Personally I am surprised at the RFL offering a place in the Championship to a 'new' club. How many other teams in the Championship would get this offer?
I suspect the bid that the RFL accepted but creditors rejected will pick up the pieces. I am sure that this is in no way linked to the RFL holding the lease for Odsal, honestly I really am.
I think a good well run Bradford club is a benefit, not essential but definately a benefit, to RL in this country. IMHO it would be better to promote a C1 team and allow Bradford to reform free from the pressure that a 12 point deduction and trying to start from scratch would bring.

I think you'll find that is the common view of most Bulls fans. I don't think that the RFL are doing us any favours by deciding this though.

Its the easy option due to the time factor !

Should be C1 with no points deduction .

Agree

For the Bulls fans here, particularly those that have parted with their hard-earned for a Season Ticket, I'd just like to think that some decency could prevail out of all of this. None of us here know all the in's and out's of how this happened, but I don't think any supporter of any club would argue with the RFL funding the transfer of an "old" Bulls ST to the new club (in other words, paying the new club for the new ticket).

Most seem to think that Champ 1 was the right place for any new club to start (for very differing reasons), but it's easy to see why the RFL copped out on that given the imminent start of the new season.

All the best for 2017 and beyond, other than when Fax take to the field against you of course.

The reason they won't promote a champ 1 side now is simple. They will have budgeted and bought a team for champ 1 so would likely get stuffed every week and then relegated which we know how this then impacts on cash flow etc and stuffs them for year after

From today's developments I find I very strange that this has become the number 1 cause for concern? Very strange indeed.

Mick's interview with Richard Lamb on BCB earlier this evening for those who missed it. https://audioboom.com/posts/5456039-ric ... ck-to-life ..hope the link is still up.

Mick's interview with Richard Lamb on BCB earlier this evening for those who missed it. https://audioboom.com/posts/5456039-ric ... ck-to-life ..hope the link is still up.

Feel for you guys, all the sacrifices, all the hope has come to nought. Rugby League needs a strong Bradford, a club that was a pioneer of SL providing a fantastic spectacle with big crowds. You cannot give up, down at the Halleywell Jones or the dump that was Wilderspool as it was, we were a basket case having to sell the likes of Harris and Sculthorpe just to try and survive and watching teams built from free transfers, crikey it was awful. However, with good management and building slowly on firm foundations we finally came though it, admittedly with a benefactors help, but we got there in the end. Surely Bradford with arguably more potential than us can find a way back. I really hope so.
Good luck from the Halleywell Jones.

Thanks for that post. It's nice to see that a few people in RL are more concerned about things other than which division we may or may not be reforming in.

The Season Ticket promise seems set in stone if he gets the nod .

This is what I don't get.

Scenario 1: New Bradford starts in Championship 1 on 0 points. A level playing field with all other clubs. Best case? They fluke promotion after finishing 5th and end up in the Championship next season, since the budget for a squad that can do that probably isn't massive. Worst case? They don't get promoted but have had a year of lower costs to settle things down and can move on from there.

Scenario 2: New Bradford starts in Championship on -12 points. Best case? They just fluke avoiding relegation, but having had to spend far more money than they have been given in funding in order to do that, they're now largely in debt again. Worse case? They spend more money than they would in Champ 1 and end up relegated anyway due to having a cobbled together team and starting on -12. They're now in Champ 1 anyway, but having spent a lot more money than they would have if they'd just started there.

Yeah, we've got a great deal out of this.



As for current Champ 1 teams:

Scenario 1: They get immediately moved up to the Championship. They only have a Champ 1 level squad, since they've spent the last few months preparing for that. They get hammered every week and get relegated, so start 2018 in Champ 1 anyway.

Scenario 2: They stay in Champ 1 and have a chance of promotion having prepared for that division for the last few months. If they do get promoted, they start 2018 in the Championship. If they don't, there's still in Champ 1 anyway, as they would have been in Scenario 1.

Maybe it's me, but I can't see how a Champ 1 team being thrown into the Championship with a month of pre season left would be a good thing for them?

I reckon that would put the new club in the top 4 (possibly even top 3) for player expenditure in the Championship. So much for it going to be a struggle to avoid relegation..........

Thank you, but we don't have firm foundations. We are expected to try and start again in a league with no team, no coach, no
Youth set up, no staff, a 12 point deduction and 1 month to prepare.
With that start we are only heading one way.

It is a desperately sad state of affairs, and one which none of the Bulls fans should be blamed for. Bulls fans have done more than their bit over the last number of years and again been *****ed by things beyond their control.

Liquidation may well be the best outcome and the one most likely to result in a positive outcome for the future.

- Earlier someone posted the statement from the administrator which included a line something along the lines of "lack of confidence in management reporting" which is a nice way to say bidders thought the books were cooked and they could end up taking on a lot more liability than they were being told. Liquidation clears all liability
- From a staff and players point of view, liquidation allows them to claim pay, redundancy etc from various HM Government funds (which while not securing their future allows them to get money they are owed). The HM Government then goes to the top of the creditors list which then puts M Green third in the list (behiind the administrator) so the chances are he will not see a penny of whatever he thinks he thinks he may be owed. ( I doubt many other companies will have extended much of a credit line)

Any new company will be free to honour any season tickets bought and hopefully they will build good will come up with something for the fans who supported their club (again) and (again) lost money.

How are a new club with no ties to the old at all, which no longer exists, still going to be hamstrung by the poor decisions of previous management?
It makes no sense.

Yeah 3 games v KR, plenty against opposition we struggled against last year ... Already 12 points behind ... It'll be a piece of ...

Mr Green looks entirely responsible for this whole debacle, I'm sure better times are ahead just keep the faith.

Poor Mick's copping a bit of flak from our former players on Twitter...

From the BBC Sport website



Some good news at least

I agree with all of the above but - There is a 3rd and very possible scenario. Take a year out and reform the club starting in Championship one in 2018. Same route as Toronto with no strings.

I hope it works out for you and would love to see you back where you belong in the not too distant future.

It screams of them not saying what they think while employed by the club. Now they are free to say what they want.

That would be a third scenario except in that situation, another club would still need to come into the Championship (due to the Summer Bash, there MUST be an even number of teams), so would still mean a Champ 1 side being put at a massive disadvantage and in a worse position than they currently are IMO.

If not for that reason, I think your Scenario 3 would probably be the best one for Bradford RL. Sadly, it doesn't appear to be on the table.

Being the untrusting & cynical person that I am, and it is lamb & Irvine that get control of the club, then I would be asking Irvine to hand that 500k to the rfl and they can give it back in lump sums when it wanted.

I think Beaumont did something similar at Leigh.

Ah well. Duffy out at last.

Utter cockwomble.