Ignoring who did what, and ignoring entirely a blame game (which is no longer relevant), we are now in a sh*t position that is actual.
1. We have huge debts..estimated at £1m - £1.7m depending on which sources are accurate
2. We have no cash to pay any bills, including the players/staff on 14th July
3. We are loosing £200,000 cash for every month we trade so would need a cash injection of £800,000 just to finish
this season.

So how will this play out after the end of the administration on 9th July? If there was not a miracle investor coming forward?
What really would happen if we then went into Liquidation?

it would turn out like rangers(football) with all contracts void and starting again from championship one.

Are you sure about Championship one? I understood from listening to Radio Leeds today that we wouldn't even exist there

that's being naive isn't it, do you not think other clubs might have something to say about or I'm I reading this wrong, you wouldn't expect to keep all your players would you

If there is no saviour in sight (and it's hard to see where any is going to come from sadly) then non-existence and a lower league Phoenix club (I think "Bradford Northern" has a certain ring to it as a suitable name) starting from scratch (maybe at VP) is the most likely consequence really. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that SL might even bend it's rules to let the new club into SL at an accelerated route. It will be an absolute travesty not to have RL's 2nd biggest city not being represented in the top flight after all.

Hull and Leeds are both bigger

1st been London then but I thought Leeds was a bigger city than Bradford ?

Then Hull b4 Bratfut in size

Not true.

Bradford 5th largest city/metropolitan district in the country: pop - 535,300
Hull 43rd - 263,900

Dont forget to take away the people of Keighley! They have their own team!


on a more serious note:

Our biggest problem is that the bulk of, if not all, our debt liability lies with the taxman. And the Rangers FC episode tells us that they want their money, in full, or will put you out of business. a CVA simply does not look like being viable.

So in short, we need someone to pay the tax man before we can think about anythinge else!

The days of sports clubs owing millions, paying back 10 grand, then being sold for a quid are over. As a tax payer, I am thankful for this, as a bulls fan I am gutted that we missed the gravy train!

Unfortunately unless any new backer materialises that is prepared to keep HMRC happy I can only see liquidation on the cards.

A new Bradford club may be the future but if it's in NL1 or 2 then it couldn't afford to play at Odsal unless the RFL picked up the costs, nor could it afford to play at VP either. The sponsorship and potential income from gates would be too low.

As for sharing with Fax or Cougars I think that's a non starter.

As a short term measure I think both Odsal and VP are possible. The RFL aren't going to sell the lease quickly and a club paying rent appropriate to an NL2 club might be better than nothing. Similarly City would have to drastically reduce the rent for VP, but again it might be better than nothing. Many years ago they rented the ground to Bradford PA for what must have been a pittance.

Its interesting following the Rangers saga how many of their fans are now reasonably relaxed about them dropping down to Division 3 (or whatever it is). That's because they know they'll still get 40,000 gates whilst paying peanuts in wages. Even without telly money they expect to make decent profits. They're starting to see it as a new start.

I think if our fans had faith in the ownership of a Newco and could generate the same sort of backs to the wall mentality, we might still get gates of 3,000+ in NL2, rising to 4,000 in NL1. A cash injection of say £500k would be very helpful to get it off the ground, although unfortunately that ship has sailed.

I'd say Odsal is more likely a venue but would seriously depend on the RFL playing ball. They may as well considering they'll have the lease on the place I suppose.

good luck lads, hopefully something can be sorted for you,

Given that there is, and never will be, any real serious alternative to a Bradford club playing at Odsal and that if they refuse it leaves the RFL with nothing coming in, so I guess they'll come to some sort of arrangement. In any case, if we're talking about insolvency and a newco, the old lease has gone up in smoke anyway.

Actually, I think Cibaman's crowd guesstimates are probably a bit on the low side, particularly if the 'new' club does well, and a club with the crowd, and therefore income potential of Bradford is likely to be one of the front runners. For the same reason, crowd potential, I think the club would be looked at favourably for a return to SL when the time is right.

Whoa, dreadful comparison with Rangers.

I hope for your sakes there are no parallels with the Rangers situation, Secret double contracts, EBT loans in lieu of salary dating back a decade, criminal investigation into the 2011 takeover. Furthermore they would get nowhere near 40,000 in the 3rd division, prior to the "Souness revolution" in the mid 80s they regularly got crowds of 15-20,000.

Don't believe the spin, they were caught cheating on a grand scale and no longer exist. CVA failed and ito Liquidation, the Newco takeover is a tawdry property deal by vultures. I hope that Bradford Bulls never come anywhere close to that.

Like all fans of other clubs I want to beat your lot every time we play you, but outwith that Rugby League has a bond between rival fans that other sports cannot match, which makes the failure to beat you every time more bearable.



I would point out that the money being sought to meet Bradford's debts is not a huge amount if viewed as a club purchase price, however it is clear that your operating costs need trimmed urgently, admin will allow that.

I expect to see Bradford in Super League next year, yes you will probably be at the bottom end for a couple of years and I am not sure you will be at Odsal, though the RFL ownership and franchises make a move less likely.

Bradford Bulls are no Rangers, you have far more integrity than that. I wish you well

London is not a RL city so don't be daft... I'm sure Bradford is bigger than Hull too but may be wrong - it's occasionally been known to happen...

I bet there's not much between Hull and Bradford in terms of population.

Hull = 263,900
Bradford = 293717

I'd suggest ' playing ball ' would involve the Bulls paying a rental reflecting the crowds , not the competition you would be playing in , and no despensations regarding the salary cap in the Championships , we have a good strong competitive league on the pitch , to have a ' failed ' club come in and mess that all up isn't ' playing ball '

Not sure what you're on about there as that's quite a sentence you've attempted to construct.

I'd say for us to join NL1 or 2 and operate out of Odsal would need the RFL to pay for the stadium's running costs or give us some sort of dispensation. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth bothering as we couldn't make it work on the kind of gates and sponsorship available at that level. That's what I mean by "playing ball".

If the RFL aren't up for that then I guess it's bye bye to professional RL in Bradford.

You also seem to assume that all these people are potential RL fans - I should think the realistic fan pool in Bradford is much lower than Hull's - plus the city is very much at the bottom end of the national income ladder.

At our most succesful we were managing manybe 15,000 regular home fans - if you strike off the glory hunters, the ones with tight finances - and the ones who now just watch on Sky and look at the ones prepared to watch lower league action perhaps 2/3000. That would put you in a better position than the other teams in the lower leagues - but it would be a long climb back even assuming you did have the key to the SL door.

Bradford are not going down.

No one mentions 'Community / Fans / Trust Ownership' as in Hunslet Hawks , Works very well for them.......No fat cat board of inept directors who , to be honest , are probably the cause of your problems. Get rid of them and start over again is the best way possible.
Is a ground share with Bradford PA not an option (not knowing anything about thier ground)