Bullbuilder has been in regular dialogue and held meetings with the single SD official who has responsibility for the whole of RL.

SD themselves have a problem in that they have lost or are losing all their RL funding. That is a separate issue that RL supporters will need to address and lobby over.

So the question is could a consortium of fans and business interests be put together that could raise the funds to make a bid of sufficient magnitude to give the club a chance of retaining its position in SL? - or would a more realistic target be to raise the cash to have a Bradford RL team in one of the lower leagues - lower financial hurdle to jump - but than I guess also less support and interest?

I see and agree with the points above about not being able to run a club by committee and this would clearly not be practical, and equally fans becoming lots of small individual shareholders would have not effective influence. So I was suggesting that a fans organisation - say BB as they are already set up - buy a stake for it's members as a whole. Having some potential funding to bring to the table would also give it more influence in negotiations. But there is a pressing need to get some professional management lined up pretty dam quick if any sort of team is to be in place for next season.

So now is the time to finally test what and how much interest and cash the fan base will put where its collective mouth is - maybe a pledge type scheme so no money need change hands if there isn't a deal to be done but at least whoever represents the fans would know what their hand was. I might be being dewy eyed but if some group did manage to get an offer together including a contribution from hopefully a large number of fans than it would be politically harder to - shall we say find "unacceptable" conditions in the offer?

Bingo!

Is it possible for a company/group of fans to buy a current 51% stake in the Bulls and run with SLE moving forward?? Why does it have to be 100% stake?

I'm pretty sure all the noises from the RFL are positive towards fan involvement, as pointed out above it may not involve £1.5m to "save" the club and keep in SL.

Question - Are Bullbuilder willing to move forward with fan based ownership whether in a consortia or in their own right if their members deem so? Ability is another matter and appreciate what is said about volunteers etc...

FYI I currently sit on a committee for another sport organisation, over 2500 members and a turnover of £100k per annum and it works really well - again appreciate that the numbers involved are a factor of 10 at least out but it shows what can be done on a voluntary basis

What do you mean by "are BullBuilder willing..."? Do you mean the committee or the members? Anything like this would have to come from a substantial number (the majority) of the members, not from the committee, and certainly not from outsiders making noises about what an organisation they never bothered to join in the first place [ishould[/i be doing (general comment - not aimed at you or other individuals in particular). There has been no such groundswell from the members.

If there were such a groundswell, certainly most of the current committee would not be able to take it forward - but that's a different issue.

Would certainly be enlightening if we knew whether the people shouting loudest for bullbuilders involvement are actually members?. Problem is most people dont advertise whether there a member or not apart from those who use the bullbuilder logo as their tagline. E.G. I'm a member but you wouldnt know it from looking on RLFans.

Why not have a word with Feisal Nabahoo at Probiz, he is desperate to own a Super League team and could get u on the cheap

If only word of a SL club being for sale could somehow have reached someone desperate to buy a SL club. Did he not have enough notice?

Question: Are you a member? If so, are you willing to volunteer your services - on an ongoing and regular basis - to help bring this about? And are you prepared to commit your services for at least the medium term, once the initial riush of publicity is over and the hard, greinding yards need to be made?

If you are, we need to hear from you.

Indeed. But that is not to say there is any lack of ability. Far from it. My personal view is that the range of ability and enthiusiasm and skills represented acros the Bullbuilder board is quite exceptional, and would make a pretty decent management team of a commercial business. And its a group of people I have been very proud to work with and be a small part of.

No, the issue would be the time commitment; and I guess the motivation, especially when the brickbats started flying, as they inevitably would.

I assume that bull builder is run along the lines of a membership association so the members need to vote to agree rule change - assume its in the constitution? I did qualify my question with if the members so deemed

Just for the record I am a member, and if I am honest should have joined years ago - so apologies for my shortsightedness.

The work the organisation does and it objectives are clear and will hopefully still be required for years to come as a active youth policy is both one of the reasons we have had a better year on the pitch and will always be needed for a sustainable long term future even if we did have a wealthy backer - which we don't.

I could well be wrong but feel there are still a large number of fans in Bradford who - according to their means - would like to maintain a vibrant RL club in the city and though it would be nice to be in SL i think many just want to have a Bradford team to support. At the moment most of us just feel like bystanders watching a car crash and are looking for a mechanism to help both practically and financially. BB is already set up so it seems a logical structure to channel the fans interest through?

So two questions:

1) Would BB members be willing for the organisation to be used to facilitate a potential fans investment in the club?
2) If you haven't joined BB already why not? The annual fee is only £10 - which is cheap even by recent season ticket standards!

The other points about BB is that it is a one member on vote organisation - so as a vehicle for fans - who will have widely varying means its a vehicle which would allow people to contribute to the cause as they are able but to have a equal say with all the other members; and that it is already in existence so cutting the tinme required to set up an organsation from scratch when time is at a premium already.

Correct - hence my comment about a majority of members (or technically, I suppose, a majority of members who vote).

Sorry to labour the point, but it's important.

If someone as generally committed and presumably able as you is not a member, what does it say about the likelihood of the mass of individuals joining that would be required to make something like this work?

As mentioned, with a couple of isolated exceptions (perhaps including you?), they haven't been indicating that they are. Things, of course, can change.

Indeed!

It's clear that our take on BullBuilder's role is slightly different, but I respect and approve the constructive way in which you put the argument forward - and the fact that you are doing so from the inside.