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.

If you play a business game called prisoners dilemma with this scenario, from the RFL's point of view, it's clear the best solution for the RFL is to agree the sale of the Bulls to someone who will buy the lease for a fair price. To accomodate that it's clear they need to guarantee the SL license for the next 2 years. After that, if we fail to get a license, the RFL is cleear of holding a white elephant and the rest of the clubs are not penalised by having to account for a £1m drop in funding from the RFL. Question is on the bids submitted so far, have they offered too low a price for the lease and/or asked for guarantees beyond the next round of licenses. Detractors of the policy of facilitating a sales don't seem to realise how it could affect their club with a shortfall in funding whilst the RFL absorb a loss, unless the RFL has a really cunning plan, but their track record of secret loans and buying of leases indicate previous cunning plans failed! Are they viewing it from a business point of view or is their some other agendas at play.

4,000 crowds - back to 1995 and the short winter season before Super league when Brian Smith's experiment looked doomed - we did not look good!

It seems clear to me that there is only one, option, and that is find a consortium which has enough money to fund a SL operation pretty much "as you were". Many have come up with alternative scenarios in the Championship leagues, but to me, none of them remotely work; apart from anything else, it is crystal clear that if we can't find an owner to play a SL team there then there is zero chance of finding one to sub a C or C1 team there.

I don't say it's impossible to see an alternative club rising in the lower leagues, but what is also clear to me that it would not - indeed could not - contain almost **ANY** of the current squad, as the best ones would obviously leave, and the remainder would be highly unlikely to agree to switch to a few seasons playing part time for little pay.

So we would need a new team. And the formidable team which is the Bulls SL squad would exist no more.

Then there is the coaching staff. All I can say is that clearly we would have a whole new coaching staff, and it wouldn't be anything like on the lines of Potter.

So, no recognisable team; no recognisable coaching staff; and no recognisable ground.

This new entity would have no chance of a SL licence in the next rounds and being doomed to lower leagues, with no money, for several years minimum is as likely as not to become a self-fulfilling prophecy as the vicious circle of no money and cuts continued.

So to sum up, either of the present consortia come up with some serious money at the last second enabling us to continue in SL, (which I must say personally seems a vain hope to me) or that is basically that. We won't be a big fish in the big pond, or even a small one, for the forseeable. Our badly holed and critically leaking pool will probably be drained, the best fish will go to market, and we will have to restock on a tiny budget elsewhere.

Just out of curiosity, I wonder what Mr. Caisley, who of course originally pulled the plug, is up to while the fish twitch on the bank?

From Maislebugs: =#FF0000The 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.


This is the most accurate posting I've seen in several weeks. Am I alone in hoping that when this nightmare is over there will be a proper post mortem? It won't help, I know, but it will make a lot of us who have supported Northern/Bulls for decades feel a bit better.

You're not the only one wondering that.