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.

where did you direct these warnings??? to the Shareholding? the RFL? or on RLFANS????



Too many are critical and want to say "I told you so" rather than getting off the arriss's and doing something - there was a poster yesterday belittling the efforts of those organising the meeting yesterday.... WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? apart from blather on incessantly on a website......

Heheh, you were the man who would have saved the Bulls, all hunky dory if only "they" had listened to you. Riiight. You had a team of rich business experts just waiting to ride in and make the club wealthy, if only.

Neither you nor anyone without the inside track on the Bulls' internal finances would have had any clue whether the management were "up to the job", so stop trying to big yourself up as if you were some sort of Oracle. You knew nothing.

Or if you really did know, then I blame YOU, for not spilling the beans, and forcing the issue.

That obvious point aside, calls for the board to resign seem to be endemic across all sports. What is rare as rocking horse shiit is the provision of better alternatives. Or indeed ANY alternatives. And of course our board DID, eventually, stand down. Much good [ithat's[/i done us.

Lots I agree with their but as you say yourself, much of the iceberg Hood had us sailing towards was concealed. How were those with a 'Hood's all we've got' mentality, of which I was one, supposed to know all that was going on behind the scenes?

Not bothered at this time of how we got to where we are (although as and when the final act is known I do want to know the real situation), I'm more bothered to know what I've got to support in the future, preferably in SL but if not a team built of home grown young talent in the lower leagues. At this moment I have significant doubts I'll be watching anything apart from following the sport on Sky as I can't see a path to a positive outcome for Bradford.

I said on another post that [iif[/i we are to go bust then the sooner it happens the better, the more time available to prepare the easier it would be. Finishing the season is far less important then still being here next season to me. Problem of course is the [iif[/i bit.

You often post rational, considered reactions. This isn't one of them.

Nobody is "taking the p!ss" from what I see. The problem that I observe is a banal expectation from some fans for the consortiums and RFL to be exact and revealing of the current state of play (including details of all bids and rebuttals) along with details of the RFL's exact support, or otherwise.

Quite simply, this isn't going to happen and wouldn't in any reasonable, prudent business or governing body. It is quite farcical for some fans to be demanding "answers" when their are no answers to give and more critically, why would any savvy business person reveal details of a confidential nature. There needs to be a huge level of realism by some elements that this is a process which has covert elements by definition. You don't write down your chess moves for the opposition.

As for folding, why? Wakefield aren't doing too badly and well done to them. Holding your nerve in these situations is paramount and unfortunately some people are able to do so and others unable.

More importantly, taking a lowest common denominator approach of "we're doomed" will do absolutely nothing to energise anybody or any element of this lengthy, necessary process.

Fingers crossed everything will be fine and possibly, be revealed when it's relevant. I'm not sure that is now.