True!!

No he probably wasn't so I'm more willing to take your word for it. However estimating the crowd at any ground is tricky, but at Odsal the difference between 10 and 15k must be hard to spot with it being so vast.

So let's meet in the middle and say 13k which is pretty bl**dy good, with another 2k for the benefit of a franchise

Sorry mate, but in fairness those of us who have been going for years can judge it fairly well - even if we had to stretch our memories a bit to remember a crowd that big! We know pretty well what 13k looks like. And 15k. And 17k...

You can tell fairly well by how full the Rooley Avenue terrace looks, by whether there are any gaps at the Coral Stand end of the popular terrace, by how full the triangle under the Touchdown is, by how full the red seats at the edges of the main Stand are, and by how long you have to wait for a slash. The club was expecting 14k, and as I sat down I said we've beaten that. Even if they counted non-attending season ticket holders (douubt will have been that many) I'd say there was still getting on for 15k there.

The hard part is getting future crowds on that sort of scale. We'll likely struggle to better that for a while, except of coursde when HKR come with their 847,000 away support.

You can, of course, all come and see for yourself on 6 March. Maybe bring enough newly-envigourated fans to see if we CAN better that gate...?

I've told you a million times before not to exaggerate!

Seriously no one has been able to compete with HKR since Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes appeared on the horizon.

And rightly so imo. The RFL really would of lost their minds if they kicked the Dulls out

Am I right in saying that Bradford have an attractively discounted season ticket offer? How did they sell? If successful then strong attendances could be the norm for the season?

You always seem a fairly well informed poster, so I am sure you know there is considerably more than just covered stands to be assessed when looking for a "premier" sports venue, as the RFL term it.

Odsal has a long way to go to be anywhere near a premier venue.

Of course I know. In the same way that I know that - contrary to what some people like to believe - stadium facilities is only one subset of the criteria that a SL application is judged against. And, within stadium facilities, there are a number of sub-criteria and Bradford already meets many of those. Why do you think Bradford was not one of the clubs on a warning for the coming Licensing round?

The assessment was "The Coral Stand offers good hospitality but the remainder of the stadium requires improvement and there are some development plans." All the other stadia under threat were described as "limited and old fashioned". So there you have it "requires improvement". As opposed to the code for "they need a new, bigger stadium". And improvement of some sort there will most certainly ve and will have to be. A lid over the main terrace would be a good start, although I doubt that would be the limit of the club's ambitions regardless of any external support.

10,540 sold.

And, even with the discounted pricing, there was still a surprisingly large walk-in support on top of that last Sunday, as well as excellent travelling support from the Piedome.

Under the old criteria, you picked up a Franchise point for having average crowds of over 10k, and another for a stadium that was on average more than 40% full - in Bulls case that would be about 10.4k.

Quite right too Bradford are in no danger at all, certainly not this time.

However, if in 3 years Salford, Saints, Cas, Wakey all have new, premier venues and Bradford continue to fail to make the play-offs and if other clubs make the necessary strides...who knows.

Ahhh...well, one can dream, eh?

Not dream...nightmare.

Made all the more real because, in the scenario you outline which is (hopefully) unlikely but far from impossible, then you are quite correct.

My personal view is that the RFL - by which I really mean the big monied-clubs running the show nowdays - would have little concern in ejecting Bradford in favour of some new "Development" club. I am not concerned about the current Licensing round; but I am seriously concerned about the next. I reckon that they will want a 16-team competition spread 3 clubs in West Yorks, 3 in Central Lancs/Scouseland, 3 in SW Lancs/Cheshire/N Wales, 2 in Hull, 2 in London, 2 in France and 1 anywhere they can claim as "Develpment" - you would hope Cumbria, or poss South Yorks (again) but what prizes for somewhere like Dublin?

On my scenario, West Yorks = Leeds, Hudds (go where the money is...) and... ??

if my memory is correct from reading past info you can squeese a few more than that

I know hkr have alot of fans but there ground is shocking as well. They are also too close to another sl club but they never get mentioned in the mix of relegation clubs. Any thoughts?