relegation is confirmed. oldham have 11 points Swinton 12 points....they have to play each other so one of them will get to 13 points minimum...........

I think you need to look at other factors rather than RFL in some cases they have tried to assist the Bulls. The sad fact is the owners haven't invested a little more to win key games.

Rather than budget squad wise to stay in the league they have relied on other teams goodwill with loans. They kept you in the league and this was not what most fans wanted. Next year you will be a club that can attract the very best players in league 1 you will also have more money to play with. All season ticket, sponsors and funding will be yours. Also you will still have the biggest support in the league.

The fans need to look within a little more, the RFL have helped you previously more than any team however they have had their fingers burnt so many times. I guess this time they looked for someone they can trust. All the other offers seemed to care more about the money to be had from owning Odsal rather than working to get the team forward.

Sad day for the sport and I don't feel any team can be secure in a sport with so little money. Good luck for the future keep the faith.

I think if you have a look at this board you'll see plenty of fans looking within from some leadership from the club owners. That's been sadly lacking unfortunately.

You can't buy players that are not there. Likewise, we can only sign players who would want to play for us too, and with our almost inevitable relegation, what sort of career choice is that?

The owners have signed better players then they had as they came available throughout the year (Smith, Tonga, Chisholm), and had shocking luck with injuries with them.

When it comes to key positions, such as in the halfs, we needed loan players as there are simply not players available to buy with 2 weeks to season start. Bulls owners have admitted that not signing Chisholm at that time was a mistake, but while all the player we did sign were in Bradford ready to sign on the dotted line, Chisholm was on the other side of the world.

You are right about the money for next year, and all sponsorship has been sold already too, which is a good thing. Are the current owners a safe pair of hands? Lets see what state we are in at the start of next season.

However, the long on short of it is how many fans come to watch third league rugby next year? Its a big ask, and its going to be a tough sell to retain the fans we have never mind winning back lapsed fans, or (incredibly) winning new fans.

one big positive, the RFL still have to have a professional team playing at odsal next year to fulfil the terms of the lease so most likely there will be another year of rent relief on playing there, that is a rather lot of money that the Bulls can save to use to fund players salaries that other teams in the Champ 1 won't have..... The fight back starts in 2018

Even if that's true what happens in the future without rent relief? I ask since a SL side with crowds of 10k olus couldn't survive at Odsal in its current state.

League 1 is a tough league at the top end hopefully my team haven will get promoted this year. As for next year Bradford will easily do a Toronto and go right back up your crowds are 4 times higher than any of the other teams you,ll have a lot more coin to spend and will be able to cherry pick all the best players at the lower end of the champ and league 1 teams.

The Future...... that's when Big Nige comes riding in on his white charger.... does a deal with the council, a deal with developers to build a new smaller stadium 12k-15k, plush new offices for the RFL and they then get the rest of the site with planning permission. He leaves a legacy for the RFL and becomes the new owner of the Bulls with Cha-Lo as his fellow directors........

Or he does the dirty and shafts the Bulls again by only buliding the Offices

Popup Cynic, apply to pie.warrior for an internship in cynicism, you little turdtle.

So for next year, I do not care what else is going on off pitch, but what I really want is a squad that has been selected more than five minutes before the start of the season, if loan players then for the season not just 10 seconds, has a preseason, has a core of home growns, and big ask maybe, but has a reserves side within which the homegrowns can develop at a pace that suits them not the needs of the first team.

In other words, what every other team in rugby league have enjoyed this season (see statisticians thread Dilligaf post for a summary of our season)

On the contrary, I would say they invested too much to win lost games. If I have one criticism of Chalo it is the KR game when the player they spent a £10k fee on got crocked for the rest of the season. My criticism is that they should have rested every single player that had any minor ailment, or had just joined us and therefore not up to gamespeed, etc etc and looked to the games that could be won.

So yes, I would say that the RFL, for their own benefit not ours, have seemed to do us favours, but the net cost of what you claim to be the RFL's magnanimity has definitely been overwhelmingly ours, not the RFL.

Good luck with your senility, keep off this forum.