If you go on the Bullbuilder facebook page, he posts on there too

Like W.Bowling Bull?

OK... two things that have sprung to mind whilst writing on another post.

1. Last night Mr. Hoody held up a dog eared piece of market research carried out by the RL that rated what fans valued when watching RL. This showed that matchday entertainment (other than the clowns on the pitch!) was significantly less important than whatever the other columns were. He used this to justify the lack of investment in the gameday entertainment.

I was thinking about this whilst he was saying it and it's been bugging me a bit during the night as well. My own thoughts are that as a club it was something we did better than any other both on the pitch with bands and stuff as well as around the ground with things like face painting and other stuff for the kids. One of the main reasons we were so successful in this to my mind is the fact that once you enter the stadium itself there is a vast amount of space away from the terraces where you could get the kids entertainment in whilst the parents had a drink or something to eat, this is something that no other club was able to replicate due to the limits of their respective grounds.

It concerns me that the board appear to be making a judgement call based on the opinion of fans of other SL clubs rather than the fans of our club who benefited week in, week out from the effort put in on the none 'game' part of the gameday entertainment. I'd also be quite interested in seeing how the question was posed, what the other catagories were and who it was asked to? A lot of adults who attend the games with other adults might rate it quite low, but it always seemed very popular to those with families as it meant that the kids had a reason for coming other than the boring Rugby.

I understand that the clubs current finances might mean that we can't actually afford this sort of thing currently but surely the money spent on the entertainment could be recouped by getting families in and spending early as well as through the gates?


2. Someone asked whether there was enough room to build a new stadium on the land which the council was knocking a school down on. It may be me but the response of the panel looked a little bit... 'yeah, we've thought of that too' and was shrugged off by saying that if we had the money they're build one...

Now, if hypothetically the club were able to finance the building of a stadium on the land at a lower cost than re-developing Odsal, would I be correct in thinking that we would be in breach of some clause in our current lease agreement that states that we had to play a certain percentage of home games at Odsal (80%?)? Would this still be the case it the council decided to pull out of the OSV scheme?

Point 1. Agreed 100%

Point 2. If we play away from Odsal before the end of 2019 we would be in breach of contract with the coucil - if my understanding is correct.

Some good posts on this thread

Regarding the market research, I wonder whether someone with a foot in the door such as Adeybull could ask if the electronic version could be posted up somewhere (PDF preferably) for us to read. Given that Peter Hood seemed quite happy to give his paper copy away, I don't see why that wouldn't be permissible! I think it would be very interesting to be able debate the whole marketing strategy for the future in the light of this, as I agree that the questions asked, the size of the sample and all sorts of other details would be important in thinking through the implications.

The question about building a new ground at Tong was interesting - in fact I'd just said to my lad a few seconds before 'if there is space when they knock down Yorkshire Martyrs perhaps they'll build a new stadium there' I can't believe that the thought has not crossed the minds of the directors.

The description and analysis of the Tong facility was one of the highlights of the night for me. And thinking about it today, I wonder whether a useful way of further supporter engagement over the close season would be to organise an 'Open Day' at Tong. I would certainly be interested in going an having a look around, meet a few players, grab some freebie car stickers etc. Could be a really good way to involve and connect with the supporters?

Did anyone know about St.Helens being known as simply "The Saints" next year.

Last night was the first I'd heard about it.

I'd forgotten about that, but yeah that's the first I'd heard too. Interesting news.

I was just wondering if that is still the case if the council pull their backing for OSV.

Of course the council may also agree to void that part of the agreement of we move from one council site to another.

I must say, looking out of the Coral Stand last night and seeing Odsal from an angle that I haven't seen before... it's a bloody awesome stadium.

They are "Saints RL" now, are they not?"

If they are, I wasn't aware of it. I thought they were still St. Helens RLFC and hadn't seen anything about a change of name. Perhaps something that just slipped under the radar a bit.

I fully agree - I found it quite an inspiring view from that angle and elevation!

Regarding the Stadium agreement, Peter Hood mentioned a figure of something like £150 million to be cut from the Concil budget of £450 million (if I remember the figures right, but I think that was what he said). With a third of the budget to be slashed you'd have to assume that projects like the OSV would be likely to be culled. Much as we all love the Bulls on here, the general population of Bradford are hardly going to be pleased to see schools not getting built and libraries closed just so the Bulls can get a new stadium.

Surely that would mean that the original agreement about the Bulls having to play at Odsal would effectively be null and void?

Not at all.

Stand-alone agreement that did not require the council to deliver anything further once they had made the settlement.

Unless the money for the development is already ring fenced - didn't I read somewhere that it's some of the money they made from selling LBA?

I imagine "The Saints" thing is to do with the switch to Widnes for a year while the new ground is being built and the physical move away from St. Helens?

I'm sure Hood mentioned that the council were looking to make a £150m cut out of a £450m budget.

That would suggest massive cuts and I'd frankly be amazed if the OSV still went ahead while that was going on.