Before the club makes a decision to leave Odsal I think they need to spell out just how excessive are the maintenance costs. I've been sceptical about the argument since attending a fans forum when Caisley insisted that £10m needed to be spent immediately on the stadium in order to retain its safety certificate. 13 years on it doesn't seem that many, if any, of the essential repairs that he quoted have been carried out and we still seem to have a safety certificate.

I recall Hood referring to a burst drain that cost £30k to repair a few years ago but apart from that what indications are there that the club are spending huge amounts on the stadium?

Ironically I recently heard a Darlington football fan blame their club's demise on the huge increase in running costs after they built a shiny new stadium

My you tube video and yep of course we all know the Downfall spoofs have been around years., and I'll happily take the criticism of an old joke done poorly if that what you want to throw at me ...

but TBH honest it was never intended to make it onto this board and was quickly put together as a bit of a lightner for our own fans at a rough time in the season.

Actually if you look at the threads regarding the Bulls on the Cougars site you'll actually see that I actually supported you guys ....

I think I saw something about that a while ago. Is it true they no longer play at the stadium due to the prohibitive cost?

A shiny new stadium usually comes with a stadium management company. If your owner has more than 50% of the stadium management company then you'll probably be ok. If not, then there could be problems down the line.

i think the bulls will survive outside of super league , lets face it we have more chance of getting to the championship grand final than the super league one at the moment . if we invest in a better players who knows we might get a trip to blackpool for the northern rail cup aswell ,as for a new ground ,we are in this position becouse we couldnt pay the bills ,wheres the money coming from for a new stadium the council ? get real

Thank you Rach. Haven't seen one of these for a few years, especially RL related. Really made me smile as I'm sure it has a few other people. I think you're onto something - how about a new one when/if someone takes the poison chalice that is the coaches role

Indeed he did. And there's an example of my problem, right there. I read the words, and the words alone. I don't add anything.

It may be true that he has no intention of us ever leaving Odsal, and it may be true that he will spend whatever money is necessary to achieve that. It may be. But he hasn't said that. Maybe you were intended to take it that he meant "we won't ever move: over my dead body". Or maybe that's what he means. But it isn't what he said.

He has said he has "no plans" to move away. But that would be true in my more specific scenario; and it would be also true if he knew damn well that we will not be able to stay at Odsal in the Championship for whatever reason. As long as the actual plans for physically moving don't yet exist, then he "has no plans".

It tells me nothing. Or, as a maximum, that if he did see our future elsewhere, then the specifics haven't yet been decided upon.

As at today, I have no plans to go on holiday next year. Will I go on holiday next year? Well, almost certainly, yes.

I strongly suggest the huge costs at Darlington are probably more to do with the 'management company', no doubt set up to run the stadium at a profit, than for any actual maintenance costs. It is a fair point to bear in mind though, as a management company would probably be involved in any re-build of Odsal.

To be honest, I can't remember Caisley [iever[/i holding anything remotely like a 'fans' forum', unless that was, perhaps, his term for board meetings. Maybe the £10m was a figure he quoted in the articles in the T&A where he berated fans for not turning up in sufficient numbers? In truth, I wouldn't like to say how much has been spent on the ground, probably the minimum which kept its licence, but the problem with Odsal has always been its sheer size and the fact is you could spend an awful lot, though maybe not £10m, and hardly notice when glancing round.

I wondered, at the time of the RFL buying the lease, if there was some longer term plan to relocate their headquarters to Odsal and look at developing the stadium as a venue for cup semi-finals, championship and amateur finals etc whilst allowing Bradford to continue playing there on a weekly basis. "The RFL Stadium" sort of thing...a bit like Twickenham but obviously ter.

To me it now looks more like fire fighting to ensure superleague fixtures were fullfilled.

A master class in irony if ever there was. Do you not read this board?

He held a couple circa 2001/01. I got the impression that they were really Abi Ekoku's idea, Caisley looked as if he would rather have been anywhere else and was seriously ed off when any criticisms were made. Ekoku clearly saw them as a means of getting the fans to lobby MPs for the stadium redevelopment. Told us we should follow the example of Arsenal fans who had raised 40,000 signatures for a petition for their new stadium. The first one was held about the time that Ekoku appeared on Question Time.

Caisley reeled off a list of urgent repairs which he said would cost £10m. The main item was £2m for a new roof for the main stand as the existing roof was about to collapse. He made the claim as part of his justification for moving to VP.

It did seem to me that "Odsal's excessive maintenance costs" was really part of the strategy to obtain support for the new stadium and perhaps has just become accepted wisdom. The terraces aren't crumbling, there rarely seems to be any work going on at the ground.

If we can re-negotiate the rent when we are relegated I hope we can stay at Odsal. Its a huge ground for a Championship club but if the terraces could be mothballed and we just used the main stand would it be that much more expensive than the alternatives?

I think we might be able to survive relegation and we might be able to survive leaving Odsal, but not both.

According to your coach you can see 90% of the pitch from the car wash next to the ground. So at least we wont have to pay.

Might get wet though

top 3 .......4 v 5 play off for the last place in SL in 2016