Forgive me but as I'm not from, nor live, in your fair city could someone tell me how deep the links between BPA and us are? Surely our shared future would be best served together in a stadium? We appear to share some back-office functions these days, so are our common aspirations and mutual regard strong enough to consider an actual merger. A sporting club for South Bradford with different sports under one common organisation?

If I'm talking a load of naive nonsense I apologise.

AFAIK Damian Irvine now does a lot of work at BPA. I think his only role with the Bulls is as Mick’s co commentator.

If we did cosy up with BPA they apparently have a wealthy owner in Gareth Roberts. Could be a way to piggy back into a nicer new home in the long term perhaps. Or perhaps they could join us at Odsal?

You would also think that a link with BPA opens up increased funding opportunities from the FA etc. Added to that, when discussing things with the council we'd be an organisation with greater breadth and more clout.

Wouldn't it be ironic that after 'the great betrayal' and a hundred and odd years the clubs became one after all this time?

It has a certain symmetry.

As I have mentioned before - there was a very wealthy Bradfordian who had a close look at how we ran the "business" side of our club and decided to invest elsewhere.

Well it seems all is not lost - if you read carefully the article in the link below - a certain rugby league club is mentioned.

Either way it is an inspiring read.

rlhttps://widthofapost.com/2019/07/26/how-bradford-park-avenues-community-focus-could-make-a-lasting-difference-to-bradford-sport/rl

Every time we've gone into Admin, there has been this recurring idea that Park Avenue would make a bid to take over the Bulls. It's obviously never happened, although they have made bids.

Not sure why it's never happened, because the sums needed would be pocket change for the Avenue owner.

Could we join forces and build something at Horsfall? Well, there seems to be enough land. The current stadium is nowhere close to being suitable, but I guess a 'flatpack' could be fairly quickly built on that site. Not sure about parking and access, it seems a mainly residential area from what I've seen as I've driven along Halifax Road.

I don't see us going forces at Odsal. Why would that work? I don't think Gareth Roberts is a property speculator, so why would he want the site? And the ground is obviously miles too big for Avenue's 300-ish crowds.

Gareth Roberts has been involved with BPA for several years and as they are clearly not ripping up the league it would seem that he is happy to own them without dumping loads of money into them. I wouldn't expect him to suddenly buy/develop a stadium for joint use any time soon. It is clear from our past history that there is no sugar daddy on our horizon just grooming his white charger.

Given his record at Avenue, I'm somewhat sceptical about Gareth Roberts supposed riches. Or, if they exist, his willingness to spend them.

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure he means well, but when a man with his supposed mega billions (or whatever) can't get a new, presumably small new ground started, suitable for a non-league soccer team, why would anyone assume he can get a, presumably, bigger one for two clubs? Remember, he didn't rock up sometime last week he's been at Avenue since well before we left SL

That's my concerns too Bulliac. Would a move to Horsfall with BPA consign us to being in a ground that was of L1 size with the same lack of facilities as Odsal? The overheads might be lower but if we can't raise the income and have no way of expanding it's like we're settling for being in the lower leagues for good.

If there was some genuine guarantee that we would see the ground developed over time e.g. to something like what Warrington have then that's a different matter.

Gareth has put upwards of £2 Million into Bradford Park Avenue which has seen Avenue win two promotions in that time

Without that money and investment, BPA wouldn't be where they are today - just two divisions below Bradford City.

Now £2 Million might not sound a lot to some on here but that's a substantial amount of money that's he's invested that he will never see again.

I'm far from convinced Mick.

Avenue have been hovering about, a division or so below the conference, seemingly forever without any great, or even obvious, improvement. This, in a ground with few facilities, or real prospect of being allowed to make significant improvements. If they are to get to a higher level they clearly need a ground capable of housing more than the (I understand) around 500 fans they currently get.

All this time with a super-mega rich owner. It surely can't cost £6m quid to keep a club there, can it? That's the sort of money the Bulls were spending to win Super League and we all have a solid idea how much the players were on back than and it wasn't the league below the conference level sort of wages. We were still in SL when the story of their chairman looking to build a stadium first surfaced and it's now sunk without trace.

Well judging how he said they earned 2 promotions since Roberts took over when in actual fact they were in conference North when Roberts took over 4 years a go, and they're still in Conference North with zero promotions, I wouldn't be inclined to believe the £6 million figure he's mentioned.

Roberts has always seemed to interested in making BPA the heart of the community rather than a Salford City type club. I do believe he's invested in facilties to be used by the community, youth teams etc. These include classrooms etc Think I saw an article a few Months back of them buying the lease for Horsfall from the council. I don't pretend to be in the know, but from the outside looking in I don't think Roberts is going to be building stadiums anytime soon. They may be scope for the two clubs working together for a development at Odsal and the facilities at Horsfall being community facilities. Anyway, isn't the land at Horsfall restricted from being developed as its on green belt?

It's a massive amount of money with little to show for it, however, if he's a billionaire as reported then it's peanuts.

For comparison, and to illustrate the numbers you are talking about, to count to a million takes about 11 days. DAYS. To count to a billion takes 32 YEARS. Therefore, in his world he's playing at it. I don't fancy being in a Bradford Bulls environment where people are just playing at it. At least at the minute it looks like we are being serious...

reaching for the tinfoil again...

IF...big IF... That idea makes perfect sense if the council want Odsal stadium side to sell off and end up building a min 16k seater on the RD side.

Having BPA in the mix makes it more palatable for the minority City types who'd be ranting on the T&A site about 'Bulls have the begging bowl out again, the clowncil never do anything for us'...and RoI wise more sensible to have club offices and club shops in the same place.

If Roberts has his lease then his 3G pitch can be used for whatever community stuff he wants and the chances are that IF they ever get into the Football League there's a stadium waiting with the club they got into bed with, presumably just for that moment, at a very reasonable rate?

EDIT: ...and they'd not need to worry about having clashing colours in the stadium seating as they have just reverted back to their original Red, Amber and Black.... fancy that!