RIP Jack Fulton. Do try and keep up, its not a great 1st post is it.

Who do you suggest? They will all have recruited squads to be competitive in Championship 1 and Toronto will have already made travel plans.

I actually agree with you but no one will want to step up.

Easier for one of them to sign a couple of extra players or even just risk it with their current squad. They would probably need to win 10 games to survive, New Bradford (who have no squad) would need to win at least 16 games out of 30 to survive.

They're being set up to fail

Jacks son is still writing cheques to help out the Tigers

Well, thanks to the snotty attitude of a few Bradford fans, all I can say is that I'm glad they've disappeared into the oblivion, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving club.

Nowhere have I wished for more suffering, just that I'm glad that your persistent failure of a club has disappeared. I genuinely hope that a phoenix club can be made to work, but it's being set up to fail. If you can't see that then you're a moron

A tad overboard I think.

For once I feel that the RL have got this one right but they are backed into a corner caused by their own ineptitude in previous stages of this saga.

The game cannot afford to lose any club be it York, Sheffield or Bradford and the focus of the RL board should be on securing the futures of all its member clubs, strengthening its base and moving forward together.

I would be willing to bet the The RL has sounded out some C1 clubs about taking Bradford's place and been turned down and the daft league structure and even dafter magic weekends mitigate against going forward with an 11 team division. Their choice will have been between making Bradford stay in the championship as whipping boys facing demotion the following year thus penalising he club twice or the sensible option of returning to 2 divisions of 14 clubs and scrapping the magic weekends. To me it's a no-brainer but as usual the RFL think very differently.

That'll be me

Whitehaven have said that they weren't contacted about the possibility of returning to the championship, this is purely down to the RFL wanting to protect their own interests in Odsal, not about making sure Bradford has a strong team

It certainly looks like they have acted to protect themselves.
It would be interesting to know what role they have played in this latest fiasco and why a new start, presumably playing at Odsal, is better than the proposal that was rejected by the Administrator and whether it was The RFL that rejected it.

There has been some "fluffy" reasoning given about the impracticalities of "promoting" a League 1 club at such short notice.
However, is that reason enough to break their own rules on clubs going into liquidation and if so, what happens to the next club that is unfortunate enough to fall from grace.

Having said that, starting at minus 12 points and with half a squad, it's going to be very difficult for New Bradford to stay in The Championship.

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The new club is being set up to fail which is why I find it all a bit odd. Either way, I'm glad the Bulls have gone, arrogant fans who would all have loved it if we'd done what they've just done.

The RFL would do better to wash their hands of Odsal, cut their losses and sell the lease to the highest bidder to use as landfill or put houses on.

It seems that I might be on my own here, but I think the RFL have got it right, and that they often do.

The problem with our game is that there aren't enough Bradfords. In football, they could dump Arsenal to League 2 and it would make no difference to the game, as there are big clubs in the league below and further. Newcastle, Leeds, either Sheffield club, and the list goes on. In rugby league, there are only just enough big clubs to fill the top flight. Outside of the current 12, only really Bradford, Hull KR and possibly Halifax and Fev could offer prospects of 5K+ crowds most weekends. The RFL has got to be mindful of the wider interests of the game and look at each club on an individual basis.

From the outside looking in, when the RFL considers how to treat our repeated financial disasters, we have offered nothing to the Super League since we arrived apart from low crowds in poor surroundings that we have repeatedly promise to move from but have never been able to do so. In fact, we have achieved top flight status and retained it at times because of an assertion we would move, and yet we are still there.

When they look at Bradford, they will see a club that has offered a huge amount to the game, and were integral to the initial boost of super league, with huge crowds and an entertaining afternoon. All that has happened at Bradford is that they didn't bank the money back then, blew it on a futile court case, and have limped along ever since. It is in the wider interests of the game that they are assisted back to their feet.

It is exactly the same scenario as when a player gets into trouble with the law. Top player, key to the side? Club releases an apology and the player carries on playing. Squad player who has never lived up to his potential? Released by the club for bringing it into dispute.

In this case, what options do the RFL have? Dumping the club into league 1 is an option, and it could be said that the sanction imposed has delivered that, albeit in 2018 rather than 2017. But what about the effect on the other clubs? The other championship clubs may well have budgeted on a visit by Bulls fans and a trip there. It wouldn't make a huge difference, but we could be talking about a few grand, which could be a lot for a part-time club. Similarly, for the club who would replace them, it will be the top CH1 club, who are no doubt looking at building for the future, where a confidence-boosting season will attract recruitment for 2018 and interest and fans. How will being beaten very week in a league they haven't planned for and then being dumped down again help them?

Yes, it sticks in the craw that there is favouritism to other clubs, that I am not sure we would have been given the same degree of help. On the other hand, as a fan of rugby league, I don't want to see anything that is to the game's detriment, and it isn't in the best of shape right now.

The RFL are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and they have made their choice. What if League 1 was a no-no for a new buyer? What do the RFL do? Let a club like Bradford die just because it's fair to Wakey? No, their stewardship of the game demands them to help the Bulls. No rugby league club in Bradford? That could be a catastrophe as far as youth development is concerned.

In most cases, the RFL are faced with difficult decisions and I think in most cases, when viewed objectively, they get it right.

I do wish people would avoid saying silly things about Bradford 'fans' and their apparently collective attitude; it doesn't exist, and to tag every supporter of the club with a shared arrogance is just lazy.

The club has been owned by a succession of chancers who have held the history and significance of the club in scant regard; the RFL haven't helped with their contrary 'help then punish' behaviour, nor have the pundits and former players, with their mawkish 'SL needs a strong Bradford' nonsense - and yes, some Bradford fans have clung to that and perhaps been a bit, err, bullish; but who can blame long term fans for clinging on to any hope of survival - let alone WT fans, who can understand their dilemma more than most?

I guess the best RL fans can wish for is an owner who genuinely cares about the game, the club and the fans - and who understands how to cut their cloth and rebuild in a sustainable way; in many ways, they need an MC right now - as much as many of us whined about his austerity plan, it appears to have worked in terms of finally getting us out of the unsustainable lurch from one financial crisis to another; exactly what a Bradford entity needs right now. With regard to their penalty for liquidation - that strikes me as a poison chalice in many different aspects; it's setting them up to fail, or to overspend again to cling on; it is massively unfair on the clubs around them who have followed the rules and spent within their means; and it pits the fans of most other clubs against Bradford yet again, due to a perception of preferential treatment by the RFL - whom, I suspect, due to their daft decision to buy the Odsal lease, now have a vested interest in propping Bradford up in their current league, rather than letting them drop down, rebuild slowly, and come back stronger and with a more sustainable model.

It's a right old pickle and no mistake - and you have to feel for the innocent people who will be affected by all this; how anyone can wish for them to disappear, along with the livelihoods and careers of hardworking people who have played no part in the mismanagement, is beyond me. What it should do however, is force some collective action against the RFL - they're as complicit in all this as Hood, Green et al. What's happening to Bradford is the tip of the iceberg - the game is teetering on the edge of unsustainability right now and without some visionary and modern leadership at the top of the game, we'll be gone in 10 years. Bring in Barry Hearn - look at what he's done to darts! If ever a game should have been consigned to pub taprooms that's it - but he's turned it into a worldwide success and a TV event that regularly trends on social media.