Do not give your money to the club, give it to your supporters trust ( associated to supporters direct ) . Then if the board want your money the terms must be that the chairman of the supporters trust is appointed to the board. Then the supporters have a direct link to the running of the club.

I feel sorry for all the fans, and hope Bulls can pull through this. It's a shame I never got to see the Bulls in their prime, as their decline started as I began to get serious into rugby. Best of luck for the club!

Agree with this. I am happy to donate to someone to save the club. But not to someone to flush it down the toilet by the middle of April and come running back for more.

In fairness at least Mr P knows he is gonna get paid at the end of the month.

I agree, a good starting suggestion.
This is the kind of idea that the board should be looking at to fund the £500k rather than go cap in hand to us supporters who clearly will not be able to raise nor can afford. Have they no sense nor financial or commercial acumen

Throwing money at the current set up is a waste of time. Maybe the Bullbuilder fund would be better served trying to submit an application for membership of Championship 1 for next year. A new club with no debt and a large supporter base would walk it straight into the Championship where we can build from the bottom for the next round of SL franchises. At least we would have a clean slate.

This seems reasonable too. But time seems to be running out for anything to be in place.

Hi FA, I think we all know there is existing expertise at Odsal in terms of the employed staff and there's no reason the new management structure wouldn't maintain the current staff and CEO. The point is that we have a vehicle other than the present Board that could be involved in bringing about a change in ownership and pressing for a share issue along the lines I identified, and this could generate income.

The Board seem to be arguing that once this hiccup is over they have a sustainable plan - this might be the case, but i wouldn't want to leave the club's fate in their hands long term and there are alternative co-operative models that could work. The Packers have survived in Green Bay and in the cut-throat world of the NFL because of their structure and it has been written about extensively and lauded by sports enthusiasts and accountants alike. The revenue streams are obviously different in terms of scale but there's no reason why something along these lines wouldn't work with an RL team like Bradford.

We also have some outstanding expertise available within the supporters trust and if the model of ownership changed I think we could draw a lot more people in to share their expertise because of the nature of what we would be attempting.

I'm genuinely gob-smacked by this, hope you pull through it one way or another, best of luck

The previous sponsors engage paid either £1m or £2M for their deal, at the highest level that would equate to £142,857 per club per year, how has this pushed them over the edge? considering the £1M from the RFL and the additional £1M they now received, all inside 3 or 4 months.
Small potatoes!

As a Salford fan who came along with his 8 year old son to Odsal two days ago, I wish you all the best for the future.

Hope you can get something sorted out. I'd hate to have to explain to my son how such a good/big club is no longer playing The Greatest Game anymore...

Really sorry to hear this and I genuinely feel for all the Bradford fans. You are part of a big club truly established within English RL.

From our experiences I offer my humble opinion:-

1. Don't pledge money to the existing board. They have continued to fail to deliver and the club is in a major mess. Pledging money to the current board would just be a stay of execution.

2. Swallow some pride and write off this season.

3. Go into administration and hope for a quick turnaround. Investors have been sniffing around your club in the past and some if not all will reappear.

4. With a clean balance sheet and reformed club it is easier to develop revenue streams with lower costs.

5. By next season or the year after you could be totally reformed with a stronger squad, plus new found faith from fans in a board/owner they can trust.

Admittedly it is very painful in the short term but long term it creates a brighter future.

Whilst the RFL will deduct points for administration, if you can write off the season in your mind it will be easier to take. Think ahead to next season. With 2 further years prior to the new franchise there is more opportunity for new owners to prove themselves.

Shares in a shareholders trust can give a shout but should, I think, only be pursued if you can get rid of the current board. Buying shares in the existing set up is just delaying what looks inevitable and you are likely to lose all your money.

I genuinely wish you well and know that the next few weeks will be very painful. Bradford are a great club and will rise again in some form or other.

Yours in RL, always.

Just got my letter asking for my pledge, nothing different really in it other than what's already been said, it does have the directors personal telephone numbers on their though. It reaffirms that if they get to the 1 million mark then we're debt free, it does however feel very much like marketing and heavily plays on the guilt factor that we owe it to our children, grand children etc

We will, we will, rock you







Bully Bully








Bye Bye




Been wanting to say that for years

There are letters? So they've had time to plan and prepare a mailshot? I know that's pretty easy to do but that gives me even less faith that these people don't have something to hide.

Give them a ring now then and ask where the f all the money has gone.

Forgive me, but I have not read the whole thread but wanted to post my thoughts here as well as previously on the WT board & the VT.

I think prominent Bulls posters and fans should strongly consider the option of urging fans NOT to support this measure and not give up some of their hard earned cash for the longer term good of the club.

Through my support of Newmarket & my friendships with Sandal, TRB and others prominent fans of Trinity, I accidental (for want of a better word) got a neutrals ring-side seat of the issues at Trinity and both what the fans and old management went through in trying to secure the future of the club, but also the future of the then current owners/management! I am not going to get into the whole Ted Richardson debate, as my personal dealings with Ted have always been friendly, open, honest and amicable, but it became clear to these closely involved fans that sticking your hand in your pocket might not be the best way to secure the long term future of the club because the management of that club are effectively responsible for the club being in that position in the first place (again, with all due respect to Ted). These Trinity fans in the main decided that the time had come to, unfortunately and regrettably that said, not to bail out the current management but to seek a fresh start even though in the short term that was going to be very painful and possibly even condemning themselves to lower league RL... but with a fresh start and fresh management!

I think anyone would now struggle to argue that that was not the correct decision. The club has a fresh, dynamic owner, no debt, a bright future and is most importantly being managed sustainably!

I think Bulls fans should keep their hands in their pockets with their money and prepare to take the club forward with a fresh future, even possibly outside of SL, than see your money almost certainly disappear down the drain with the existing management of the club!

Yes. Indeed. When did they get the posting ready? And how much has it cost?
I'm getting more and more p!$$ed off now.

Blinking back tears, feel sick to the stomach.

We've been lied to by a devious man who I had started to build more faith in. What has happened to our once great club. I'm a student so I don't have much money but whatever I can get together will be put into the club. I have no faith in Mr Hood anymore, but I don't see any other option than to pledge at the minute. If another option comes available, great.

I'll be paying into the Leeds game.

Really hope you come out of this as unscathed as possible, SL would be poorer without you. As undesirable as it is I can only see a few player sales happening to help raise money quickly enough, don't think you'll get there on donations alone and a takeover would more than likely take too long to do properly. It a shame RL players are not really paid enough for a voluntary wage cut to be an option as happened with Rangers.

Cash flow , and that bit may have persuaded the banks to leave the overdraft alone, I know its small potatoes but every little helps, as you should know with wakeys history (not a dig).
The real panto villain in all this is Richard Lewis imo

if only there was a business man from bradford with a decent chunk of money. Hopefully that person may consider showing up some of the directors associated with the club, especially any directors who they dont get on with

This is different. This is only a PLEDGE. If we don't meet the total, nobody pays anything and the club dies.
Why some people are even hesitating on pledging is beyond me. If you want a new board, fine. But sort out all that mess once we reach the total and the club is secure if only for the short term.

Now is not the time to be demanding resignation letters because if we don't act NOW then there will nothing left to resign FROM.

like most other people I need more information before I'll consider giving any of my money to Peter Hood and co.

Where is the money going that we raise?
where are we getting the other 500k if we do raise that much?
and what assurances are they that this wont happen again?

I'd be willing to donate something to save my club but i need answers im afraid.

Christ dont encourage the attention seeker, he will be down your way organising petitions and entertaining anyone daft enough to listen, all with a little stiffy cos he feels loved again