It seem's rather late in the day to be begging the fans to cover up such mismanagement, and i find it unlikely that 500k will be raised in such a short time frame. But, even if it was, i'd suggest they'd be begging again very shortly.

My worry for Bradford, is that with such a high percentage of ST holders due to heavily reduced prices, where is the incoming going to come from over the next 6-9 months? And will that effect the possible suitors?

firstly i do feel sorry for the genuine bradford fans, as i think we know what appears to be heading their way. hopefully someone will stand forward, but there wil be some losses in the meantime.

administration looks like the only way forward, but that again, affects others and some smaller companies will be taking a hit and they in turn may not recover.

i don't want our club to be viewed in the way that we view hull and huddersfield for what they (legitimately) did to us, however i would propose a compromise where we get the prop that we lack, and then offer to loan them some players (such as davey / ellis etc) who are not currently getting game time

this would beneifit us in keeping the players sharp, and also benefit bradford (new co) in helping them to get a competitive team.


still a sorry state which ever way it is viewed

When we are talking about the ongoing business it doesn't necessarily mean they are not a good business to buy.

It sounds like a lot of this has come from the bank reducing the overdraft.
The bank could really do this to any business at any time.

I have worked at a large retail company where this happened and it is still a good profit making business, but for that year, we had to change banks and really cut costs.
Bradford you would have thought have to do the same.

There is nothing bad about a business running on a 500k over draft, but the bank will expect certain things to be in place to do that. This is often keeping resource costs to a particular percentage or income to not drop below a certain level.
Either way, it is not an out of the blue decision if this is what happened but possibly the couldn't stop it happening.

Unfortunately they don't own the ground to keep as secuity.

Sad times if they go, but I'll feel more sympathetic if they have to cut costs like we did and build again.

Dont like to see any side in the trouble we were in. Hope they get out of it. The chairman has done well disguising it. For us it was a blessing in disguise as we are actually moving forward as a club; excellent progression.

thats out of order I feel for the supporters

Interesting statement from Richard Wright released on the back of this, basically telling the Cas fans what a good job he is doing.

Surely, if the club goes into admin, they have to be deducted 4 points? Or is that for the "little clubs"?

Everyone has their own opinions mate.

I honestly think Bradford need a breath of fresh air, just like we did. They are going nowhere fast under their current regime, although it is tough for their supporters.

The RFL hold the lease on Odsal, they won't lose their home, they will lose their best players, and have other assets stripped. I seriously doubt Bulls fans will pay £100 each when their season tickets are cheaper than that, especially in these tough economic times.

Just goes to show that success doesn't last forever. They need to take the hit IMO and come out of the other side, they are too big a club to cease to exist.

Textbook Dicky Wright.

True, but there also comes a time when the level of debt becomes unmanageable, as we found out to our cost too. Given the figures that have been mentioned, and assuming that the SKY money for this season has been paid, you have to ask yourself how they were hoping to generate sufficient income to cover the running costs between now and the next big payout, and consider the additional debt that would have been accrued in the meantime.

I could be well off the mark here, but it looks to me like they've done exactly what clubs are being encouraged to avoid, namely speculating on success by spending money they don't have, rather than face up to the situation earlier. On a smaller scale, we were no different, but the result could well be the same.

I think that you are right, the predatory forces may just have been HMRC and other creditors. Therefore the RFL have indeed safeguarded the future of RL at Odsal.
Its not quite what we thought at the time but, the one sure this was, it certainly had a whif of something not right.

It's also interesting that several clubs were criticised for submitting speculative information in their franchise applications, so whomever scrutinised them was able to spot that level of speculation, but failed to do so in Bradford's case.

On the matter of Richard Wright's comments; perhaps someone should remind him that not everything is about Cas? If I were the Bulls Chairman, I might consider it in rather bad taste that RW has used the Bradford situation as an opportunity to soft-soap his own fans, who are rightly concerned at their lack of decent signings, poor performances and confusing stadium picture; he even manages to sneak in an excuse about not signing Gareth Ellis!

I don't know what Wakey fans feel, but as a Salford fan I support a side like yourselves, that if the boot was on the other foot we'd be left to rot. I have sympathy with the Bulls fans but all this #savebradfordbulls is taking the mick a little. I'd say support Bradford if there was parity throughout the League and teams from top to bottom could expect the same. We all know that would never happen to our Clubs.

Its been common knowledge for sometime the Bradford Bulls was suffering in silence and it hurt me as a fan to watch Wakefield go through such turmoil when we went into administration and not feel bitter when the RFL stepped in to help purchase the ground

Our club was stripped to the bare bones and rightly so to make way for the future that is looking so bright for us now whether we move to Newmarket or not, now you will have to hope that the same can be done at Bradford but I fear the debt is far too greater.

It doesn't give me any pleasure it see this happen and I do hope the club can pull through this but the problem lays deeper within the game its self, you only have to see other clubs and their attendances, if we are not careful the game will just disappear.

I would of done the same if I was you in trying to fight the clubs corner, if I was you I would get the club to realise that they need to down size and ground share with Bradford City, its not as bad as the prospect of sharing with a rival club is it.

I too would like to see Whitehead and Burgess make there way to Wakefield

IMO - there's very little point in the "well they are a big club and they wouldn't bat an eyelid if it was us" argument. At the end of the day, a historic club which brings many fans, sponsors and investors into the sport that we love is in dire straits and we all should band round and try and help them through it.

I'll not forget the support we got off the Hull fans one year when we were being docked points - that's what our game is all about.

It’s a heartbreaking time for the Bradford supporters & we can speak from experience.

However, one way or another they’ll come through it.

Looking back to when we were in the mire a few Bradford fans were sympathetic eg.





Many were ambivalent, however on poster has a different view.




And to him



Merry Christmas

.

This is where my concern lies, the RFL didn't hesitate in pointing out the Crusaders speculative financial business plan, however Bradford were admitted in the 2012-2014 SL with a grade B license with a poor ground, poor community game structure, poor youth development and what now has emerged poor financial planning, what exactly did they have that was classed as good, from SL licensing results it says about Bradford bulls
[i"The club has a solid fan base, a strong brand and good operating structure/governance in place. However the club faces some challenges."[/i
Also it stated [i
"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."[/i

The RFL have been clearly shown up here, what a total load of BULL (excuse the pun

) this has been.
I feel sorry for the Fans/Players and to a degree the BoD, the RFL had a responsibility here and have clearly failed IMHO

are you suggesting that some clubs were .......FIBBING