So cynical.

The voice of experience.

Speaking of which I bet Ralph Rimmer has warned Nigel about the dangerous waters he's sailing into. Ralph seemed to be shocked at the reception he got from us (shocking naivety) at a previous forum.

And Ralph is only half as disliked as Wood (that’s probably being generous too)

Illbe there. Though im expecting absolutely nothing

Could anybody who is at the Forum kindly ask the following str8fwd question.

" In the very near future the latest annual accounts for the club's holding company - BBBBB Ltd - are due, dated up to end Oct' 2021. Such accounts must now be completed. Could Mr Wood please give us an indication as to the likely profit or loss status of the club as reflected in the latest accounts. In addition given that such accounts are now almost 2 years out of date, and we are now in effect beyond Covid, can the Chairman kindly give us an update on the current state of the club's trading accounts. Are we making a profit, or are we still continuing to make a (sustainable) loss ?

At the forum, you should be in the Front Row, Mr Grizzly!

My general consensus:
Mark Dunning spoke well and is clearly passionate about the club. I really hope he can turn things around in the future with Brian Noble’s support and guidance. He feels that the squad is ‘comparable’ with the other part time teams and that the gulf between us and the full time teams is on show for all to see. MD did address the fitness issues of the squad, said it will improve.

The CEO and Nigel Wood didn’t really answer any questions fully. They skirted around the issues and blew hot air. NW displayed an image of an ‘Odsal Sport City’ development which he said has a 10/1 chance of coming to fruition. This I am led to believe is a Bradford Council project. He did become quite emotional when he spoke about his involvement with the club and the personal vendettas that he feels some fans have aimed towards him. Some people I was sat with supported him, a large majority didn’t. The CEO confirmed that the Young Bulls scheme has only 50 paying members. According to my quick maths that’s a £90,000 deficit in funding for the academy which is alarming.

What really left a nasty taste was how hostile it ended. At the start of the event we were told that questions would be taken from the audience. At the end of the event the host then said that no questions would be taken because they had run out of time. A small minority of fans voiced their disapproval which ended the event on a rather sour note.

I hung around a little bit at the end and spoke to a few people connected to the club. Some fans had approached NW for questions which he was fielding. Again, it did become rather heated between some fans in the aftermath.

A rather strange evening.

Really annoys me does this. Why have a fans forum if there’s ‘no time for fans questions’. Joke of a club. Not surprised fans were annoyed.

I’ll hold my breath but if the plans are true then maybe there’s a future at Odsal. But they do realise we need results on field to stay in the Champ when it become 10 and 10. Also we still need blooding funding, otherwise we will end up being in the same situation but in a new stadium? How does that help.

Remember the good old days when we had the “OSV” thread and the match day thread was preserved for whether Platt and Sykes were good enough?

I’d give far better odds than 10/1 on any form of new stadium in Bradford in the next 10 years. We’ve seen / heard it all before, at least in 2008, we had recent successes in mind which we could draw some inspiration from. If we couldn’t get OSV off the ground when we were recently World Champions, we won’t be getting anywhere near now.

I can't decide if those running the club are just utterly clueless or remain totally dismissive of the supporter base. These events should be used to engage with supporters and address their concerns or problems.

Unfortunately, with the advertised start time it was all rather predictable that they weren't interested in hearing from supporters. A club run by absolute clowns I'm afraid.

Get an appointment with Wood or Hirst, both will speak to you, I’ll guarantee it

Make an appointment? Jesus wept, isn't that the whole point of a forum? If our CEO needs feedback from this forum to realise open dialogue and transparency is needed, then he is more incompetent than the Chairman. In the meantime, I am fine to spend my time and money elsewhere, where I don't need an appointment.

If you know if your local councillor is on the planning subcommittee, you might get better info on any council-led levelling up stadium plan.

Hirst seems like a decent bloke, but having to rely on a volunteer as CEO sums up where the club is.

I think offering to speak 121 with fans is probably well intentioned, but most are past the point of going to that effort.

It’s very clear that the fans and Wood will never see eye to eye - he’s not going to open up about past failings and he doesn’t have the vision, resources or nous to drive the club forward.