The whole bloody thing stinks, Going as far back as the awarding of a Grade B License to a club on the edge of melt down. Ever since IMHO we have been fed lie after lie. I am now convinced that after after Widnes were given their Golden Ticket and we were asked to apply again with the other SUPA DUPA League clubs as the likes of Wood Lewis and Rimmer knew they could loose their precious Dulls,

Am in agreement with all the people who are hacked off but its gone on so long now and we all knew what the outcome was going to be, I am just drawing a line under the whole RFL/Bulls/Franchise fiasco-let them make their bed and then lie in it!

I would just like to say I feel sorry for all the fans of the championship,I believe that it is a good old boys club and they make up rules as they go, I would also agree with Fax Machine that we need to have a Independant investigation of the Bradford Bulls and the RFL . I have always said things like salary cap for instance is a farce.We have teams in our game that are bringing in top rate players left right and but not violating the salary cap.We have all heard about the loop holes to get around it,player brought in for a small amount of money and then his wife or partner lands a job with the club for massive amount of money.How many of us average people can land jobs like this with no qualifications and it goes on and on.

The Administrator was clearly in bed with Ken Bates when Leeds United went into admin, the machinations that went on to ensure that Ken Bates were the preferred bid was more than a bit dodgy, ie Yorkshire Radio being owed lumps of money by Leeds United, to ensure that his offer was accepted by the required number of creditors.

The point is, if he got away with that when there were better bids for the creditors on the table, then Bradford and the administrator etc will easily get away with this.

I bought a season ticket this year knowing that I wouldn´t get to many games, I´ve made four, I did it to stick two fingers upto SL and to thank the club for backing KH last season.

I intend to buy another this season, hopefully I´ll get to a lot more games as well, i´m planning on moving back into the area.

We really are wasting our time. Rovers put a team in the U18s league and fund it ourselves, fools like me and rotherham fev fattie go to functions and spend wads to help fund the team. they do very well also in the league. yet the other week we were due to face Huddersfield a club that gets there U18s paid for to the tune of 100k, yet they cancelled the game unable to raise a team. Its outragous are the RFL getting value for money? the game stinks to high heaven, if every one of those self styled elite went bust i would be very happy

RFL terms of engagement in the SL franchise system in my view = Sport for only those who they the RFL decide, when they decide and if they decide it is entirely on their terms what they decide, or decide to change those terms, if they have previously decided something which now doesnt suit them, they will just decide.!!!!

Then use the words..." due dilligence has decided after a closely contested process that nobody from the Championship can join us because WE are the only ones who can DECIDE" (but we reserve the right to change our mind in case one of the clubs we are not too bothered about go bust ie Castleford)

Thats why we are such a visionary, progressive,vibrant,vastly improving, all inclusive National sport attracting billions in funding, operating with openess and transparancy promoting the goverment ethos of sport for all.................NOT

Part quote. "What happens when Salford go bust? Precedent has been set. Or has it?"

Exactly what I posted before with the addition that if a "Lower" SL clubs gets into serious trouble and do not get saved by the powers that be then this is blatant sporting discrimination that cannot be right.

In effect.
Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Warrington would never be allowed to go out of buisness!

Salford, Cas, Wakey would be?

What about either of the HUll clubs, have they not got just as great a tradition and history in the game.

On the other hand.

If any of the clubs currently in SL get into trouble and are saved then what has become of the licensing system criteria, box ticking or whatever they want to call it.

Answer = totally irrelevant.

I wonder if the people at Red Hall have considered any of the above.

It gets deeper the more you think about it.
Bradford Bulls success ( and current image (which is what the RFL say can't be lost) and is not the same as Bradford Northern) over the last few years was built on success on the field through having a winning side assembled by spending large sums of money on signing up some of the better players.

This and the novell idea of getting whole families to come with bouncy castles for kids,live pre match entertainment for supporters etc had Odsal full to the rafters with crowds averaging above the 17,000 mark.
Eddy Emmings said about this that it was so good.
Quote "Other Super League Clubs take note." This is how it should be done in the modern era.

The problem was that many of the 17,000+ crowd were not and are not true Rugby League supporters.
For a short while as long as the Bulls were winning, they enjoyed it and thought they were winners too.

As the bubble started to burst and the novelty wore off the idea of turning up and seeing the Bulls lose a few games and not sweeping everything before them wasn't quite as appealing and a bouncy castle type razz and tazz at odsal quickly lost it's appeal.

Crowds started to drop but the players were still on the large contracts and a shorfall in funds started to appear that could not be quickly fixed.
That is one of the main reasons Caisley walked away in the first place he knew that more was going out than was coming in and they were slowly going bust.

The irony is.
Having reached the Rugby league dizzy heights that they did.
Bradfords Bulls SL success and there "Image" as a great club that must be saved at all costs is what has led to their current situation.

Having got to the top they could not handle it at the top overreaching themselves to try and stay there, that and some sheer bad management thrown in is why they are where the are today.

A lot of it has to do with the luck of timimg. We were bigger than Bradford in 1986 - they were poor and struggled with crowds. We were bigger than Huddersfield, Wakefield, Castleford, Hull, Hull KR, Widnes and London throughout the early 90's.

We were bigger because we too spent money we didn't have. Bradford are no better than us. Yes - they attracted about 7,000 more people than we did. So what? I would say the end result for both clubs is markedly different though. Bradford have brought chaos and ridicule to the game - and it's still dragging on.

Spot on mate, so true, the daft thing is the deluded SL fans believe we are the ones in the wrong and are just being naughty saying such bad things about their precious 'closed shop'.

They have but they have also got a heck of a lot of PR out of this, I have noticed an increase in Bulls shirts and tops the last few months around and about, they have also got from most SL fans the sympathy vote, weird.
I bumped into some Bulls fans on the train down to London on Friday and they just don't get it at all, they really do think we are all just having a go 'cos its them and we don't like them' and that they deserve to be in SL and should stay there, they do not even contemplate being outside SL at all. The daft sod even said 'where was the biggest RL crowd ever?' = Odsal but I had to remind him it was Halifax v Warrington that played, meaning WE and Warrington created the biggest crowd ever not Bradford!