As we are already relegated and with no chance of getting any franchise or reprieve lets look to 2018. Yes it is early days but lets see what people expect.

I personally think with the following points we can get automatic promotion.
- No points deduction.
- No issues with players getting a visa.
- Hybrid squad of full and part time in a league of amateurs.
- Should effectively be the richest club in the league.
- Toronto our biggest threat will already be promoted.
- Should be able to attract some decent players and have a full off season.
- A coach from the start hopefully we have someone already lined up.

Discuss.......

TBH, I'm still expecting us to go out of business before we get there

Put it this way I won't be rushing out to get my season ticket as early as possible like last year.

If we start the season without going bust I'm going auto promotion.

No National Conference option?

So many unknowns at this stage. What sort of squad are we assembling? Until we know that it's hard to say what to expect. I'm "hoping" we're going full tilt for promotion (1st). If it looks incapable of achieving that aim we'll be looking at the other options - but let's be honest - anything other than a serious tilt at promotion would hit season ticket sales and walk up to the point that we'd be out of business in no time.

Some very good sides at our level, better than the ones currently in league 1! Although Toovey was looking at our fullback a couple of months ago maybe he knew something then.......

Whatever your expectation is, expect to actually be at least one rung below that, such is the norm for Bradford Bulls in recent times. So expect for your expectation to be wrong. Ok my head hurts now.

Don't say that. Nat Conf 2 here we come.

Well, you'd like to think we'd assemble a squad capable of making a genuine bid for the automatic slot, but who knows? Until we see how things are shaping up - heck we don't even know the format of the league yet - its impossible to say

What I would caution though is that there will be some very decent teams around us next season. We'll have whichever team gets relegated with us (either Oldham or Swinton you would think), along with whichever teams from Barrow, Whitehaven or York that don't get promoted along with Toronto. Doncaster and Hunslet are no mugs, and you can bet that Keighley are going to see us as the biggest scalp they could possibly take.

Most of the teams at the top end of League 1 are interchangeable with the likes of Swinton, Rochdale and Oldham that we have really struggled to beat this season. Unless get a decent squad and - perhaps even more importantly - get the attitude right, we will come a cropper on plenty of occasions next season.

Nothing more less than a trip to Wembley and a challenge cup win will do for me..

Sart in conderence 2 -12, becaus ethe RFL wont let us start in conference 3

This post should be emailed, posted and even sent by Raven to the club

HA, definitely, Be like 2015 all over again. Enter the season full of optimism and we get given the hardest fixture possible with an away game to Leigh with an inexperienced referee (who was also from Leigh) Rest of season we were chasing. I guarantee our first fixture will be Keighley or York away.

Think our chances depend on who comes down too. If it's Rochdale i'd say they will be favourites. If Swinton come down, i think they'll really be struggling just to stay in business never mind having a promotion challenge. As Bullseye said, too many variable to make predictions, we don't know our squad or what bloody format the league will be. If it's 8 home, 8 away, then we're fecked as we'll get the difficult teams away. Obviously as we're the RFL pets and all that.

One thing i am looking forward to is our achievements (or lack of) will depend on what we actually do in that league. We finish top, we earn promotion. No ridiculous situation of having to beat any teams not in our league.

The issue for me is not getting out of that league, although I have doubts about the likelihood of that happening, it's the lack of money - it is litle use even if we did manage to get promoted back to the Championship, if we enter it with a significantly worse squad of players than everyone else in that division, and if we remain without any money to move up a few gears back to similar wages bill as 2017.

We self-declared as having no big money to spend on players, and we've self-declared that we are not only not looking for investors, but we've actually knocked a few back.

So my concern is that the whole thing makes no immediate financial sense. Yes, you can probably end up being competitive in C1 on a shoestring, but there will be plenty of tough games if you pitch and construct your own squad on a C1 basis; surely the aim should be to become the new Toronto? But without any money, let alone substantial money, there's more chance of us becoming the old Bulls, and going tits.

If ChaLow have indeed worked out a way to "cut our cloth" which doesn't involve them actually investing in any decent new quality cloth from their own pockets, then whilst we may remain solvent (for once), we won't be cracking any pots.

And my problem with that is, if all is as I summarise - then what is the point? I mean, is proving you can run a team in C1 without putting in any significant moeny, and break even, a worthwhile aim? I still don't get it.

Nor do I. Unless it's all just a holding pattern to keep the club in existence (at a bare minimum expense) until a new stadium and new income generation opportunities arise? Bit of a long shot.

I'm not sure getting promoted would be pointless as I think you're arguing. But for the points deduction we'd still be in with a shout of staying up this season. And that's with all the other handicaps we've had. Going into a season in the championship off the back of a promotion winning season with a settled squad would be infinitely better off than we were back in Feb 2017. If we remained partly part time we'd probably be able to recruit a better squad too.

I think the real problem comes when you get in the championship and want to get promoted to SL. That's not happening to anyone unless you spend big and that's not happening with us.