Quote: Highlander "After only 3 minutes thought - how about the council buy the Odsal lease and buy VP from (testing my memory here) the Gibbs pension fund? I think the last time this was discussed , which was pre covid, pre austerity and pre financial crisis, they were talking about £6m? Don't know what it would be now. Get Bulls out of Odsal & into VP - 3 shares? 1 each for council, City, Bulls? Would prevent the vague feeling of being unwelcome which I felt last time, do any upgrades/modernisation that is needed and that frees up the entire Odsal site for development which, if done well, would unlock cash, jobs, infrastructure for South Bradford specifically and the entire council area generally.
Get partners on board, University, utilise the motorway links, fasttrack the park & ride planned for the site, build towards the city of culture which should shake money loose as well.'"
Sounds great in theory but depends on the council having the money and support in the chamber for such a plan. It also relies on the VP owners playing ball and it relies on their being some developers that are interested in Odsal enough to unlock that value. I often wonder how valuable the site is? If it was really sought after then I'm surprised the Bulls are still there!
It also relies on there being some people capable of bringing all the above together.
I'd love it to happen but I'm sceptical as to whether the stars will all align. Bradford's failed to ever deliver a project of that size with so many moving parts since Noah was a lad.