Oh right, you seem to know a lot, how much did they lend them exactly, and you said loaned do they obviously got it back with interest I would assume too

They didn't pay the loan back. That's why the RFL took control of the lease.

Except that if you read Chalmers' statement they could actually afford the rent, he wants to merely divert the money saved on the rent and maintenance of Odsal into spending on players!

Not quite written off but value reduced to around £400k a couple of years ago.



Reported in the T&A as £1.25million, although other sources range from £750k up to that amount. Whatever, a not insignificant sum and even if you counted the rent as loan repayments they've paid back, at best, only half the amount and more likely around 25%. So not a great return on investment for the RFL.

Two things the RFL reduced value of Odsal to 750k not 400k.

Also in tomorrow's League Paper RFL have to now find 500k a year to pay the rates on Odsal + the lost 72k. Maybe that's why they think it's a poor decision.

Ok you obviously know more than me so apologies all round sorry

That’s right apart from one point. The rent isn’t the issue. It’s the 500k a year in rates and maintenance costs.

The maintenance costs are increasing too as the ground is falling to bits.

The rfl obviously can’t afford to right off what they’ve invested so far in this mess and can’t afford to take on the responsibility of securing the site without a tennant.

It’s not really Chalmers problem though. Those decisions were made 10 years ago by people no longer linked to either organisation.

It’s also why they wouldn’t allow the basket case club to die it’s rightful death so that people could start again from the bottom in 2017.

The current position just shows what a mickey poor decision it was to, first of all, to loan the 700k in the first place and although there seemed little option other than to take on the lease when the old, old, Bulls failed.
Having said that, I just dont get how the Bulls will prosper at Dewsbury.
Moving away from their home City, albeit into a ground that they can rent relatively cheaply, will inevitably lead to loss of your fan base and unless there is some on field success and/ or a new facility found in Bradford, this could be a slow lingering death.
From the outside looking in, surely it would be better for all concerned to find either a new solution for returning to Odsal or some kind of share with your footballing neighbours ?
I can remember comments previously that Valley Parade had some issues but, surely, it would be better for Bradford to be playing in Bradford and not moving to the Wakefield district.
The 2-4 year timescale for a return looks hugely optimistic.
Just remember how long the council took to open the new shopping complex in the middle of your city and there would be more people driving that scheme than a new ground for your club.

Dewsbury is in Kirklees not Wakefield and a move to valley parade would cost 750k a year which defeats the point of moving.

I'm a tad confused?






Of the £500k, how much is the annual rates bill?

Rates are low 6 figures. As part of a lease though, generally there are expectations to keep the facility in a similar level of maintenance. Whether those expectations now contractually revert to the RFL- who knows?

If I understand the system correctly, business rates are the rateable value (£105k) multiplied by the poundage (49.3p in the pound) or about £52k. This will still need to be paid (presumably by the RFL) when Bradford leave as the rateable value is above £12k.

Maintenance will likely revert to the RFL BUT, Bradford will almost certainly be required to leave the property in a state that allows for wear and tear. Last time I was there it looked as though there was quite a lot of maintenance required that would be difficult to assign to simply W&T so the soon to be ex-tenants may find themselves lumbered with a fairly costly leaving present

Not really, as the company has only been at Odsal for 30 months or so and the state is similar to what is was then

What about training facility at tong?

How do you know what FT wages the Bulls pay??

That’s a direct contract with the council. No reason to believe that won’t continue.

Except Chalmers keeps saying that there was 3 years left on the lease when he took over the club so should be relative to the state at the start of the 5 years. Seems to me that the club is new when it suits and old when that suits too. No wonder the ex employees had a good claim....

Indeed, I agree with you the Rfl dropped a ball with that one. No wonder they settled out of court

And you can expect sustained cock-ups going forward when you appoint a man who's natural level is lottery manager of Wath Brow Hornets, as CEO of the governing body!

Reinvigorating the challenge cup is in safe hands. Maybe free Odsal crush barrier for every 10 tickets sold?

£500k a year for rates on what will be an empty site with no trading from it? Find that incredibly hard to believe.

The business rates are about a tenth of that at around £52k per year which will require paying even if no business is operating from Odsal - rateable value of £105k (from which the business rate is calculated by multiplying that amount by the poundage, currently 49.3p per £) is well above the £12k threshold for not having to pay.

Clearly something he learned from the RFL. New club in that we had to sign new contracts for players. Old clob when we were forced to stay in the championship instead of restarting in League 1. AS I have said on other threads, the RFL have proven themselves to be inept. Why are they still in charge.

Odsal is a dump an historical dump but a dump no the less, it cannot be redeveloped without a huge amount of money maybe 100 million plus, it could be turned into a nice 60k-70k stadium for big events owned by RFl hold all major events there, and make the stadium reconfigurable like a lot of US stadiums which can have 25-30k for the bulls whilst not being a soulless bowl.
However this is not ever going to happen, so sell it for housing and tell the bulls to either develop a stadium in Bradford or sell there RFl place to another Uk city. Bradford are pretty muck fooked and will never be a force or top tier team ever again, may aswell merge with Dewsbury in a reverse takeover.

It's easy to get gloomy and despondent as a Bradford fan, but you've cheered me right up. Happy days.

Glad to be of assistance

The other way of looking at the RFL's and AC's actions is shown in the RFL statement. The RFL say they want clarity on our projections for income & expenditure next year. Obviously signing the lease would give the RFL clarity. AC has been refusing to sign the lease for at least 3months. The RFL seem to have put us in special measures 2 months ago. So the other way of looking at it is that the RFL put us in special measures because we wouldn't sign the lease extension.
Really? These are the kind of muppets that run our game?

Also of note - we've handed over our estimated expenditure for moving to Dewsbury, and with the RFL killing off our ST sales with that statement, our income projections will now be off, so they can keep us in Special measures.