Quote Sheldon="Sheldon"With small crowds they'd struggle. Bradford have the ability to be a big club, they can attract big crowds and good sponsorship.
Can Fev or Halifax?'"
The thing is though that two successive boards have made a tremendous hash of things at the Bulls. Enabled by the RFL. It's had, arguably negative, impacts on the wider sport. We had to abandon licensing before we'd had a chance to really see whether it would work, to save their brand. And it's become more toxic than iconic now. there's also that suspicion that the 'rules' would not have been bent to the same degree for other clubs. Ones that perhaps get smaller crowds and less lucrative sponsorship, but you have to at least aspire to something resembling fairness. That, or at least be honest about the system.
In fairness Wakefield also did a newco and weren't chucked out. Only because Crusaders went bust, but still. Wakefield also didn't give up any central funding, but then equally they weren't given any guarantees.
The rules, as I understand it, are that Bradford should have 6 points deducted, with the RFL free to reduce the penalty to 4 points at their discretion. This is, in one sense, harsh because the RFL seem to have wanted this outcome and helped achieve it. On the other hand Wakefield fans say their club was told they'd be out on their ear if they took the admin route again. I'm all for a bit of common sense and pragmatism, but the RFL have really tied themselves in a knot on this. The question really, is at what point do they cut their losses?
Hopefully the new TV deal will oil the economic mechanisms across the leagues and this'll happen less often.
