Seems a strange situation when the RFL will not consider any bids containing conditions. Surely their offer to buy the lease on Odsal from the BOD contained conditions eg loan repayment as part of the deal!! A case of double standards here I think. No potential buyer would wish to purchase the club without some indication of future SL status. How on earth can you put forward a business plan when you have no indication of anticipated revenue which depends on your league status. It would appaer to me that the RFL Board are adopting this stance to appease those other SL club chairman who are extremely unhappy that the RFL entered into this ground purchase scheme somewhat behind closed doors without their prior knowledge.What does the RFL stand to gain from the loss of the bradford bulls to the competition. In my opinion absolutely nothing. They will be left with the lease on a ground which no doubt will have to be maintained. Very poor publicity when one of the most successful clubs in the summer era disappears into oblivion and an obvious call for an investigation into the whole franchise licensing system. Alraedy initiated by the new acting chief executive.

I am really wondering whether it would be best going bust now. We are embarrassing our great club, and must be creating animosity amongst those playing for us.

How long can we expect the staff to work for nothing? and more importantly, how the hell do we build a squad for next year? the players cannot wait until the end of august to find out their fate, it is unfair on those that have pulled on our shirt.

I kind of hope/ expect that if we are to survive we will see the club sell a couple of players, as I am sure they will not want to sit around and wait to see how it pans out.

Edited for accuracy.

The RFL have said the players will be paid.

There are 2 choices. The RFL pay the players to play for Bradford to the end of the season, fulfilling the fixtures. Everything then collapses, the players get salary cap dispensations with other clubs for next season and the players continue to get paid.

Or - everything collapses now. Fixtures are declared void (distorting the competition) , the RFL pay the players to the end of the season but they won't be allowed to join other clubs now (to avoid distorting the competition further) so they all go on holiday early.

The RFL are trying to protect the players - fine.
They are trying to protect the integrity of the competition - fine
They have not protected the staff - not so good but the fans (and Warrington's generosity) are helping with that.

But we are not getting any indication that the RFL is currently trying to protect the club or the fans.
They might be, but they're not explaining themselves very well. But then when has anyone explained anything over the last 4 months.

The RFL have NOT helped the club, they have helped Peter Hood stay in position years after anyone could see the man was wholly incompetent and dishonest.

By SECRETLY lending him 700k they made the situation worse not better. Had their own audit dept looked at the situation they could have made public what was going on whilst our Chairman was telling everyone that the pledeges had been a great success and the club's finances were in good shape. Had they acted then the club had a number of options,

1, A smaller loan with input from the RFL to reduce outgoings.
2, RFL oversight of signings
3, Change the board
4, Enter admin but still holding the lease.
5, Launch the pledge

The RFL were registering new players at the club while owed 700k?

Despite the club not making one single repayment, they then (apparently without the knowledge of the other shareholders or a single other member club) negotiated to buy the lease. Again they made no attempt to look into the reason why the club could not make any repayments or why they needed to sell the lease. Did Balke Solly, the head of licensing, who is in charge of the process of financial oversight not think that this suggested a problem? They then joined with Peter Hood in explaining that decison with a story which looked shaky at the time but which now can be said to be downright lies.

In the interim period the club have lost the entire sum of money handed over by the RFL plus 500k of supporters money. Clearly the administration of the club is the key problem - a matter I and others have raised time and again, but the conduct of the RFL needs to be looked into. WHY did they enter into not one but two secret arrangements, particularly as the club had breached the terms of the first one? Where were the RFL auditors? What did Peter Hood tell them for them to act in this manner? What did Nigel Wood tell the RFL board to get them to agree to this?

Nobody screamed for administration. I and others pointed out time and time and time again that the people running the club were not up to the job and should stand down. Where we are now is an inevitable consequence of these warnings not being heeded. This is a wholly preventable disaster.

If the RFL don't have someone playing in that stadium and paying rent then it's going to be one massive problem for them. They only option would be for the council to sell the land and repay them through the sale. Could that/ would that happen?

There's no way with the monkey of Odsal on their back they'd let a new Bulls in SL playing at Valley Parade.

I'd be happy watching a completely new club play Championship 2 at Horsfall if it restored some pride and honesty to RL in Bradford.

This is a mess you couldn't make up.

Still a stand off www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/n ... _/?ref=rss

Still a stand off www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/n ... _/?ref=rss

Any phoenix club should move heaven and earth to try to stay at Odsal, at least for a season. The Bulls would probably get 4,000 attendances in C1 at Odsal, 2,000 at VP, 1,000 at Horsfall. Moving to Horsfall would send a message to many fans that there would be no way back, staying at Odsal that its a temporary blip.

Get the best possible deal from the RFL on the rent, mothball the Coral Stand, close the Rooley Lane end and cut costs to the bone. And I'm afraid adopt a vulture mentality, hope that we're not alone and that SL places will need to be filled in 2014.

"But the governing body yesterday insisted it is unable to give Bulls a handout and its only option would be to make a second advanced payment of some of its Sky television money."

Has Blake Solly got amnesia?

Sad though it is, I think we need to fold now too. Enough is enough. The RFL are clearly taking the p!$$ now, letting us play on to the end of the season just to avoid any more embarrassment but then they will let us fold anyway. And by then it will be too late to do anything to save the club.

Just what the RFL want...

One option may be for the RFL to move out of Red Hall and into Odsal. Don't know how viable that would be, depends if they own the former or if they have a lease they can't get out of. And whether they'd want to set up shop there in the first place!

Could a C1 operation realistically be formed? Backers for a SL operation seem thin on the ground as it is. Also there are no guarantees of getting back into SL. That could put many off as it does at existing C1 and C2 clubs.

I've no idea what the rent would be to play at Odsal. It'd need to be realistic given the constraints of playing in C1. I agree it would be the club's best option but it hardly looks like a good one. Playing in a large mausoleum in front of 4k tops with grass growing out of the unused terracing would present an image of total decline.

I'd say it's SL or bust.