Don't suppose the guy tht dropped £105m on the Euro Lottery is a closet Bulls fan?

Don't start trying to get my hopes up again - they've been dashed too often already...

Nestegg?

It's in the past now, but when we were averaging 8k crowds towards the end with a salary cap of £1.8m but TV income of £1.2m, we seemed to be making a loss of about £1/2m per year if the first admin accounts were to be believed. We were relegated the year before the new TV contract came in which increased the TV money to £1.8m per year. It's likely we could survive on that. But need money to get in there, which we don't have.

Oh yeah!

Of course, we were living Chris Caisley's dream back then. The board spent the 'Odsal settlement' money on buying players for the first team (it was really intended for ground repairs etc after the club took on that responsibility from the council) and that is where the £ half million per year losses came from. CC clearly believed that the better the team was the more fans would come flocking into Odsal. To some extent that was true but the 15/16K we were getting was always going to be the most we were likely to get. I can still remember CC's statements to the T&A berating fans for not turning up in even bigger numbers. Seeds were sown, cloth was cut etc, we are where we are.

Don't want to be a CC apologist but I'm sure if he had realised the ground wouldn't be developed (thanks Morrisons) he would have left things as they were and settled for the income from the 15k crowds.

Good summary Bulliac, it should be put up as a sticky for all to see, including new forum members and our new owners. Because even in the good times the chairman was berating the fans for not turning up in even bigger numbers. so no surprise, as soon as the current owners start saying that it is the first snowflake of the blizzard approaching.

Good summary Bulliac, it should be put up as a sticky for all to see, including new forum members and our new owners. Because even in the good times the chairman was berating the fans for not turning up in even bigger numbers. so no surprise, as soon as the current owners start saying that it is the first snowflake of the blizzard approaching.

Caisley's view was that we had morphed into a brand bigger than the city of Bradford and that crowds could therefore continue to grow. He was to a degree correct in that we hoovered up fans from Halifax, Huddersfield, Dewsbury etc. I know a lot of people who have cherished memories of watching us win things but have since tootled back to watching Huddersfield as it's their home town club. I've never felt the potential of core support from the city itself is much greater than 10k.

So it's confirmed that it will cost £22 to stand on the terrace next season (£20 if you pre-book).

Anyone know how these compare to Dewsbury's prices?

Match day admission

North Stand Adult: £20
North Stand Concession*: £15
North Stand under-16s: £4
South Stand and Beaumont Terrace Adult: £18
South Stand and Beaumont Terrace Concession*: £14
South Stand and Beaumont Terrace under-16s: £2

I'm no Caisley 'hater'. I think he did what he thought best, though I confess I didn't agree with all of it. Indeed, I sang "I'll support you evermore" and lived the 'glory years' to the utmost, with the rest of them.

One thing I would say though, is that the £500K losses went on for five or six years (there my have been the odd year in the middle which wasn't a big loss) starting from the settlement in 2000, so until 2006 (ish) but the Superdome fiasco lasted only for about 2 of those before the writing was on the wall. In fact I gave up on it as soon as they started telling us it might take over from Wembley as the national stadium - As if! I'd guess CC was more than cute enough to know what claptrap they were talking.

I'm pretty sure the Superdome was conceived in the early/ mid 90's when there was bidding contest to build a new national stadium. I think Odsal and Birmingham were the bids outside London and the scheme was abandonned when, unsurprisingly, Wembley was chosen.
The failed scheme that led to the council settlement was the smaller, 25k, one that was part of the Tesco development that was refused planning permission.
That was why the club moved to VP for 2 years (01/02 seasons) whilst it was built but when it got knocked back the settlement was agreed but i can't remember how much for. Some of this was used to build the Southbank and the new floodlights etc and the rest was supposed to cover maintainence. We did ,however, make at least one expensive signing around this time.

As for the crowds; i seem to remember they dipped whilst at VP and then rose when we first returned to Odsal before the slow decline set in.

The initial redevelopment was set up before the 'National Stadium' iirc, Wembley was opened in 2007 so I think the planning was probably a bit later than mid or even late 90s. The original Odsal plan was sometime around 2000, the same time as the move to VP, which as you say was to facilitate the build, though I confess to sometimes being a bit hazy about dates..

It was after the initial plan was being considered that they decided to enter the fray for the national Stadium which probably suggests the Wembley bit was added after we went to VP, though why anyone thought that a National Stadium ever going to anywhere but Wembley is unbelievable, imo.

Spot on about VP, the crowds dwindled - which considering the teams we were putting out shows just how much many people disliked the idea. If fact, to bring it up to date, the fact that crowds dropped so much at a ground within the city does make me think that Dewsbury might not have been the best idea.

I see they have come up with a more sensible junior admission price which is definitely something that would of put me off going. Bit confused about infants being free but needing a ticket from the Bulls team shop... where is that at Dewsbury?