In the end blame for poor finances can't be laid at the door of creditors. Creditors do not mispend money. They may make poor decision of who to lend too!!!

Got too say I hope that you can work everything out and become the strong force that you were in Super League. I can remember my own Team being in dire straits in the late nineties and selling ground to council.

Good Luck and again I hope that it all works out, as I have met so many Bradford who have always been brilliant to chat too over rugby, even when you use too give us regular hidings.

Quote ="debaser"What you mean?'" https://twitter.com/#!/jamiepeacock10

Quote ="debaser"What you mean?'" https://twitter.com/#!/jamiepeacock10

Thanks. As others have suggested, the fundamental problem appears to be the lack of income to keep the club going through an administration, at least for the rest of this season.

Whilst I sympathise with the Bulls fans I can't help but think that if this was Castleford or Wakefield most would be saying "tough luck".

I hope the Bulls can sort something out but I don't want it to be at the expense of fans if there isn't a long term financial plan that stops it happening again some short time down the track.

Where has the Andy Lynch money gone?

Good luck for the future guys, i mean that sincerely!
My only offering is to get rid of the people who got you in this mess and start afresh, and sadly in this day and age that involves going into administration.
I nearly gave money to Trinity to help out when we were in trouble, but thought it would only be papering over the cracks.
As it turned out following administration we are in a much healthier position, many of the debts were unnecessarily but honourably settled by the new owner and the cracks that would have been papered over were actually too big to cover.
Plenty more will come out about the problems you have, and there will be some troubling times ahead, but keep the faith and fingers crossed you will emerge, as we did a better and cleaner outfit at the end of it.
I'm sure you will end up in a better place than where you are now!
Good luck.
KC

Good question. I, and imagine a lot of others would like the answer to this and some other questions before pledging money.

I feel for the fans, the players, the employees and the city of Bradford.

The years of buying success have finally caught up with the club in a Leeds Utd style. The BoD should have been more careful than living beyond the clubs means.

I do hope that the Bulls come out the other side on this. It might be a massive wake up call for all the clubs. If a team as big as the Bulls can go to the wall it can happen to anyone.

Well the RFL took a charge on the Bulls' assets in january 2011, so that bears out your account.

What has been announced today, together with the persistent rumours coming (seemingly) out of the RFL and sources close to later last year, would tend to further bear that out.

The 31/12/10 accounts suggested a need for a substantial cash injection, but I did not judge it to be on the scale of £700k. So the financial situation l would have become far worse than even I had feared, if your numbers are right - and at this stage I have no reason to suppose they are not.

I would really like to know for certain more of the true situation over all this!

Good luck guys!

Anyone know what Kath Hetherington's doing nowadays?

Don't be fooled by the £100 pledge but most importantly don't listen to some on here who are saying "we will be alright if we go down the administration route". Its not always rosy as in Wakey's case.

SL needs Bradford Bulls in SL. The game cannot afford to lose 10,000 supporters. Good luck lads.
Castleford Tigers Supporter.

Hope it works out for you lot !

Proposal

I'm afraid the discrepancy between public statements Hood has made in the last two months and the situation revealed now is too great for me to have any faith that giving the board £100 will help solve the problem.

If however I was giving £100 or more to buy shares in a non-profit company managed by a supporters trust (Bullbuilder) with a managing committee elected by shareholders I would do so immediately - this trust could then nominate and employ a CEO. All I would ask in return was a shareholders certificate I could put on my wall. I would be happy if this were arranged so that shareholders are entitled to no profits or dividends and cannot sell, assign, or transfer a share to a third party. This is the model the Green Bay Packers have used and they are one of the most successful sporting franchises (and the only community owned one) in the U.S.

In this scenario we would once again be the people's team and I would have something to say I was an 'owner' of the club even if that didn't mean anything in practice other than giving me a vote for who the management committee of the supporter's trust of which I'm already a member.

Given Bullbuilder already exists and I have more faith in the financial management of those organising it, wouldn't it make more sense to donate our money (£100 or whatever people can afford) to the trust and then perhaps we could arrange a loan as an interim measure to the club on terms that could see the eventual transfer to a new model of ownership along the lines suggested above?

How much cash would normally be generated from non season ticket holders at the Leeds game?

I could be wrong but I think the club would be hoping to raise 500k on top of the expected income from this game so although the all ticket idea is a good one I'm not sure it will be enough.

I remember the gut turning feeling when I thought Hull FC were going out of business.
Good luck with your effort feel for you all.

Correction SL needs a VIBRANT Bradford Bulls in SL perhaps, but to say NEED is a dangerous attitude, and probably one in line with the people who got the Bulls into this situation.

I just want to add that I hope that there is a positive outcome to all of this for the fans and people who are involved with the club who aren't responsible for this situation.

For info, We are holding an emergency board meeting tomorrow evening to consider the situation. We've also been contacted by Supporters Direct, the umbrella organisation for supporters trusts, and by the media asking for comment. We've told everyone that we'll revert after the board meeting.

This is a hugely important comment, that all Bulls fans should take note of; if you have other places to put your money that will benefit the club long term that should be your aim.
Otherwise the begging bowl will be out again in the near future and the people in charge will still be in charge after another bail out by the supporters.
put your faith in yourselves and your supporters trust.

I'm with you on your first paragraph.

I wish the second were somehow possible, but I don't see it. We are a big and expensive organisation and just meeting the weekly wages bill to say nothing of expenses must be a huge ask. I am sure that there are able brains in Bullbuilder but who has the time and the willing to join a new board to run an operation as big as the Bulls, and anyway where is the money going to come from between now and next year's season tickets?

I am struggling to see any realistic way out of this that leaves us as a recognisable SL force, unless the fabled sugar daddy picks now to emerge on his chariot from the troubled skies.

Cool. Agreed.

Hey Adey, I realise that you feel mightily F***ed off with all this but at times like these sometimes we need a cool head for figures and numbers on here. Keep us up to date with anything you find.

And if anyone wants to arrange a "throw tomatoes at the prat in the stocks" on the Odsal Centre Spot for funds then I will gladly donate my services. Must be a few out there who would pay good money to see/do that?

well im absolutely gutted on 2 levels - gutted that the club is in this position and mad that theyve left it so long before saying anything!!

secondly very concerned as we have 2 5yr season tickets that we paid outright for whilst we had some savings left and a friend has a 10 year season ticket!!!

i just feel sick at the thought of losing the club and sick that i could lose money thro our season tickets (and before anyone starts callign me selfish - try being in anyones shoes who has bought a 5 or 10 yr season ticket in good faith!)

just gobsmacked by the whole thing!

I hope the RFL are so proud of the Stobart lorries running up and down the country, all previous years the RFL sponsor money was a big help to clubs but the decision this year not to have a share out has pushed the Bulls to the limit. While you are all blaming Hood (and by the sound of it he is a wally) I think the idiotic decision by the RFL to go with Stobart and not have a share out is a major factor in this.

I hope the Buls survive and why cant all teams drop those stupid nicknames , come on northern you can get out of this

Tough choice now for the Bulls fans. There doesn't seem to be much transparity here from someone who wants your cash. Its alright your chairman saying 'give us this money and we'll be fine going forward' but is this the truth baring in mind past statements saying there was no financial issues? That was blatently wrong with todays news coming to light and i'd be extremely wary that the same could be true here. If you scrape together the 500k but don't make the £1m you all lose your money and yet the club will still go under? Would it not be better to keep the 500k as a fighting fund for a phoenix club and finally rid yourselves of the people who have got you into this position rather than funding a club that quite possibly will still go belly up 6 months down the line. Getting more money out of people to fund a new club will be almost impossible if they've already had their fingers burnt once.

Could the trust to set up a fighting fund and pledge to that instead? Take it over from the administrators and get rid of the current incumbents? Something similar happened wth Wrexham football club didn't it and they are now knocking on the door of the football league again after years of mis-management. I just get the impression pledge to this board is throwing good money away after bad.

Thing is didn't Bradford vote in favour of the Stobart deal?