Just looked at T&A website and there is a suggestion that any new investor would mean a whole new Board in place, and that the current Board will be happy to step aside. As this seems to be what many are quoting as their ultimate wish for the Club, and the reason for perhaps not pledging, it will be interesting to see if the pledges increase on the back of this news.

Yes I noticed that. The relevant section isBulls chairman Peter Hood and chief executive Ryan Duckett have spoken to a number of parties about investing in the cash-stricken club. Former chairman Chris Caisley, who remains the club’s largest single shareholder, is similarly speaking to parties about potential investment in the Bulls.

It is understood that would-be investors, including Steve Parkin, are monitoring the amounts being pledged in the ‘Quest for Survival’ campaign as they decide their next move. It is also thought any major investment to secure the future of the club would spell the end for the current regime, with the existing board happy to step aside in that event.'"

Absolutely. In a previous thread there are comments about the way the Wigan fans got behind the club, new Board etc after their similar "difficulties". I said it before, and it may sound strange given current circumstances, but I genuinely feel that this could be the best thing to happen to the club in a long time. It looks like the old adage of not knowing what you've got till you lose it (or are threatended with losing it) is coming true.

As for hiding the pertinent section in amongst other blurb......has any of this been clear and easy to fathom? Sadly I expect little else!!

agree entirely HLL. A new fresh start needs to be made at the club, even if we see a points deduction or whatever, there needs to be a fresh impetus, fresh ideas, fresh business acumen, whilst somehow still retaining or regaining the family feel the club once had.

I suspect there will be a consrtium of some guise and expect to see some old faces return along with them from the successful winning era we not so long ago had.

I agree these sentiments entirely - I for one will never take the club for granted again.

My worry with Parkin is that, when he showed interest last time he was more interested in Odsal than the Bulls. Surely we want someone who will have the club's best interests at heart? Unless I've got this wrong?

I agree. I don't think the current Board can be blamed too much for the build up to the financial crisis, its been coming for many years. We never made much money in our glory days, so its almost been inevitable that we would struggle post Harrisgate.

The Board appears to have lost a lot of trust and confidense over the way that its handled the crisis. Its very difficult to form a reasoned opinion on how they've handled things, given that the details remain so murky. But quite a few seemingly capable Boards have made decisions and statements that they've probably regretted whilst in the throes of putting out multiple fires.

To finish up with someone who was only looking for a means to grab any assets would be a total disaster to be honest, probably every bit as bad as administration.

Incidentally, on the point of the statement being "hidden halfway down a column", it wasn't [iexactly [/ia headline item as there is nothing being said that hasn't been put out before. The same point about the board (or maybe just the chairman) stepping aside if a new backer could be found has been in the T&A before and also in the club programme under the chairman's comments section. I'd assume this message is being pushed in discussions with corporate sponsors and other individuals. I can't say I'm over confident on this one to be honest though, if it was going to happen it would probably have already done so. Maybe, just maybe, the more urgent nature of the appeal now will flush someone out; here's hoping anyway.

What concerns me, having given this further thought today, is that the current board may consider that reaching the £500K target constitutes some sort of endorsement of their tenure.

Paradoxically, those who want to see a change in the board room might well be hoping that we actually fall short of the target - so long as it is only by the amount that these 'potential investors' are ready to invest

The trouble is that nobody knows how much that amount might be.

What assets? The club don't own the ground or even the lease on the ground? Of what possible value would the players contracts plus the Sky contract plus the Super league franchise hold when stripped from the club? The 'predator' theory is self evident codswallop.

We own the coral stand @ circa 2m

Anything but. The predator theory refers to people who would be looking to negotiate a deal whereby the Bulls are ousted from Odsal, to VP or wherever they don't really care, the main plank of the deal for them is that Odsal becomes available land for them to make a killing on. Obviously that would involve the Council agreeing, but they are more skint than the Bulls and would probably do anything to save money, so the prospect of pulling in a huge sum of cash in exchange for the freehold of the Odsal site is self-evidently not codswallop.

And the theoretical value of Odsal might now be much higher with the greenest government in history relaxing planning regulation even further in favour of development. Perhaps the RFL had advance notice of government policy?

So they would buy a club, breach the terms of a lease with the leaseholder who also happens to be the governing body who hands out the franchises. Their potential liabilities are already in the millions without any guarantees but nevertheless, let's carry on. Having got the Bulls out of Odsal, the council's asset management section who are bound by law to maximise the value of the council's assets would not take the site to the marketplace but would instead sell the site in an exclusive deal to the predator. Having acquired the site they would now have to apply for planning permission for whatever they wanted to use it for which considering most of it is an old tip would have some significant complexity to it.

It would be years and millions of pounds of legal wrangling and public protest all with the very real chance the council would either not sell the site at all or quite possibly sell it to someone else. I'm sorry, codswallop it is.

But that value will be based on it being used in is current location.

If a third party wanted to dismantle it & put it at their own ground they'd be paying a hell of a lot less than £2m for it.