Much appreciated Friday. Sounds promising regarding the academy. I am resigned to us going down to league 1. Its the league we should have started in this season, as it is, the rebuilding process will have to start a year later.

Thanks Fr13daY and FA.

For me there is nothing in there that lifts my spirits.
But appreciate you are just fans like me - in fact you are better than me cos AC has spoken to you directly.

I agree about this season, but the expansion and investment in the academy, and the re-introduction of a reserve team is good news for the future. And not something to be done if the club was heading for the knackers yard surely?

Someone else has already said - might have been Roger Daley - actions speak louder than words.

I accept that I dont see the full picture, I'm blinkered etc, but give me a team that wins and I'll give you my money.

I dont really give a chuff how we get a winning team.

When I'm down the pub and Leeds and Wakei fans are telling me how well their 1st teams are doing they would crack up with laughter if I said yes but the Bulls academy/reserve can beat your academy/reserve.

I know we need good youngsters to come through the ranks, and we've got a great coaching set up looking after our young lads but if they just get snapped up by other clubs - whats the point.

Sorry Fr13daY - I'm genuinely not having a go at you - I'm just so pi$$ed off with the club I have supported all my life

Got to give a big thanks to you and FA for getting this done and a thank you to Mr Chalmers as well.

As stated before the season started. We should have started in League One. Those are the rules but alas the RFL (as stated in the interview) would not move on this and we had to start where we are now. I look back and I think how I felt at the time I found out we were liquidated and it honestly felt like a family member died, it hurt a lot. However we came back thanks to ChaLo and we have a Bradford Bulls.

Looking at that interview we have a future. And what I liked is that it was realistic aims. None of this "in 3 years we will be in SL", none of this "Oh the RFL are changing structures so we will be fine". It looks like a bottom up approach at the club and living within our means which is fine by me.

I also like the idea that sponsors are sorted for next season and that we have a coach in Toovey. Plus I appreciate he was honest that our three top earners are out and that the players actually know of their contract situations which makes a change!

So part time and CH1 here we come. Oh well at least we know that's the plan now. Sounds like it has been all along. They do know that there won't be many of us left then though don't they?

How come he didn't mention the secret plan to keep us up than everyone keeps referring to? Has no one told him yet?

The sooner we drop the line about getting back to SL where we belong the better. I would agree that out of the all the clubs currently not in SL we are one of those with potential to be back up there again. However we're currently a million miles away from that and a lot of hard work needs to be done.

I would settle for a well run, professional club which we all feel a part of. Obviously recognising we are well run will take time but the club still needs to do more to engage fans and convince them to go on that journey. Simply asking us to 'get behind them' isn't enough. We need to know the plan and what our money is building towards. I still feel a drop to NL1 for 2018 would feel like a massive kick in the guts as we have basically wasted a year and will need to rebuild all over.

If we invested in a competitive playing squad to get promotion from c1 and turned good performances out I would be behind it..
Another year like this year and I'm out...

Without meaning to sound to negative and not singling any one player out there are 2 or three members of this year's squad who aren't and never will be RL players at any level, hopefully this will be picked up on as the wage bill sounds like it's spread thinly.

The interesting thing I picked out was that the RFL insisted on us starting with -12 AND PAYING OFF SOME OF THE PREVIOUS CLUB'S DEBTS. Don't recall hearing that bit before. I know it's the rfl so anything is possible but it's a bit like buying a new house and paying the previous owners electricity bill.

It has definitely been mentioned before. It was specifically the monies owed to other clubs for loan deals from last season. Bradford had to sacrifice money to pay that back out of their central funding.


As much as I appreciate Friday and FA doing this, and relaying the info back to us, I can't say any of it really cheers me up. I already had fair confidence in the academy as I've watched quite a few games this year and can see the good work going into that, and I didn't doubt they were looking at that as the future. It's more the short term and financial futures that I was worried about and I can't say any of that really puts my mind at ease with regards to those. That criticism is purely at the club and owners though, not at Friday & FA who've done their best to get some answers.

I wonder just how many Championship Chairmen are cursing the RFL at the minute. 2018 looks to be a season they will be planning for already but with the loss of Bradford there will be a big loss in revenues at a time when Toulouse, London and Toronto will be in the league with the the lack of away fans that entails. Imagine if Catalans took the drop too to make way for KR.

4 home games with no additional revenue. Well played RFL

Never mind, the RFL may still get our thousands of fans at the Summer Bash next year - kicking it off with the League 1 Cup Final

While it's good to see the academy being continued and a reserves team being set up I think the damage has already been done. The lack of communication and clumsily handled issues around visas, away shirts and admittance into the ground have alienated a lot of people. Add to that a team that's struggling and the "drag factor" of the past 10 years of decline and people have had enough. You can only take so much. Simply asking supporters to "get behind the Bulls" is a load of guff. We've been doing this through 3 periods of administration and look to be seeing our second relegation in 4 years. Next year will be semi pro in the bottom tier. This isn't something to enthuse about. The academy has been the one shining light over the past few years. It remains the case. I expect if that had been shut down then it really would signal the end.

You may see people come back on board when there is hard evidence of forward progress. Until then no. I would love it if Chalmers and Athwal prove me wrong but I look at Chalmers record in business and in RL and I have doubts. Lowe isn't even here and has bugger all to do with the running of the club. His business record isn't exactly exemplary either. I'm still unclear as to why they got involved. I suspect other forces are at work. The current owners have no money so I wonder where the cash is coming from to run the club or to recruit new players.

Thanks to Friday and FA for doing the interview. Had they not done so we'd be even more in the dark.

First off, thanks Fr13daY for doing this and getting this all typed up. Very much appreciated, and you've done a damn sight better than anyone in the local or RL press has at trying to get some clarity.

However I do have to echo that my reaction is also one of slight disappointment. Strip the names away and it could actually read like one of Marc Green's early missives, the mixture of cautious optomisim and genuine naivety.

I remain to be convinced they have any real money to invest. Says he’ll pay out for the right player, but it seems Chisholm was the right player, the Bulls payed out a bare minimum and arranged a friendly in part-payment.

The fact that they were seemingly picked because of their RL pedigree speaks volumes about the RFL (ChaLowe’s recent RL pedigree has been…questionable, to be charitable to the bloke who has given you his time – and we knew that from the off). Nothing there to dissuade the rumours that the RFL wanted them in day one and weren’t bothered in the slightest with other parties. However, the more I hear I think that’s just because the RFL don’t have a clue, not because there is a secret plan.

Other – financial – alarm bells include a superstore, essentially going part time and another layer to the academy. To me this doesn’t really add up – does a third tier part time club really need a superstore for merchandise? If we are going part time next year then (and this is a tough one) do we really need to be expanding the academy – I’m not recommending scrap the academy but it seems to be running before we can walk. Also if we do go part time, it’s hard to come back from that. Say we get promoted to the Championship at the first time of asking, I can’t see us going full time again straight away in 2019. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

I appreciate he said some of this will come sooner rather than later, but tell us more of the sooner please Mr. C, as we still aren’t convinced there will be a later! Also the fact that plenty of businesses are saying “how on earth is this a new business? Same logo, stadium etc” – not Chalmers’ fault, but that is without a doubt coming back to bite us on the behind down the line I think (not sure how HMRC have just accepted that to be honest). Also the fact people will not leave steady jobs for the Bulls is a downer.

It’s good sponsorship for next year has been sorted, considering all that has gone on. However, I would also point out Marc Green was pretty good at that as well!