As posted on the VT, the RFL have bought Odsal!

rlhttps://www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/24240/the-rfl-purchases-odsal-stadiumrl

Interesting!

Surely there's a conflict of interests in any future franchising bids?

For example, in the hypothetical situation that we were to somehow put together a top class bid together, would the RFL look to protect their investment in Br*dford's ground and knock us back?

I think The RFL have bought the lease off Bradford council in a similar way that they have the lease for our ground from the Co-op.

If this is true does it mean they don't own the land the stadium is built on?.

I can't say I'm surprised TBH, I heard a while back that there was a shortage of landfill sites and that is one hell of a big (sh*t)hole to fill

I suppose it depends on the conditions they have agreed to.

I would assume that Bradford council owns the land, the RFL have bought a long term lease, and the bulls sublet off the RFL.

:19wew35i]

Obviously no figures quoted by the RFL but it would be interesting to discover from BDMC how much they sold it for. The RFL will obviously refuse to say due to 'confidentiality'. I live in Craven, so I can't ask, but a BDMC ratepayer would be able to discover the sale price, just as we did when CDC sold council-owned land for £500,000 less than its commercial value to Homeloan Management and refused on the same basis. But they had to disclose it in the end.

'O what a tangle web we weave ....' could be said! "The RFL have agreed a deal that will see the governing body add Odsal Stadium to its property portfolio.


The RFL has paid an undisclosed sum in an arrangement that will allow Bradford Bulls to remain at their spiritual home as tenants.


RFL Chairman Richard Lewis said the move would bring security to Odsal, which has recently been the subject of predatory approaches.


“This arrangement is absolutely the right thing to do because it safeguards the future of one of the sport’s most famous stadia,” said Lewis.


“Odsal is famous throughout the world and it would be a tragedy were the venue to be lost to the sport in the way that other evocative Rugby League venues have already been lost.


“We have paid market value for the stadium and the Bulls will pay market value rental to the RFL to play their home fixtures at Odsal.”


Although plans to turn Odsal into the ‘Wembley of the North’ have been circulating since the 1940s, the RFL has no immediate plans to develop the ground as the sport’s national stadium.


Instead, ownership of Odsal by the RFL will safeguard the stadium at a time when the economic downturn has seen the planned redevelopment of a sporting village concept put on hold.


The RFL already has an established and constantly changing property portfolio which includes ownership and/or interests in many other professional and community Rugby League stadia. As a matter of course the governing body regularly sells on and redevelops stadia if it is deemed to be in the best interest of the current tenants and the game as a whole.


Bradford Bulls Chairman Peter Hood said the sale of Odsal to the RFL would enable the club to face the future with confidence.


“This is excellent news for Bradford Bulls, for the Bradford district and for the sport,” said Hood. "Odsal is an iconic Rugby League venue and is strategically important to the Bradford district, located as it is at the head of the city’s principal access corridor.


“The sale to the RFL safeguards our immediate future and keeps all the options open once the economy recovers from recession.


“On behalf of everyone in Bradford I would like to thank the RFL Board of Directors for their vision and support by investing in Odsal in the way they have.”'"

Will they move from 'Red Hall' to 'Sodal' - ops sorry, 'Odsal'?

I doubt the council were the major player in all this.

The council retains the freehold, but it is (or was) let to the Bulls on a very long lease for a peppercorn rent (tantamount to freehold). All running costs at Bulls expense, so the council had neither obligations nor income from the site. Odsal therefore pretty well worthless to the council while the Bulls remain in being and in situ; and likewise to any prospective buyer. So why sell the freehold?

If, as I suspect, what has actually happened is that the Bulls have sold the long lease to the RFL, in exchange for a shorter, "market terms" lease with the RFL that may or may not have been front-loaded in Bulls favour, then the council's position is unchanged. Especially if, as I suspect, that agreement has conditions that the Bulls must play there or the lease reverts to the council.

Note also that the Council has now taken out a charge over the Bulls assets - or, more particularly, over their interests in the new "underlease" - so their position may if anything be stronger than before?

I'm sure the good burghers of Keighley will find that this latest transaction is a scandal and a huge waste of council tax payers money, even so. Be very disappointed in you if you do not!

I'd be more interested in knowing if this transaction instead happened for the reason I suspect it did.

Would this suspicion involve something along the lines of a similar RFL deal at Cougar Park 2 and a half years ago and what subsequently happened to the club 3 months later?

I think the two situations are different:

We were at the end of our lease with the co-op and vulnerable, Bradford are still fresh into their 150 yr lease.

The RFL have the lease for cougar park from the co-op, we have the underlease (i think, can someone correct me if i'm wrong), whereas the RFL have bought the lease from Bradford for a seven figure sum and rent it back to them at market value.

Looks like Bradford were in the poop with the taxman over historic image rights and the RFL have found a way to help them with what is effectively a loan against the lease.

I was listening to radio Leeds yesterday.
Didnt catch the name of the guy being interviewed but he said the Bulls were in real financial trouble. And if the RFL hadn't have stepped in the future of the club was in doubt.

Whilst not wishing any club to fail like the cougars this is not new to the bulls, either as others mention what is rfl long term plan for odsal as I cannot see them having loads of money floating around. Perhaps and I agree with Dreamers take on this they were in the mire with council possibly either to negotiate higher rent from bulls which they could not afford or were going to give notice of intention to sell the dump, as we all know councils have to make savings and get income levels up.

Way I see it and time will tell if right or wrong but the rfl may have underwritten the rent increase and to act as guarontor should the bulls not be able to pay the rent.

RFL may turn it into a truck park for Stobarts lorries.