I don't understand why people lump in Omar Khan with the rest, he saved the club, and he didn't bankrupt it. As well as losing at least £1m of his own cash, for all our benefit. He doesn't deserve the slagging he gets.

I think hindsight shows he should never have taken the deal offered by the RFL.

That said there was a lot of mistakes during his tenure. Some of his staff left a bit to be desired to put it mildly. Choosing my words carefully.

And it gets worse.

Whilst doing a stocktake, the administrators came across two bags of loose leaf tea which the tealady had secreted inside the old tea urn left a secret hidey hole in the Southbank stand. They are now using said tea to make cuppas for themselves - no wonder they are in no sodding hurry!

The only good thing about beleaguered Bradford's demise is that it may help to raise employment levels in the cloth cutting sector.

As long as there are plans in place to make sure the requisite amount of cloth is going to be cut.

Cloth cutting.

Its sad to see the many jobs lost in the cloth cutting industry just due to the huge amount of cloth cutting that Bradford Bulls have done in the past 5 years which has swamped and then completely depressed the market. And their fans.

Well Bradford is a former capital of the woollen industry - making cloth (and cutting it) should be like riding a bike!

From your point though isn't there a risk of continuing to have admin issues until your day comes? What do you feel this does to your reputation as a creditable business?

At this stage forget Super league have a couple of years running as a break even business with youngsters, if no one goes to matches your done, however unless a rich chairman comes along what is the alternative.

I'm not going to call you names for having an opinion though. I respect people for their views.

In rugby terms iy would be interesting how a credible business is judged. It must surely be a business that can survive on it's own feet and be profitable. You would probably find that there are not many clubs that could do this without some wealthy backer and are therefore not credible either.

I'd say only Leeds manage it. The rest rely on their owners in some form.

Whilst the focus is obviously the financial crisis at Odsal its fair to say that the finances of most RL clubs are not particularly rosy and the issue that the Northern Union/Rugby League has had to contend with is the 'soccer juggernaut' that dominates the press. In relation to RL the column inches for soccer have grown bigger with each passing year.

For anyone contemplating putting money on the table to rescue the Bulls it will not have gone unnoticed that Bradford City are currently on the rise and actively getting bums on seats with cheap tickets. Twenty years ago you would see plenty of kids wearing Bulls shirts/scarves but you don't see many now. Anyone looking at turning round the Bulls literally has to start at the bottom but ironically, it's been done twice before in 1907 and 1964.

Whilst I speak as a City fan I want Bulls/Northern to survive. I doubt very much that the Super League can be sustained and that before too long there will be an almighty crash. In the meantime, I think that you'd have a stronger club starting afresh and meet some of the other 'giants' - Leigh / HKR included - on the way down.

Anyone who wants to rediscover what happened in 1907 can find the full detail in LIFE AT THE TOP, currently on sale in Waterstones. The companion volume, ROOM AT THE TOP tells the story of the origins of rugby in Bradford. The two books also narrate what happened in the 1880s//1890s when there was a mushrooming of local clubs in the Bradford district and a dramatic financial collapse.

Indeed, and the only reason he did was because the stark alternative was the Bulls being liquidated, which he wasn't prepared to let happen.

Is that your hindsight, then? That he "should not have" saved the Bulls? It was in my view an extreme act of selfless bravado by a man put on an impossible spot at the last minute by the RFL, and of course as a matter of logic or cold business nobody would normally do such a thing - but he did, yet he gets slagged off.

The game is pretty much relying on Sky money and a handful of rich men. The quality of Super League has declined IMO and I wouldn't be surprised if the next broadcast contract reflects this especially when you also bear in mind the long term trend in viewing habits moving from dish to data. Live TV for all but the biggest events is declining. There may be new opportunities of course but all i can see is a slow decline.

No. What you must have to try to get the holy grail is a rich backer who if he has to, can reach into deep pockets.

But, and let nobody forget this, yes Green did take a huge gamble, BUT it almost paid off except we lost the MPG, and his second arguably bigger gamble, whilst not producing a good team, may still not have completely backfired but for one result at Featherstone. Now, there are those who claim he shouldn't have gambled, but the fans would not have stood for that, he HAD to make a genuine play to be the top club, and get promotion, because that was the whole point.

He didn't want us to be a low level club, and neither did the fans.

So I for one understand taking a big but calculated risk. And I believe we would probably still be afloat, if by the skin of our teeth, had we made the proper playoffs. How long it would have lasted and what we would have done next is of course a different matter.


Because there would be no such thing. An uncompetitive team of youngsters is another word for a recipe for closing down, the cl would never recover from being a low-rent low-level mediocrity. The income would mean a slow or even not-so-slow demise, as the downward income spiral would be nowhere near sustaining a presence at Odsal. Your outline plan is an impossible dream, pie in the sky.


Thanks, and ditto.

Wakey don't and turn a profit. I understand that Wire, Wigan and Saints are all now self-sustaining, as are Hull FC and Cas, I believe. The only clubs actually bankrolled by rich owners are Salford and Huddersfield. I understand that they used big money backers to get them to that point, but I'm not sure how many are actually dependent on millionaire input any more.

I'm not sure about some of those clubs you mention Slugger. I'm sure McManus and Co have put plenty into Saints in the past couple of years. Also very recently I remember reading how much Cas depended on Jack Fulton (RIP).

I don't know Omar but I'd be surprised if he said he'd make the same decision with the benefit of hindsight.

I suspect Mark Green will eventually get a more sympathetic attitude too in the future.

I'm actually quite optimistic we'll be ok. It'll likely be a 12 point deduction next year but we'll still be around.

plus the SL clubs have major advantage of having the salary cap basically covered by the sky payment since it was increased. Championship clubs are expected to compete with that in playoffs on much less central funding. Never going to be possible without a rich benefactor making up difference ala beaumont.

Not many of those clubs have a huge crumbling stadium to pay for either. Just a small one in Wakeys case.

I must say they do have a new owner of the stadium and have promised to develop it. They have started by knocking the bowling place down.

Wakefield don't have a sugar daddy and exist on the Rugby income, sponsorship and hospitality only!

In that sense Trinity have perhaps got the most realistic, workable business plan in the Super League.

After 15 years of Administrations, CCJs, WuPs & CVAs Wakefield Trinity are debt free and it's because we paid our debts rather than seeking protection from creditors.

We are not awash with money, have an out of date stadium, poor training facilities and we spend the least amount on player wages and backroom staff than anyone but we manage to stay relatively competitive.

While some fans of some other clubs ridicule us they should in fact be asking "what if"?

What if, the Davy, Lenighan, Moran, Fulton, O'Conner, Hudgell, Pearson, Koucash families decided not to continue pumping their hundreds of thousands a year into their respective clubs, how would they do then?

Hmm well yes I guess if we still have a club and retain Championship status then we can't grumble. However I think it will then make it a very hard sell to get supporters through the door. The season is pretty much a write off before we've even kicked a ball, I'll be very honest and say I won't be committing for a season ticket as things stand. Quite a few Buls supporters I know who have followed the club a long time has also had enough this time. So I'm less optimistic and fearful of the lasting damage this time around.

Best case I think we can hope for is retain Championship status and the players signed to date and only get a 6 point deduction. If that were to happen and we actually get a new owner who knows how to run a stable club then I think we can count ourselves 'lucky'.

Somehow I don't think it will be that straightforward though given our recent history. I keep expecting to check the T&A website to see the headline "Bulls debts found to £1.5 million" or something worse. I just can't see that we have the full picture on the level of debt.

Hate the uncertainty. Especially the reported parties registering their interest with the administrators but us having no clue who they are, how serious they are, what their plans are etc.

Heard an interview with Rohan Smith earlier and it is pleasing to hear that he and the players are just cracking on with pre-season as normal. He spoke of us having 3 pre-season friendlies planned for Jan (Batley/Hudds/Keighley) and he certainly didn't sound like a guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders. It might be that sort of attitude/leadership/positivity that helps us keep our squad should we get a new owner in the near future.

I really think fans reaction will be based on who buys us, if it's Green, I agree that a lot of fans will vote with their feet, but if it's someone who's shows strong leadership in articulating a vision which is reasonable and keeps reasonably honest, they might give them one last chance. Lawn I think has a chance of bringing the club together providing his pockets are deep enough.

Me.... I've followed this team since 1967, I'm a lifer I'm afraid, providing we are still a professional team, maybe Pennine League 4 might be a bridge too far even for me.

Maybe his dad is going to buy us, when he had his fall out at Wakey, the comment was that Brian wanted full control!

There was no financial input though. He just wanted total control of the running of the club.