I've said all along that the deadline should NOT have been before the Leeds game, why stop a deadline to pull in funds before one of the biggest games of the year. They should have done a text in/call back for the pledges throughout the game and they would have had many more pledges coming in just because of the momentum of the excitement during and after the game.

There will have been many people who left the game last night who hadn't pledged but wanted to after the result, maybe even pledge again, but everyone thought the pledge was closed and were all looking towards the result today. It should have always been open to at least Sunday to capitalise on the Leeds game and once the deadline ends the website pledging page should be removed and no more taken so a figure can be counted, then if they are short issue a statement saying pledge are re-open, instead the deadline came, pledges never closed but nobody knew.

It is a good idea to keep the pledge open but it has been handled poorly.

Atki

Exactly

I think we just all need to calm down. Am I annoyed right now? Yes, I think it is all very bad PR. I think it looks bad to those looking from the outside in who we want investment from, as we keep moving the goal posts. However, after getting £480k I would say 20k should be achieveable. I am not sure how many people are off to Widnes, but as of yesterday morning (if Bulls were selling tickets in numerical order) only 300 tickets had been sold! We should be selling the full 600. Also, under 18s and Wyke are playing today, this should draw in a bit of money. The Northern pub on Halifax Rd has a big fundraiser tonight too for the club, so still a lot that can be done.

Adey, any chance of doing Bucket collections on Monday?

Please.

It's Ryan and Pete now.

A lot has changed since they announced the latest 'pledge' scheme - Caisley has shown his hand and the response from across the game has probably been greater than even they imagined (cheers for the contributions from East Hull!). Last night was also probably the best advert for investing in a club you could get - 21,000 people watch the Bulls beat their local rivals and superleague champions in a tough uncompromising match with an amazing atmosphere.

So to be honest I would imagine there's a lot going on behind the scenes, maybe some further discussion with potential investors and some level of confusion about the precise amounts raised. In that context I would have been amazed if they had made a conclusive statement this morning and so wasn't expecting much more than we got. I don't blame Hood for that, nor for the extension over the weekend, I think that makes perfect sense in the circumstances and could probably not have been planned for in advance, so let's see how this shakes out before jumping to conclusions.

If I had half a million to bung in, seeing the response of the fan base (and from across the game) plus being present last night might just have persuaded me, so maybe the degree of confusion about where the other money is coming from will get addressed soon, but perhaps they want to be sure of that before making any definitive announcements. Of course they may also be seeking time to hold an EGM and Caisley might be in charge by the end of next week, truth is we don't know, and will just have to wait for the time being.

Something we could dohttp://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/news/5813/UNDER%2020%27S%20AT%20ODSALrl

And pay on the gate.

Just a thought

I don't think anyone's in any doubt that the club needs to look at how it communicates.

That said they're in a unique situation. I didn't see too many people questioning the timing of various announcements before they were made. It's easy to be wise after the event. With hindsight the club maybe should have said it would make an announcement on Monday night or Tuesday morning that way they'd have got a few more days to raise cash before the banks and HMRC open up.

TBH even if it's a big conspiracy to keep the pledges coming (which I doubt as they're not as Machiavellian as that) in I'm not d, the main thing is that we've got a few more days to reach the total.

I'm more worried about the other £500k.

I have a suspicion that the other 500k may well be related to achieving the pledge total.

If it is, as Has been said would people want to see the club fold because they insisted on announcing the pledge had failed just because they d promised to meet a date to make an announcement?

Have none of you seen what happens when a company makes a takeover bid and is not quite up to the necessary level of acceptances by the deadline? Guess what: they extend the deadline.

I think thats the main point right there - why kill the club off today when your main creditor isn't back in the office until Tuesday and there's a good chance you'll have good news instead of bad for them then ?




And that has to be a huge worry.

Excellent, this saves me some typing. I agree with all this ^

I'm off abroad on holiday tomorrow, (be nice to have a break from this soap opera tbf as well as work!) personally speaking I couldn't give a stuff about exact timings, the result on the next available working day and where the next 500k is comig from is all that matters now.

So can I please trust you all to ensure there is a club here when I get back? Thanks.

First point - seems pretty clear cut to me.

Second point - enough hints to suggest this may become a bit easier once we achieve the pledge target, I reckon.

Here's a non-rhetorical question for you. How stupid are you being?

[sizeMy point is very obviously *NOT* that they should have announced today irrespective of the total[/size. My point is that they should not have promised that they were announcing today. As it is they have had to let people who have had trouble sleeping because of this promised announcement down. They have had to backtrack on promises made. Whatever their intentions, the outcome has once more been to toy with the emotions of people who love the club.

This has been an exercise in building faith and trust in people who, to any casual observer, do not even slightly deserve it. They are their own worst enemies. We will never know how many people outside the echo chamber of a forum like this who were in two minds to pledge but ultimately decided they just could not trust the people asking for faith to be placed in them.

Incidents like this are the Chinese water torture that led to that trust being a permanent cripple.

Hindsight is wonderful mate. Maybe they had had full confidence when they set the timetable that the support would be forthcoming?

As I said, this sort of thing happens all the time with company takeovers. What the hell is the problem extending by two days?