Most adjectives in the Star relate to more physical attributes, so would guess "millionaire" is the only financial one they have for businessmen. However from the club's viewpoint it's more how much of their wealth they are prepared to put into the club with no or low expectation it will ever come back out again. I think the euphemism is "pledge" to the cause.

His assets can no doubt be added up to whatever you like, but that doesn't mean he has diddly squat available to throw at his hobbies.

I'd say there were around eight clubs with sufficient financial backup to to feel secure. However, eight clubs is not really sufficient to make a decent league competition, so some of the 'also rans' are necessary to 'fill out' gaps in the fixture list. I certainly can't see fewer than ten clubs for a competitive league without duplicating fixtures too much and twelve is even more realistic minimum for a sensibly organised competition.

We don't have any big 'money men' behind us but, being in one of the largest cities in England, we do have the advantage of a large potential audience, much larger than most of the obvious rivals so, all things being equal, it's likely that with gates even averaging around C5k, we'd be able to pass muster as a middle ranking side, in SL.

Of course, you never know the future. In a couple of years it may well be that there are a dozen financially backed clubs, or it may be down to half a dozen, no one knows - we just need to keep chipping away.

I think the ability to fund a successful Superleague club is one of those areas where "size does not matter". Only 4 of the top 20 cities per the 2011 census even have a RL team. A gate of 5k is over 3k down on last year - or another £500k less funding from our current position.

So while Bradford is the 6th largest city in the UK by population - I think it is also likely that since the glory days the number of reasonably well paid jobs in the city has fallen and more HQ or professional organisations have fled to Leeds - or even further afield. The hard core Bradford RL support is a much smaller % of the population than it is in say Wigan or Hull ( If you push through the merger

I must agree there my friend. It's a false economy to reduce staffing levels that are already cut to the bone.
Why not raise a new reduced 6 game season ticket at a reduced cost for Xmas. Say £90 for 6 games, if they got
1000 supporters equals £90k. And if we are to assume this figure of £400k was to be saved over the year or £37k per month.
The first £90k would go a fair way to buying them time to get their act together, plus they would be earning from the season starting.

One of the Unique Selling Points of Odsal, is the fact that it has the room that other stadiums don't have. So even 25,000 supporters would not be a problem. So sell e'm cheap and stack e'm high as the supermarkets do.

The share option and our £650k back would also help. Note that, I believe , 2014 is the last year of the current SKY deal, so we don't really know the amount of compensation, or in fact if the contract has been re - negotiated as yet?

Wasn't it "selling them cheap" that was fairly instrumental in getting you into the current position?
People value what they pay for, dumping a product onto the market devalues the product.

The SKY deal doesn't run out till the end of 2016 season

The Stadium devalues the offering to the paying public. Is it right that Odsal is just a past memory and any attachment to it is now outdated and probably very costly.

Having the money to be able to afford to invest in a SL club takes more than a million....ask Ken Davy or David Hughes. Dr K at Salford is going to discover how expensive a hobby it can be.
[urlhttp://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jun/28/number-1millionpound-homes-up-third[/url
323,684 Properties in the UK valued at a million+.....adding another 1,500 to that number very week... Millionaires are ten a penny nowadays.

As I've said elsewhere, when the season tickets were sold cheaply, they were TOO cheap. The board at the time clearly thought that people would be turning up every week and spending money to cover the short fall from the reduced ticket prices. That didn't happen. But a reduced priced ticket for a fixed number of games is something I think would be a winner. I know several people who can't go to every game due to other commitments so something like this would appeal to them.

This sort of offer is usually - as in the Bulls offer last season - well into the season due to the risk of season ticket holders down trading, so the consequent reduction in sales value is more likely to be greater than the gain. For each full season ticket holder down trading you would need at least three casual uptradersons.

The club should really push the 2 home pre season friendlies as 'balance the books' games. Contact all 11,000 previous season ticket holders asking them to come along to help the cause. If they charge £20 and get 10,000 at each game that's the full 400k. Not sure if we would need to split the gates with the opponents but even if we did that would still wipe off half the deficit. Just a thought.

I agree, sounds like a great idea... almost sounds to good to be true though...



I think someone said it would take 3500 to break even on cost, not sure if this is the case or not.

I would certainly pay £20 if it was going to help and in return watch 80 minutes of rugby even if it was a friendly!!

I suppose I was being a bit over optimistic with wiping off the full 400k, since you have to take off the costs of opening the stadium, plus some of the crowd would be kids/oaps paying less. But I still think the club should really get behind advertising these games as a way of fans helping the cause. If turning up to watch prevents us selling players then maybe people will get behind it?

Really the club could do with getting some big numbers in for the pre-season games. But I doubt people will be willing to pay full price for friendlies.

£10 if bought in advance £16 on the gate might be a better way

In theory it's a very good idea.Be interesting to see what they charge for admission, bit cheaper to try get more there? But yes this should be really pushed to try get as many there as poss to make as big a dent as poss into the 400 grand.Need some marketing ideas to get folk there,not just we need your money to survive,again

I'd also make sure there's plenty of coffee/tea stands set up too. Winter at Odsal is never fun.

In fact they'd probably make a bomb on hot food and drink at these games if they can get enough people in.

Or how's about offering a discount to season ticket holders?

...and don't forget to take off the VAT as well

Think part of problem is friendlies are a month away. Club needs to save money ASAP. So players may already have been sold by time friendlies come round and fans have opportunity to make a difference.
Putting tickets on advance sales a good idea as it gets money in now when club needs it and allows it to affect how cuts in other areas are made. Only problem would be if friendlis are cancelled due to weather.. Maybe have to make non refundable if that happens, obviously still valid if match postponed though?. Only downside would be that friendly gates are split so half the money raised after costs would be going to hull and cas. Maybe ask them to only take half of money on a typical friendly gate beforehand?.

I'm guessing that revenue from advance ticket sales for new year friendlies would be as close to zero as makes no difference.

I would expect the current cash situation to be reasonable given the season ticket sales, the £400k target of [ucash savings[/u needed will be unevenly spread over the season with the backend the most difficult, as shown last season. This board are getting in early, as the more savings/extra income now the easier it will be in July/August. This is the benefit of having three experienced businessmen that look at the club as a business first, quick remedial action.

I know no one will know the full answer to this question, but have[i any [/iof the new owners actually parted with any of their own cash to date?

I'm not knocking anyone, [iyet[/i, but from the outside looking in, it looks like the current people have simply 'acquired' a RL club. Especially Moore, who agreed to pay for the club, then decided he wasn't going to keep up with his payments. I mean, I could have agreed to pay Omar all his money back, then defaulted on the first payment and still be in Moore's seat. I think the 2 new members may have had to pay to become part of the new regime, but from what I can gather both Whitcu*t and Moore "bought" the club, without (to date) paying a penny.

Maybe i'm being a little disrespectful to the new bods, but I think i'd have more confidence of them turning this around if they actually had put money in to lose. At the moment, it's almost like a free go at running a sports club.

I'd imagine money raised from season tickets won't last til season starts TBH. 5k tickets at £200 average price less 20% vat brings in 800k. October and November wage bills, 160k+, will have already come out of that amount with December and January wages to pay before season starts. While it's fair to say the 400k needs to saved over full season, the cash flow is likely to be a bigger problem.

The T&A report the players have rejected the cut but proposed a deferral of wages. RHP has dismissed that idea. That is IMO a mistake - when hardline statements are made in the public domain during the negotiating process , attitudes harden and a reasonable final resolution becomes more difficult. An imposed settlement will undermine team spirit and loyalty.
Incidentally am I right in thinking that an event was planned last night at Odsal? If I am did it go ahead and did any of the team turn up?