Good point made by yourself and Paul... However it would be nice to know we have that ambition and intent!

Agreed. I tend to take them leaving the 7 shirt free and trialling Jacks as enough indication that at least Ferres believes we could do with a player there, and a quality one rather than a panic buy.

Brierley is too similar to Gaskell IMO both natural supporting standoffs rather than organising half we need. Same applies to Thomas and purtell.

I genuinely think Gaskell has the skill set to be either. If we signed someone like Brierley, I'd expect to see Gaskell become more the organising half and allow Brierley to play the role Gaskell currently does when playing alongside Addy.

I don't buy this. You could argue Siejka was an organising SH or that Addy is an organising SH. An organising SH usually is just a term used for someone who doesn't have much attacking threat. The reason we all want is 7 isn't because we look disorganised, it's because we need more attacking threats other than Gaskell. Brierley would be a superb signing. I'don't reckon we've enquired about Brierley as i'm sure if we had, Mr Beaumont would be all over social media declaring it.

I suspect there are people who believe they have organically decided against singing at Odsal because it's just not their thing. When in fact they will have tried it over the years and found it to be a futile and joyless experience.

With no disrespect to the feeble scum who sit down, the heart of most clubs noise levels is the standing section which at most grounds is covered. The noise and atmosphere you will see at so many covered standing terraces up and down the country can be achieved with a few hundred people. There's more noise at a pre-season friendly under the Dewsbury shed roof than at Odsal in a big league game. To me that is almost entirely caused by a roof. Viva la roof!

I still think your issue is with home support (especially ours), the fans that would sing are still quite spread out. It's only when someone makes a particular effort to gather all together in one place that it becomes anything like away games. Perhaps a roof would encourage those to stand near each other, but as it stands, they're spread out all across the terraces and the seating. At away games, everyone's fairly close together, so makes it a lot easier to get the atmosphere going.

Singing at Odsal largely died a slow death because of the long-time policy of playing loud music as soon as something happened. So instead of taking the initiative, people just waited for the tune and jollied along. I have always hated and detested that, why can't we spontaneously celebrate a score, why do we have to have forced jolly tunes? (Most of which are really awful choices too).

Another problem at Odsal is also acoustics. You might go to a game and think it was very quiet, but actually it almost certainly wasn't. Players on the pitch do seem to be at one focus of the sound generated and players will tend to tell you there's a lot of crowd noise there.

I sit in the stand and when things liven up that can get noisy, but there are not the numbers usually, if that roof was over the other side, then that would make it many times louder by concentrating the sound, and that would itself encourage people to make noise.

There is little worse than joining in with a song or chant and then feeling as if it's going nowhere, most cases that will always rapidly fizzle out.

The same people as go to home games also go to away games but tehre, they tend to be a concentration of more vocal people, and often are under cover too, and so they feel confident to generate noise, and when they do, it becomes addictive, and so you get loads more singing. Plus, the general vocal support tends to sound louder too, even with less numbers, simply the combination of being concentrated by a roof and all in one place.

Odsal acoustics are variable depending on the wind, but most days if you position yourself in the area between the Coral Stand and the main stand, you might actually be very surprised just how loud the sounds from the stadium actually are, even when you thought it was quiet.

Definitely a roof on the pop side would vastly improve the vocal support, for all the above reasons, and the louder it sounds, the more inclined people are to sing up and join in. Think of the last quarter of the Blackpool Bash.

^That. I stand just above the tunnel, where the drum and trumpet are and it's plenty loud enough near us. Judging by the atmosphere at away games we have plenty of people willing to join in the singing, but few who are willing to start it, myself included. I don't want to be the one to start and nobody else join in, you look like a right burk! But with a roof, the sound would travel infinitely better than it does now and those spread out folk would be more inclined to join in, making us much more vocal as a whole. It would dramatically improve to atmosphere around the ground.

Vaguely linked to the whole playing music after a try bit, I really hope we've permanently canned the songs for each player when they read out the team. By the time we get to the end of the subs bench, I've forgotten who's playing on the backline!

A roof to encourage better atmosphere and singing??

A scrum half to encourage people to dream of promotion?

The first question for me would be - is our medium - long term future Odsal?
Is it always going to be the monetary drain it is claimed to be?

Would joining up with other Bradford sports clubs and building a modest 15K stadium be better (both financially and for atmosphere).
Will this be over on the cards? BPA, A Rugby Union team? Other sports?

I'd much rather this option and see a profitable, fully utilised stadium in use (with a better atmosphere)

But if it is to be Odsal then a roof has got to be a good thing.

I'd be willing to put up to £100 in the pot

BPA have a fan base of 20. Although their gates look like Wembley compared to local RU sides. Can't happen.

Speaking as an ex-BPA fan, that is surely a salutary lesson for other Bradford clubs. When they got ejected from the League, there was plenty of brave talk about a quick return. Those who then ran the club made all the usual noises when leaving the wonderful old Park Avenue ground about building slowly, would be better from a cosy little base, etc etc but we all knew it was bollox, and all that happened was a terminal decline.

I say "terminal" because I don't recognise that the present BPA has anything save the name to do with the original, and I say that even though the original had fallen to the dregs of the 4th division, it was still a club.

I don't knock old or new supporters of the present BPA, or any other of the tens of thousands of little teams around the country, far from it, good on them, long may they continue, the point I am making is that these slopes are always very steep and very slippery and once you get on them, few survive in any meaningful way.

I used to watch Avenue quite a bit as a kid with my Grandad and that's spot on FA and I agree 100%.

The current Avenue club is the development of an amateur club, formed by former supporters, who convinced the council [?] to let team use the Park Avenue ground and has no tangible connection to the old club, other than that formed through the heart. Like you, I've never really felt any real connection though I always wish them well and contributed to their lotteries, over a fair period, in years gone by.

Sadly, since the start of SL, and the vast difference between the divisions, being out of SL has become almost like being "out of the league" - let's face it, it's a move from a full time pro league to part time, so it really is quite substantial. We need to return asap. Much as I'll continue to go, in whatever league we play, the essence of what we have is on the line and is starting to erode. If we don't return to the professional league sooner rather than later the future looks far from rosy.

Only way a shared ground would be sustainable in Bradford is a 20-25k stadium? Possibly 30? With Bradford City. Depending on how they get on in the next 2-3 season. If they make it to the Championship and we get back to SL then this would be ideal.