I'm more interested in what cost there will be to the RFL &, as a Bradford resident, to the City.

Few musings. Will there be clauses in the lease about maintaining the site to a standard? Is there a risk that the council could do a few surprise inspections and if the RFL hasn't maintained it (after the Bulls vacate on 30th Sept) then they could ultimately forfeit the lease? Politically the council wouldn't consider that option when it was the Bulls, they may be willing to take the risk when it's the RFL?

I've said it before, but the council is scrabbling for a coherent public health plan - mainly child (and adult) obesity. Lack of sports infrastructure is a hole in any plan for reducing childhood obesity.

The council is land rich and cash poor. For public health purposes, they need more sporting infrastructure, open to all. Outdoors, indoors, 4G. If the RFL can get out of the way, I'm sure the council could discuss their needs directly with a developer. A small community stadium at the heart of the plans, for RL, RU, Football, whoever needs it could work.

Can you explain how/why the RFL will come out of this with more than they paid, especially when their income WAS going to come for the rent paid by Bradford and this will disappear if/when Bradford move in with Dewsbury.
Bradford council aren't exactly going to be offering large sums of money to buy the lease back.

The RFL have already written DOWN the value of the lease in their books by hundreds of thousands of pounds a few years ago.

£750k IIRC

That's a big figure for the RFL to write off.
There is little doubt that they (Bradford) should have been allowed to fold first time around, without the "support" of the RFL and you have to say that, although the share with Dewsbury will save them heaps and keep them on life support for a while, they have to keep some profile in Bradford itself or they will be looking at a slow lingering death, unless there is a knight in shining armour waiting in the wings with serious cash to invest.

As has been shown with other clubs trying to build new facilities, it can take forever, especially if the council dont drive the project really hard.

Its sad for the game and you have to feel for the fans, who have followed them for years and invested so much of their time and money in supporting their team.

Allied with the low value of land in Bradford it is the worst possible scenario. I agree about the need for infrastructure but the lack of money is the Catch 22.

Yes down to around £400k which is just a bit more than they will have received in rent if the figures regularly banded about are true.

By the same token there will likely be clauses in Bradford's lease from the RFL that requires them to maintain the ground to an agreed standard. Maybe Bradford will be getting a big bill when the lease ends......

The council are likely to look for dilapadations repatriation but i think a good brief will be able to dismiss them considering the state the grounds been in for the last 20+ years. I'm sure there will be legal fees and some sort of payment required though

I think that's what I meant. Bulls are paying a lot of money to keep it to a standard that it gets a safety certificate and no more. From 1st October, the RFL will start to have to pay for the maintenance if they cannot pass the cost onto a tenant. Not only will the £72k pa disappear, but there will be an approx. £200k maintenance hole in the RFL budget. That should focus the RFL's minds on moving the lease on.

It depends whether it a is a full repairing lease or one that allows for normal wear & tear. Same with the RFL head lease with Bradford Council. Someone will have a sizeable bill.


To who? The Council might have them by the balls. If the land has very little value for anything what do they do with it. The lease very probably will not allow the RFL to develop Odsal for anything but sport. I would not like to think the RFL have ambitions to be a developer. If notoriously cut-throat developers can't make a go of a Cas or Wakey sports centre I can't see the RFL doing a better job.

The tone of your post seems to paint the RFL as the bad guys ?
Unless they have tried to add something to the "pot", all they did was bail Bradford out and now, Bradford are walking away from the lease ??
I understand that the costs may not be viable for Bradford to remain at Odsal but, these costs are nothing new, are they ?

Clearly reading the comments on here the RFL should build a super stadium and each round played there. A bit like every week being a Magic weekend.

The main gripes Bulls fans have with the RFL are mainly to do with the deduction of a full year's worth of central funding following our first admin. Whichever way you look at it, this was complete horsesh*t and pretty much guaranteed that the next owner, Omar Khan, was doomed to fail.
The RFL then oversaw and approved the appointment of Marc Green, who turned out to be a complete fraud. You could say this wasn't entirely their fault but questions can certainly be raised about their vetting process if someone like Green can get through it.
The most recent liquidation and appointment of Chalmers and Lowe as owners also stank to high heaven. We thought we were going to get some answers when it looked like the employee lawsuit was going to go to court, but 'someone' managed to agree a settlement with the employees in question and so it never got that far.

Going all the way back to Peter Hood and the initial loan, yes it was our own doing and more fool the RFL for giving us the money and not disclosing it to the other SL clubs. We can't really have any gripes about future rent and upkeep because Hood and future owners have signed leases knowing the brunt of what it involved.

But just to be clear, we are not 'walking away' from a lease. The current lease is due to expire and we simply haven't signed a new one. We will be fulfilling the obligations of the current lease, not reneging on anything. There's a not-so-subtle difference.