Reading the excerpts from the SL application it was a little obvious it was more a positioning statement for the next 5 years rather than a true application. Read like 'We'll be in Odsal for a year or two and will then be ready'

It read more like a "this is what we'd like to do if we won the Euromillions" statement to me.

For anyone interested there's a couple of photos on the startrax Facebook page of some of the work undertaken. Mainly just the posts for the fence/barrier going around the stadium. But work has started. https://www.facebook.com/startrax.info/

For anyone interested there's a couple of photos on the startrax Facebook page of some of the work undertaken. Mainly just the posts for the fence/barrier going around the stadium. But work has started. https://www.facebook.com/startrax.info/

I saw those photos. The place looks even more of a dump now doesn't it?

Depressing.

The hidden tragedy of the Bulls roller coaster has been turning an upbeat sort of chap such as yourself into a right misery. Its like [iA Christmas Carol[/i in reverse.

I guess that "Back to the future" seems like the norm for us.

I'm not sure if that is "depressing" or not. It is what it is. It's just that we always expect the future to be sooo exciting, full of bells and whistles and all that.... and above all to be, well, 'new' and something different, and it seems that our future is to be anything but.

All that said, it seems I'm being ungrateful and even churlish, so I suppose that I should be really happy that the club carries on and that games will be played and we'll be back at Odsal. So why don't I feel happy? ,Cos, in truth I don't.

Because we've been through the thick end of ten years pain to wind up back in 1990? I can't see why people are getting excited over Stock Cars??? May be fun to watch but it's not going to make a jot of difference to us other than it's another entity that Odsal can have a decent attempt at finishing off.

I didn't like the idea of Dewsbury at first but it felt like a new start, team full of lads wanting to play for Bradford and not going to take any shenanigans from anyone, some decent rugby being played (albeit it in dreadful weather so some errors) and I felt optimistic that things may be turned round and there was a master plan in action.

Little did I know the master plan was a reset to 1990

It's not 1990. We were in the top flight then.

It's more like late 1950s.

Yours grumpily

Essentially it boils down to whether you think adding stock cars makes Odsal a viable and sustainable ground for us. If you do then great, look forward to the sunlit uplands of Odsal. If you don't, then its actually a little difficult to feel positive about our future. I personally think Odsal cannot be transformed into an affordable and sustainable home so the stock cars feels almost irrelevant.

We have to move on but there's no evidence that there is anyone with even a vague plan on how to do that. I find it just as worrying that there's no evidence senior people at the club have come to the same conclusion about what a hopeless cause Odsal is. If they were to come out and say we know Odsal can't be our forever home anymore, but we need to move back in whilst we explore our options, I'd feel a little better.

For me the ground has become a bete noire but the real issue is who owns (and invests in) the club.

If you mismanage a situation to such an extent that you have to sell something you once owned and now have to pay rent for it. If you run a bed shop and decide to takeover a rugby club in administration which is x times bigger than the business you own.
If you sign 40 players and none are a scrum half. If you buy something and travel all the way from New Zealand and don't even have the funds to open a bank account....... I could go on.

Are these issues with the ground?

Not with Odsal directly, but they are issues with the opaque nature of the RFLs approval of bids which in turn COULD be about Odsal. They turn down investors with money in favour of the litany of paupers you mention. You don't have to be a conspiracy theory nut to think they've done that for a specific reason. Its just we don't know what weird long-game the RFL have been playing. Is it that they ultimately want to realise some sort of investment potential of Odsal so required owners that are in the RFL pocket or that they could control, rather than appoint someone rich? Chalmers himself was an RFL stooge who just happened to go completely renegade.

This is exactly my issue. The transfer of the Odsal lease to the RFL has seen the ground deteriorate so that it's worse than at any point since the part-refurb in 85-86.

I'm struggling to see why the RFL took the lease. I would suggest it's incompetence on the part of the RFL to try and cover up/plug a financial hole for the loans they had advanced the club prior to 2012. All they've got is a financial millstone. If it had investment potential it would've been realised yonks ago. The RFL turning down investors to give the club to Chalmers suggests they wanted "their man" running things for some as yet unknown reason.

Well Nigel is in charge now - everyone knows this even if it's not officially confirmed. What are his plans for Odsal? Has he got any? I worry that he hasn't and all we have is a ruin of a ground that is getting worse. While Wood remains in the background we supporters are expected to just back the team and not ask any awkward questions - even if we did we wouldn't get any answers. The RL media won't rock the boat - too many vested interests.

I fear it will all end in tears - probably once the TV money runs out next year.