What is wrong with simply putting a roof over the popular side at Odsal? It's not that bad a stadium that you desperately need to move, surely?

that seems like logical option and probably what we should have been doing all along. plus has added advantage we could probable close off a section at a time and still play at odsal thus not having to pay out rent to another stadium and maximising our income.

The chairman of Bradford Park Avenue wanted to build a purpose built stadium with a view to leading his team into the fourth tier of the football league. Surely it would be good option to discuss ways forward with him to build a decent stadium for the use of both clubs. We have a supporter base of around 15k and an average attendance of around 10k. Surely a couple of quid on match day entrance, an increase in season tickets, various fund raising activities and other sourcing of funds including some sort of deal with the council which will see them contribute. Lottery cash, European union money etc etc.
I dont know th ins and out of securing funding but there must be someone that does and we dont have long. The recession will give us more time regarding the super league franchise but all avenues must be explored.
We need to save our club and we need to move fast!

Peter Hood said Plan B, C and D were all in place ready for this. I hope that remains the case.

I don't understand how millions are found for renovation everywhere but Bradford.

£2 average increase on 10,000 bodies per regular home game (means more like £3 regular price increase cos of concessions etc (13) would add £221k net of VAT p.a - assuming attendances were unchanged. A definite help, but a fraction of what would be needed. About enough though to pay for a top-flight international player - to put it in perspective.

An extra 2,000 bodies a week through the turnstiles would add about £200k p.a net of incremental variable costs.

We are still only scratching the surface of the problem. There ARE ways of funding a scheme, but they invariably involve a large retail/commercial component (look at every new stadium that has not been funded by selling a council-owned telco?) Funnily enough, such a scheme for Odsal was knocked back cos of being "out of town" - even though the retail partner Tesco was then allowed to build a huge store a similar distance from the city centre up Great Horton Road, Asda now on Cemetery Road, the Matalan store on Morrisons' site on Mayo Avenue, and worst of all the massive Tesco redevelopment on Canal Road which will do even more wonders for the scandal of a city centre. But I'm sure what happened to the previous Odsal scheme was fair and reasonable, and had nothing to do with trying to coerce Bulls to leave Odsal and enable the council to bale out BCFC by the back door.

Without a major retail or educational partner, and/or a huge dollop of public money, and/or a big cheque for selling your owned ground, you won't get any new stadium built.

Maybe one reason is cos Bradford is a non-labour council in the times of a labour government?

And, scarily, you can envisage the scenario of labour regaining this council at the same time as they lose the country, so we STILL end up with a government not friendly to the city.

1.) VP is not a dump, it's a decent stadium albeit one that is not in the greatest or most convenient spot.
2.) I suspect that many people do feel the same as you in an ideal world, but push comes to shove I equally suspect that most would make the journey.
3.) Would you really rather watch a pure franchise than I club affiliated with Bradford? I wouldn't and [iI[/i suspect that you would be in the minority.

For my part, if it's to be VP, and assuming that we can afford it, then better that we find out now than next year. I'm in favour of anything that provides stability and a Super League licence.

point I think your missing is that our franchise isnt at risk this round of franchising. we havent had a warning re: the stadium as 5 other clubs have had, and more importantly we achieved a b grad last time round and can only drop one franchise grade each round of franchising. only c grade clubs can be considered to drop out. so we could drop to a c grade this round and be in danger in 2015. we can afford to wait another year while we go through the options but we will need to make a final decision in about a year.

To raise funds why not sell the naming rights to the club, like get the word Bradford out of the title, it works in Asia for football teams, and Harlequins were known as the NEC Harlequins for a while, maybe we could sell the naming rights to the club and ground in exchange for the sponsor funding the stadium development

No doubt the Stans and Leeds United fans feel exactly the same way, as for most, I think they'll be able to stomach watching the team move a couple of miles away for the sake of Superleague Rugby.

Possible tiny ray of sunshine - stay at Odsal, more seats and a roof and keep some standing. Maybe down the line we'll be able to market the standing experience, something increasingly few sports teams can offer.

That would of course involve something occuring at Odsal with council support, and their record just got that bit worse today.

Didn't Bradford miss out on getting a Development Corporation in the 1980s because they didn't have a Labour council, but Labour strongholds at the time like Sheffield, Leeds and Teesside all benefited from the Tories. (If you can call Meadowhall and Teesside Park benefitting!).

I think Bradford has just had damn bad luck, the Council can't be to blame for everything.

Sadly, I fear you are dreaming if you think any sponsor would pay anything remotely resembling that sort of money for a (now) mid-ranking SL team. Where would they get the payback?

Although like many others will have, I anticipated something like this after the meeting was delayed (rescheduled, canceled, whichever one you like), the news is still devastating. We need to act fast really, 2011 isn't all that long away and we need something solid in place by then.


Watching the Bulls at VP isn't the same, but if it secures our future in the top-flight then so be it.