Apologies now for the long post, but might be of interest to some.

In terms of “cutting our cloth accordingly” there are far too many elephants in the room to us on the outside to understand where any cost cutting can be made.

• We are led to believe that opening and maintaining Odsal for RL cost the club circa £500k per year. Clearly moving away from the money pit makes good sense, and believe it or not, if that is true, Andrew Chalmers may actually have saved the club from administration (although it does not seem like the case at this time).
• Moving to Dewsbury will cost us £2k per game – when you consider the options of staying at Odsal, makes clear sense. What it does not tell us however, is the lost value of advertising, match day hospitality revenue, likely attendance drop etc, so the £2k cost will in “real” terms, be considerably higher.
• Where will our junior and reserve teams play? Again, what costs will be additional to this now we have “moved out”.
• Should we run an academy and reserve side next year? In order to receive funding towards the academy from the RFL, I believe we also have to run a reserve team. Does the receipt of funding, and what is now the annual sale of upcoming talent to SL or more wealthy sides, cover the cost of running such an outfit. At first guess I’d say almost certainly not. It would however be a very unpopular decision to see the scraping of our junior set up that has helped produce recent talents in the current GB Lions squad of Jake Trueman, John Bateman, Elliott Whitehead, Tom Burgess (and the rest unavailable or not selected). Unless the academy is self-sufficient, how can it be a justifiable expense at this time? It’s horrible to say, as I worked in previous years on the BullBuilder board, and they have done many fantastic things for the club, but without seeing the numbers first hand, I don’t see how the existence of the academy can continue in its current guise.
• Do we need to move to a 100% part-time playing staff? Clearly this would be a cheaper option than operating any sort of hybrid squad we currently use. Any full-time contracted players would need to agree to any change in terms, or accept some form of pay-off for the remainder of their contracts – again, an added expense to the list.
• Cash is king. Companies can make shed loads of losses and operate absolutely without problem provided they have the cash available to pay wages and suppliers. Clearly we are not cash rich as we once were in our hayday.
• Managing our existing creditors is key at this present moment in time. All it needs is a few of them to play ball and go through legal proceedings and any takeover will hit the floor pretty quickly. It is interesting to read that Chris Brereton has already started to speak with our main creditors to try and gain agreement on payment.
• How on earth are we supposed to manage payments to staff, players and suppliers needed in the coming weeks? Rumours of advance payments from the RFL of next years funding have surfaced, but we probably don’t have the cash to pay them going forwards in the long term if we are already looking at setting up deals with existing creditors, unless there is a mass influx of cash from season ticket sales, which will be very difficult to believe being high given the massive uncertainty hanging over the club.
• The clubs existing credit rating is horrendous (Well, that of Bradford Bulls 2017 Limited). From one credit agency, you are advised to offer zero credit, our rating is 0D (Poor), and High Risk. 3 CCJ’s remain unsatisfied (2 from June, 1 from late September), all for not what you would call significant amounts of money (6k, 1k & 2k). There may be legitimate reasons for not paying these I would add.
• The next accounts are due to be filed at Companies House (y/e 31/01/19) by the end of this month. A little more information may be there, but as the club publish unaudited abridged accounts, there’s not too much to play with and interrogate. What the last accounts (Y/E 31/01/18) did show however, was that Creditors: amounts falling due after one year were a value of £675k. Without further detail it is impossible to understand what makes up this balance – it will most likely be loans to individuals / organisations – possibly the RFL, who knows…….. Also, when those amounts are actually payable (or have been paid) is unclear…
• The last accounts showed Creditors : amounts falling due within one year to be £115k. If this has now risen to £500k it may be a shift from Creditors greater than 1 year to current, as per the point above
• Issues with Pensions payments have been declared as an “administrative error”, I’m hoping that is the case, and it’s not a case of robbing Peter, to pay Paul……(see above 2 points)

So in summary, from the outside in we are clearly in a mess financially, and I suspect there’ll be a few more skeletons coming out of the cupboard if previous administrations are anything to go by….

Spot on Bully. There is to a large extent no meaningful comparison between the two businesses in regard to the incoming income streams.

Not sure if you listened to the Full Eighty Minutes last week but I said a large chunk of the debt will be addressed by selling our young players (Rowan Milnes, Matty Storton) and those more established (Joe Keyes).

I still stand by the term I used which was asset-stripping but what else can CB, KH and MS do? Chalmers has left a car crash behind and it's either sell these assets to repay the creditors or administration number five.

Just a word of warning. Don't be fooled like I was by the club's accounts. Andrew Chalmers self audited them and nothing that has been submitted can be trusted as fact.

This is one of the most multifacetedly stupid comments I’ve seen for a long while!

Debt, particularly toxic debt, is not the same as a loan!

The LOAN puts an asset in Wakefield’s possession that is in fact worth more than the £3million.

The loan repayments are less than the annual rent for the ground thus improving Wakefield’s financial position

Owning the ground allows Wakefield to develop income streams within the new developments

Holding title to such an asset makes Wakefield more creditworthy

There are many more positives to taking that loan but these are the immediately apparent financial ones.

Of course there is, the philosophy is exactly the same even if the scale is much smaller!

While the funding is smaller so too are the outgoings.

You seem to know a whole heap of what other clubs owe to who!

Stones and glass houses come t mind when you support a club that paraded a massive cheque around before redevelopment of the east stand that never came to fruition. Then also while a non league team of a different sport always up to date with rent etc and you lot got locked out for the opposite!

Seems some fax fans cant have reasoned discussion without spouting your club owes etc! We all know we are in the poop. On the other hand Greg Florimo comes on and posts with reason

Mick, who are KH and MS?

Kathryn Harrison and Mark Sawyer, you'll get to meet them next week at the fans forum.

I must stress again that Mark's position in the new ownership of the club is purely an advisory role to help and assist with the 12-month move to Dewsbury.

Kath Hetherington and Marwan Soukash

Thanks Mick

Who is Kathryn Harrison, and what's her pedigree in the sport, if any?

Also, are those three the totality of 'the consortium', or are there others?