Quote: Faxlore "Sorry for misunderstanding about being invited. I know that the Bulls have a very good academy and reserves set up but the RFL making you have a reserves is as bad in the present situation you are in. They wont let you sign players, you don't know if you will be at Odsal or where you may play next season. The RFL are squeezing you financially over Odsal , yet they make you put money into a system that is competing with the SL clubs. I'm sure the Bulls can keep running their academy and reserves but to me it just stinks that they make some teams run this system and tell others, who have one, they can't.'"
The RFL are not making Bradford run a reserves side at all; the club is choosing to do so by continuing to run a cat 1 academy, for which they are handsomely compensated through central funding (I have seen a figure of £100k quoted but don't know how realistic that is). To do that from next season also necessitates the running of a reserves.
They are hardly squeezing them financially over Odsal either - I'd bet a pound to a penny you'd be moaning if they were not charging them a market rental rate and/or subsidising them through paying for ground maintenance. Don't forget the RFL coughed up the best part of £1m to save the iconic stadium and so far will have got back around £350k through rent but are extremely unlikely ever to get the capital back - reducing the book value of Odsal to about £400k a couple of years ago points to them knowing that. Not exactly a good return on investment.......