TBH i am now of the belief that, had the RFL helped us, we would probably be in as good a position now as we are, the changes have come as a direct result of a fresh start, and that may not have come if help had been provided.
That does not take away the question for RL in general as to why the RFL act without parity to their member clubs, all of which deserve the same respect and level playing field.
As ever the question will never be answered and we will be stuck with these morons running the game, because they are untouchable, and certainly nobody in the media, certainly not SKYs Wallace and Grommit, (their licensing questioning was absolutely embarrassing!!) can ever get a straight answer from the RFL dictats.

Yeah, I realise that this was spin, its just disappointing that, in the modern world, nobody tells it as it is.
The one sure thing is that situations like this one never come from a position of financial strength.

Pretty well as good as - as anyone (especially in London) who "owns" a house that is actually on a very long leasehold will tell you.

But a better analogy would be a normal commercial property "sale and leaseback" - for that is pecisely what we appear to have done. Sold (effectively) our interest in a very long lease, and leased back on a much shorter (we presume) lease.

As for who pays the maintenance? Given we have received a big capital sum up front, I am assuming we still do. Unless the amount of the possible sum has been reduced by the NPV of future maintemance costs that the RFL have taken on. Simple answer is we are not yet clear. But I am sure the capital sum will have reflected whatever has been agreed in this respect.

The RFL were dead quick to let you in Superleague in the first place because your ground didn't meet the basic criteria when you beat Featherstone. They've let you continue in Superleague including the first round of licensing despite you not having made the required improvements. They even let you stay in Superleague at the last licensing round despite still not having made the ground improvements and starting as a new entity all together.


The double standards and favouritism shown towards Wakefield by the RFL is a joke!

Wrong, we had to fight tooth and nail to be let in. We did our first season (or two - I can't remember) without SKY money that everyone else had.

We have improved Belle Vue over the years, to comply with standards. The standards have been changed!
As for licensing we were not the only club that they let get away with this were we??

No need to get all defensive, your club appear to have done a good deal. The RFL however seem to have not done quite such a good deal but as they appear to be above the law and don't disclose anything they don't want to to the fans of our game I guess we'll never know for sure will we?

just managed to catch up with this, and it stinks.

bradford have negotiated themselves a good deal and fair play to them on that, but it unfortuneatly means that there will be no fair play when the next set of licences comes around. bradford will be safer than leeds, warrington and wigan!!

if us and cas both built our grounds in time for the next franchises, then the worst ground in the league would be odsal (then maybe hull kr) and if, as previous applications have gone, if you haven't had a good ground, then you are favourites for the drop - but this will now not happen.

maybe next franchises will score an additional 20 points if they are more than 5 miles away from normanton!!!

I think you may be talking some bull**** here. With the deal that was announced yesterday you lose any possible moral high ground.
As Bradford already had a long lease arrangement, Odsal could not be sold elsewhere for development.
The reality is that we are all in difficult ecconomic times and fair play, the people involved with the Bulls have certainly managed to
do some excellent business.
The league would be a poorer place without the Bulls and again credit where its due, your supporter numbers are excellent, but please dont
come on here and justify whats happened by spouting rubbish.

The RFL think we are all thick, the line about saving a historic ground in Odsal is so crap and transparent that I'm actually insulted by it.

Then we get to the compromised position that the RFL have created with regards to franchising, wtf, how can the next round be seen as fair?

IMO, this franchise period should be the last and P & R with knobs on brought back in 2014/15.

The point here is the "who" is involved.
No one would be even blinking at this if Bradford had got a loan from a bank, or got investment from private companies.
The fact that they have done a deal with the rugby league just raises the question of why were they singled out as more worthy that the rest.

In terms of benefits and advantage, it's hard to say without knowing the numbers involved.
The RFL could have made a shrewd deal themselves if they make money on the rent like any other landlord would (or interest if we call it a loan). Depends on the figures.

Bradford have gained. Not so much because they are guarenteed a franchise, which I know is an emotive subject but they will still have the same criteria to meet, but because they have been financially helped.
If they needed to stay at Odsal and needed to buy the lease to guarentee it, they would need to raise funds to do it. They could have sold some players for fees or reduced their wage bill. I don't know the amounts we are talking about of course so I don't know how close that would make it but they have a decent Super League team of some value. If they played with the team Wakefield played with last year their bill would be massively reduced, and so could fund their own issues.
They haven't done that. They have had funds made available because the RFL have taken the short term financial hit for them and they pay back over a longer period, releasing cash for players.

How life would have been different for Wakefield if we could have released funds for players in the passed.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Has anyone actually read all the information on this, all this does is secures Odsal for the Bulls to continue playing there in the forseeable future, it does NOT guarantee super league status !!!