It was in the news today that the tories have given the richest area outside London (the South East) almost double the amount of 'leveling up' money that the north east received.

Yorkshire does a little better, but in the past year Britain's £4.8bn levelling up fund only delivered £107m...

Looking at where the money is going we would be better placed as the Solihull Bulls.

I thought the bid was somehow linked to the city of culture award. Is this not the case anymore or does that still count for something?

We'll soon find out. I'm very sceptical when it comes to promises from the government, particularly when it concerns "levelling up".

I don't think it is. That said, Bradford being a city of culture might get the government a bit more publicity if they awarded the funding, which is what they'll enjoy.

At least it won't be a dream they can spin out for years, we should find out very soon shouldn't we?

The cynic in me wonders if Bradford has sufficient numbers of marginal seats to merit winning this bid for £50m. Even then the scheme relies on another £50m of match funding. That's a heck of a lot.

What's that fat pink thing flapping overhead and going oink oink?

That would be Nigel Wood exploring his feminine side I believe

Any ideas when the decisions are made etc?

The council driving the project gives a small amount of more creditability and there seems to be more sensible thinking from capacity size to multi purpose use.

Still very very unlikely we ever see a spade in the ground mind.

A Tory government dishing out cash to a labour stronghold going back to the 70s for the main purpose of a sport played predominantly in northern towns to a limited number of spectators. And with the main tenants struggling to attract around 10% of the projected capacity? Sure why not.

I wonder where they will put the statue for Nigel Wood OBE?

Thinking about the size, if we were somehow to become a sustainable SL club in the future (I know) then 25k would still be far too big.

I know they want to stay at Odsal and there would be the other benefits talked about in the plan, but realistically 15k would be more than enough.

Unless we get a backer and we manage to win something, then even as a sustainable SL club I think there would be only 1 or 2 games where we would sell out at 15k.

Anyway, back to reality….

In that reality, we would look like Wigan in the DW I suppose

This is sounding more and more like that "...if I won the lottery..." thread

I can never understand this concept of a "25K stadium for the Bulls + RL showpiece events".

It's far too BIG for the Bulls unless we ever get a cashed-up sugar daddy, and we all know that's never going to happen.

And it's actually far too SMALL for the RL showpiece events. Too small for Magic, Cup Finals, Grand Finals, et al. Too small for Internationals, unless we are talking about games vs France or Combined Nations. You'd have to think we'd be looking bigger for Australia or even NZ. Maybe it would be OK for Summer Bash and Semi-Finals but do we really need a dedicated stadium for that?

So you end with someone that's in a weird middle ground. Far too big for week-by-week club use but not really big enough for the kind of showpiece events that we have (apart from a couple of annual niche events).

Basically, a big, expensive white elephant that suits nobody.