Quote Highlander="Highlander"Logically, Horsfall needs to be developed purely as a small athletics stadium, for county level events. I don't know if Bradford has something like that already.
Then BPA, Bulls and the council (maybe with some FA, RFL, sport England funding) need to build & share a moderately sized community sports stadium.'"
Many great examples of this kind of development around, one of which I was very lucky to be involved with developing in York.
[urlhttps://www.google.com/maps/search/university+of+york+athletics+stadium/@53.943851,-1.0549211,260m/data=!3m1!1e3[/url
However, this one was part of the deal that has seen the new community stadium being developed which we will see first hand next season. It directly replaced an older facility (much like Horsfall) but the difference was that this was located on a prime piece of land ideal for a new stadium and adjoining leisure/retail facilities.
Funds would need to be generated to make this a reality but as I've posted before, its not out of the realms of possibility to make it work. We have some prime locations available in the city and depending on the outcome of the general election, there could be some construction companies looking for new site locations in the very near future. That could generate at least some of the funds. Add this with potential partners in the NHS and HE sector then you could have a very interesting project.
One thing I do feel however is that no matter how much it gets muted, Horsfall Stadium is not a suitable venue for a community stadium and add to the fact that any closure of an athletics stadium without like for like replacement would be subject to appeal from both club and NGB and in all likelyhood would be never approved.
Horsfall needs to be left as it is... it serves it purpose as a local community stadium for athletics, football and maybe rugby too (reserve and academy fixtures perhaps).
So what would it take to get this done? Time, patience (lots of it), a will to make it happen and collective buy in from all who will benefit from it (in York it had buy in from Council, Community and local sports clubs York City and City Knights).
This was a project that the current CEO of Bradford Council oversaw as part of her similar role at York and whilst there were several bumps in the road they did get it done (albeit 12yrs on). Surely she more than anyone can provide a great insight with her past experinece of a similar aim and ambition?