Personally, I couldn't care less about "reserved" stickers. I paid £50 extra on my season ticket for a seat and roof rather than standing. If someone gets a seat and a roof without paying that extra, I'm feeling ripped off, regardless of which seat they're in.

2nd best in Championship (behind Rovers' attendance against us the previous week, which was more than double ours).
1,000 less than the worst SL attendance so far (Widnes vs. Hudds).

If they announced that was the regular policy from now on, then yeah, I'd agree 100%. For a 'one off', weather incident, I'm happy enough though.

I think one of the problems has been caused by not differentiating on seat prices; for years, black were the most expensive followed by red and then amber but, as I understand it, this year they seem to have just called everything 'a seat in the stand', and made it the same price. Most of the reserved seats were, as you might expect, in the black middle section or near the edge of the red, so they could, and maybe should, have directed non seat holders to the yellow section. If they'd used stickers they could have told non-stand ticket holders to not sit in a reserved seat, with effective stewarding, job done.

Hindsight is a wonderful tool though and as the owners haven't been around that long I'll forgive the oversight.

Yes, to be fair, I did mean that. One off for health & safety reasons, I'm ok with. If they start doing it every time it rains a bit though, I'll be questioning it.

I arrived to find people in our ST seats but politely asked them to move on. I think people realised they had a chance of picking a taken seat so there was no hassle or anything but every home game would be a bit tedious.

So that means that most inexperienced team, cobbled together in 3 weeks has taken part in the 2 highest attended CH matches of the year so far. And all those other teams supporters keep asking why we were kept in CH.

Try as I might, I find it impossible not to consider that the RFL's policy of allowing us to be outclassed, on a regular basis, is likely to kill to the golden goose. That people tend to desert losing teams has been the way of things for as long as I can remember.

Agreed! Although I do believe we would have benefited more being in League 1 (and let's be honest we should be in League 1 after liquidation), I can't help but wonder how the Championship clubs would have reacted had the RFL relegated us. Missing out on that revenue would be a blow especially considering that Toulouse won't bring any this season.

I think our average this season will be around 3,500-4,000 with a top gate of 6,000ish against Hull KR. Which is still a fantastic effort considering we are a relegation fighting Championship team. The potential for decent crowds is here in Bradford and we have proved it before. Let's just hope that we stay financially stable and build on the potential we have and not have any more knock backs!

Well, we'll never know, as Cha-Low don't seem to be bothered, instead letting people sit wherever they want, and not having marked any seat in the entire stand as "reserved".

They took the money but in I suspect many hundreds of instances on Sunday didn't bother to take any steps at all to provide the paid for seat, leaving it entirely up to paying customers to sort it out. Not impressed.

Wow.....well if this is the biggest of the clubs problems then it looks like we are on the right track!

Honest? I actually don't know anyone who agreed with the decision to pitch us into the Championship. No "honesty" needed - a mad decision, elevated to boss-barking level with a gold star by the added bonus of minus 12.


First, THE biggest problem, by far, is trying to start a high-level professional sports club (not just a team) within a fortnight. Lunacy. Having said that, a wedge of initial money would have helped enormously, but instead our big knockback seems to be the awarding of the gig to candidates with no money.

My fear is, there IS no "financial stability". We're probably losing money already, and if it wasn't for the alleged rent etc deals with RFL maybe we would be closer to the crapper again than I care to even think about. Ticket sales will in no way be enough to make us "financially stable", on the contrary, it's plain there is a huge shortfall there (especially if you take into account the free replacements that previous payers have got). And if you want my opinion I don't see there is any way to achieve "financial stability" or if there is - where's the money gonna come from?

Why are Cha-Low saying nothing, and why have we no clue as to even what their basic plan is even for this season? Don't you find it weird? I can't recall any team anywhere in any sport where the owners say pretty much nothing. People keep asking what Cha-Low are in it for, and why them. At the moment it is a mystery to me, but I can't see it ending well, absent a very large input of money from somewhere.

Yes, fscking off season ticket holders including your longest-standing and biggest paying members at the very first home game is great, isn't it?

Don't get me wrong but I think the ball is now in ChaLo's court. People who have attended either Bulls game this year will have seen more spirit and fight in the team than in the previous two years. And people will be willing to support this as long as the owners now back them. We all know what the team needs is some more oomph up front and this is down to the owners. I am not saying bring in world class front rowers but at least show the fans some initiative. We could possibly have won on Sunday but were eventually worn down by the relentless trundle down the middle. The lads are trying but we need some size. Given that then the supporters will continue with the 'backs to the wall, two fingers up to the rest attitude' and support the team. but if no signings are forthcoming then it will be ChaLo that will have killed the golden goose because all they need to do to keep the supporters is show willing.

I'm going to argue the toss over the placement of us in the Championship again for the millionth time. All I was saying is we should be in League 1. Regardless of who decided otherwise (ahem RFL).

Yes, having someone with a ton of money to invest initially would have been fantastic and would have provided us with a team worthy of top 4 (minus the deduction of course). But unless you can prove Chalmers and Lowe don't have a backer or money of some sort then please stop making assumptions. I firmly believe there are slightly bigger things at play and I am seeing how it plays out.

Tell me how we are losing money? The debt from the previous management was well documented with Green being the main creditor (that was from a loan he gave the club) so that has gone. Since then our rent has been reduced massively by the RFL, a 40-50 playing squad (full of first teamers and experience) have been cut to pretty much a 10 first team roster with academy lads. How much of the wage bill do you think has been cut? My bet is is probably half. So roughly £400,000-500,000 playing budget? Compared the the previous full cap. Memberships are similar as last season judging by the crowd of the Rochdale game. As I stated before last seasons average was 4,117.

As a new company ALL sponsorships will have been paid again. Regardless of previous deals. Hence the new shirt sponsor. The only thing financially we have lost on in terms of income is shirt sales. No doubt they will be on the up, plus they will have made money on the fire sale these past 2-3 weeks.

No I don't think it is weird at all that they aren't disclosing information. Davy doesn't at Hudds and neither does Carter at Wakey. Why should they? It's their business not yours? As I say I believe there is a bigger plan than Chalmers/Lowe and after the seasons we have had it's time to cut back and steady the ship. That is what we have done. We haven't signed up every Tom, Dick and Harry on wages we can't afford as that what got us into this mess. For me the key signing is Toovey. That was and is a statement of intent. Otherwise they would have stuck with Rohan.

Agreed, we will be losing money already. Most estimates for an academy is £100k-£150k per annum. Which is why a couple of SL clubs don't do it.
But an academy is currently a medium/long term investment for us, as we are having to restart it again.
But I feel it is a short term imperative for the RFL that our academy continues, as it will have a -ve impact on Sport England funding for the RFL if our academy shuts.

All these decisions, supposedly for our survival, look very different if you look at them from The RFL point of view, and how they benefit from them. We are just an afterthought now.

I still have a little hope in me. Because no sports fan of any club in any sport at the beginning of a season, should have no hope.
But I have no optimism. At all.