Potter would be my choice.

It's key, as others have pointed out, to get the right structrue under him too.

Would Potter come as "Director of Rugby" and Brian Mac as head coach?
I suppose, again, it's the money thing.

As I understand it McDermott has a year left on his quins deal so we would have to pay compensation. Unless quins are wanting to release him early anyway, and given quins partnership with the RU side and Denis Betts leaving gloucester with no apparent destination I suspect that may be the way things are going.

Think Potter for a year or 2 with McDermott as number 2 would be ideal appointment for us. Both know english game thouroughly and potter has good links down under for recruitment at end of next season. We'd have a known progression for the head coaches job so the transition to McDermott in a year or two would be a lot smoother and players signing would know who they would be playing for, for next few years.
The two problems with this scenario as I see it are firstly whether its finacially viable for the club and secondly whether McDermott would be prepared to be assistant for a year or two ( although we could maybe get round this by making Potter director of rugby responsible for recruitment and behind the scenes stuff like youth development and McDermott headcoach responsible for 1st team only).

great minds think alike WB I was typing my post at same time as you

My understanding, from the meeting eartlier in the year, is that the club's 'exposure' in that regard is covered by the ground, ie, that is the value of the lease is our full contribution to the OSV.

In fact the new ground (oh please!!) should cost much less on maintenance than the current stadium, so hopefully, should be beneficial to the finances.

the value of the lease is our contribution to the capital/build costs of the stadium. However once its built we have to start paying a normal rent as opposed to the nominal one we pay now. The maintenance costs will be lower but will be paid by the stadium management company, not us. so in effect we're swapping paying maintenance on an aging stadium to paying rent on a modern one. Depending on what the rents set at we could be better or worse off. Upside is at least we'll be able to plan longer term and wont have nasty suprises like 16k blocked drains to come out of our budget.

We also lose all the food/drink etc income, and whatever additional events income we can/could generate, to the SOC. I gather that this makes the direct cost comparisons a lot less favourable than most people expect - I got the impression would be more expensive in net terms.

under the full 75m scheme then we'd lose everything for sure. But under the revised scheme, wouldnt we retain coral suite income or are we throwing that into pot as part of our capital input.

Do we even know what scheme we're currently 'on' at the moment. I'd like to think that we're well on the way to something actually happening given the amount of time discussing it. The longer it drags on the less confident I become of anything ever being built up at Odsal.

In the current climate I can't see many of the project partners stumping up any cash.

Well, all I can reiterate is what my dear departed father in-law (who introduced me to the then Bradford Northern) said. He said "There's been more schemes to develop Odsal than you've had hot dinners. I won't believ any of them until the diggers move in".

Mind you, he died before the diggers moved in to Bradford city centre!

Now there's an idea for Bradford Council.

They've got a big hole in the city centre that they could build a brand spanking new stadium in and make it the focal point for their (he hem) re-development.

Make it like Monaco's ground with a car park underneath and the stadium on top...

So you want to take a chance on a coach who has not proved himself with his current club and suggest that if he gets to a more affluent club he will do well!!!! very risky and not one i would take

Potter's teams have played in Grand Finals and CHallenge CUp Finals though so he is proven at the top level. They lost those finals but it's better than having no hope of getting there in the first place.