There is only one argument for why - because success for the Bulls rubs off on the city as a whole. And, in a city that seems to be failing in most areas at the moment and that is rotting from the centre, anything positive about the city must surely be worth saving and supporting?

Other councils have recognised this.

Indeed they have, I think amongst the chattering classes it's called '[ithe vision thing'[/i. Vision, of course is one thing (amongst many) missing in our (once) fair city.

In preference to libraries, swimming pools, disabled centres, schools, transport?

I can understand why the council have had to pull out of OSV but not sure the spin they've put on it... essentially that it was that or some special needs schools... has been taken in by anyone. Why not just say that due to overspending in the past the nation, as a whole, has had to tighten their belts and they currently have had to focus their resources elsewhere rather trying to blame the mean Tory government.

A local council not supporting a local team financially is hardly something that only Bradford Council are guilty of. When LUFC wanted a load to buy back Elland Road a few years ago Leeds council were unwilling to sanction it.

On a positive note, the board seem to have the desire and confidence to push on alone in some shape or form so hopefully someone else will back them financially. The council, despite withdrawing their financial support for the village, still also seem to want to help the Bulls in some other way of possible, although how much of that is them blowing smoke up our ar*es is yet to be seen.

Sod 'em. Let's do it ourselves and when they try and jump on the Bulls bandwagon the next time we have any success we'll tell them to shove it!

Not in preference to, as well as - Please don't believe the hype, council funding has been cut by 3% in real terms from 2007 levels and we were all partying like it was 1999 then! The response from local authorities has been lazy and about as creative as my 5 year old, waste needs to be tackled not front line services lost, but that would take some real kahunas, so libraries nobody uses close instead.

I merely want Bradford Council to contribute what they committed to contribute to the development and help get it moving, just like Wakefield MBC giving the Tigers £2m to kick start your stadium, hmm I wonder how many Disabled Centres that closed?

Other councils with, whats that word, oh yes 'vision' and effective leadership have recognised that successful sports clubs playing in decent facilities attract investment, simples. Moreover, now is the time to do it too with money relatively cheap to borrow, actually with inflation at 5% it's nearly free

You could probably build OSV for getting on 50% less than 3 years ago.

Leeds City Council made the choice, when they elected to provide a rent-free lease to Harvey Nicks (IIRC), to attract the wives of the NHS mandarins when Leeds was after the NHS HQ, or when they chose to target investment at the previously-dilapidated gateways to the city to make the place look a load better to potential inward investees. They could, instead, have spent that money on the things you listed. But they saw the bigger picture. Had teh "vision" that Bulliac described.

The best way to help pay for all those things you list is by increasing the wealth of the city by attracting inwards investment. Leeds (aided and abetted by a Tory Government in the 1980s that shot itself in the foot big-time) is an example of a council that understood that. Bradford seemingly never did.

You have to create some wealth to have wealth to spend. Too many people seem to fail to understand that. Wealth up here requires inward investment. Inward investment requires some existing success stories to help convince the investors. Bradford has too few of those. A top-class sporting complex at a key gateway to Bradford, anchored by a successful sporting team (we can hope!) would surely send out a much more powerful positive message to potential investors? Without whom this city is well and truly fecked.

Health & fitness.

Attempting to combat Bradford's higher than national average child obesity levels?

i'm not bothered about the council helping financially, it's more their planning department letting the bulls get something built!

I agree with all of that. It is very easy to slag off Bradford council, it's probably well deserved, but I wouldn't fancy trying to resurrect this city especially at this time. I was trying to put a question in some peoples minds when they trot out the usual blame sentences. RL & Bradford Bulls aren't in the state they are due to incompetent local authorities.

Well as the OSV scheme is dead, surely the most sensible way forward to to leave Odsal. And by that I do not mean go to VP.

The OSV was in line to cost in the region of £80 million. But Saint's new stadium has cost only a third of that coming in at £25 million.

Surely the club is not in a position where it would be unable to raise that sort of cash? I know the board are not wanting to be lumped with large debts, but a new stadium would surely go some way to paying for itself?

As for getting out of the deal we have with the council, given the way the council have cocked up most of their recent dealings with private companies to their own loss, I'm sure there's some loophole to get us out of having to pay anything to leave Odsal.

even if we could get out of repaying remaining portion of odsal settlement (currently 1-2 million Iirc), How is leaving odsal going to mean we can suddenly raise £25 million? Only benefit to leaving odsal in terms of money raising is potential of partnering with a supermarket ala sts,wire etc. Current figure being floated around to put a roof on pop side and bring it upto standard is £8 million. surely if we could raise significant capital it would make more sense to go down that route. whether we can raise capital is another matter entirely.

Except that I'm old enough to remember when there wasn't much to choose between Leeds and Bradford as places, but the Leeds Council had a forward looking plan, whereas the Bradford Council has, over decades, consistently failed, consistently fooked up, and consistently run the place down until we are where we are today, where comparing the centre of Leeds with the centre of Bradford is a bit like comparing a modern cruise ship with the wreck of the Titanic, which on a night attracts a similar number of visitors. If all those decades ago the Council had had the balls and the vision to make a new Odsal Superdome or whatever happen, we'd have reaped the benefits. Instead the succession of Odsal farragos is a microcosm of the procession of appalling decisions and lack of ambition that has got Bradford to where it festers today.

I too simply cannot believe that your revolting council would hold us to ransom if we were able to get out there and self finance a new stadium somewhere else. However I have to admit to being entirely ignorant about the way that new RL stadiums at Saints, warrington and Leigh etc have been funded. Who of them did it alone without council help?

As for siting we've said before that we barely have to move to pop into Kirklees (half way down the M606) or Calderdale (Buttershaw ish). Perhaps to save apoplexy from Fax it'd be best to go the other way and be the Kirklees Bulls.

Or....4.5 miles down the Road in Pudsey we could be the Leeds Bulls