Oh come on Adey, it’s just a dog by any other name, if Bradford weren’t cash-strapped why else would the RFL intervene?

By the sound of it they’ve only acquiring the lease, it’s hardly going to be a cash-cow.

I agree though, Odsal is unique, but not in a good way

.

Pearson made a smart move by breaking ranks and making a voluntary disclosure which effectively enabled him to negotiate a smaller settlement and time to pay it, rather than sitting back and waiting for the inevitable.

With regard to the Bulls, I would not be at all surprised if the 'predatory' moves against the stadium were in fact from HMRC if it became clear that they had no means or future likelihood of paying the bill. It was recently announced that HMRC asset seizures have risen by over 400% in the last few months, so it is not beyond the realms of possibility.

There's a lot of explaining that needs to be done by the RFL, and a lot of questions to be answered. Here's just a few:

What was the purchase price?
What is the rent payable?
What obligations have the RFL taken on to maintain or redevelop the ground?
What are the RFL's plans and aspirations for Odsal in the medium/long term?
Why haven't the RFL intervened to save other SL grounds from being lost to developers? (If that was the purpose of this).
If any financial subsidy, direct or indirect, is being given to Bradford, why ahs that not available to other SL clubs in the past and will it now be available to the likes of Wakefield and Castleford.

And just a couple of corporate governance points (though it's hard to imagine anyone at HQ will even have heard of the concept

):

How did the RFL deal with conflict of interest issues when approving this deal?
How will the RFL deal with conflict of interest issues in relation to Bradford going forward? In particular, will it hand over the licensing system to an entirely separate body? If not, how will it ensure that it is seen to be independent?

The lack of transparency from the RFL would be astonishing, if it weren't for the track record of those in charge of the game in this country.

This is the only issue for consideration , everything else should remain between the RFL and Bradford

Why should the RFL reveal the fine details of its commercial property deals in the public domain?

Where were you asking these kinds of questions when the RFL acquired Cougar Park, Spotland and various amateur grounds for their property portfolio? Or does the fact it's a ground used by a SL club somehow make a difference?

The RFL doesn't have to tell you anything, diddly squat. You're not involved in the running of the organisation, you're not one of the member clubs, you're just an end user of the product generated by its members.

I never cease to be amazed by the number of RL fans who think that they are entitled to know everything that happens behind the scenes at the governing body. Do they wander around Asda questioning how much Wal Mart paid for the land and whether they offer their farmers a fair price for milk?

I disagree.

The RFL is the governing body of the sport and therefore when it decides to spend everybody's money to bail out one club, especially given its statements concerning financial issues, everybody has a right to know exactly what has occurred. Fans and clubs are stakeholders along with Sky and Sport England. Money goes into the RFL kitty from all these sources and therefore all these sources have a right to know how their money is being spent, particularly when it is spent on bailing out a particular club.

The RFL did itself no favours by expecting people to believe the ridiculous spin about Odsal stadium. Had the plans gone ahead for the sporting village, the loss of Odsal would not have been so much as commented upon by the RFL. Therefore it is ludicrous to try and justify this move by claiming there is something special about Odsal.

But it can be justfied if the RFL are making money out of it, and if as Starbug rightly said, they can maintain conflict of interest issues.

How come no one kicked off when the RFL got involved with similar deals with smaller clubs and helped other clubs out in other ways?

One reason might be that franchising/licencing will never affect them clubs

.

So, effectively, the RFL have helped one of it's member clubs by buying a leasehold property from them.

Adey, if the Bulls were previously paying a peppercorn rent do you think they will now be paying the RFL a commercial rent? Could the Bulls be worse off when the lump sum has been spent with?

My recollection is the previous agreement between the Bulls and the Council circa 2003 was that the Council gave the Bulls a significant cash sum to negotiate the terms of the lease so that the Bulls maintained the stadium but only paid a peppercorn rent.

:358vycvg

Unlikely to





I wish the RFL were as well managed as WalMart...

"[size=200COMMERCIAL ORGANISATIONS IN POSITIVELY WORDED SHORT PRESS RELEASE SHOCK[/size"

Such a thing can never ever have happened before, in the history of business. Can it? Would any business actually contemplate doing such a heinous thing?

Bulls have done pretty well to get two squeezes out of it!

You DO realise though that there are profound consequences of the RFL's actions? So profound that only one or two have so far touched the edges of this fundamental issue?

Henceforth, it will be nigh-on IMPOSSIBLE for any Bulls fan to accuse the RFL of having an anti-bulls agenda, bias or whatever. Indeed, it will be necessary to dig out the mat and bow down and pray to Rot - sorry RED Hall on a regular basis. This really will not do at all. The very heart of Bulls fans' belief system has just been ripped out. All that we held to be the Truth has now been laid bare, and we have all been found wanting. This is bound to leave a massive hollow feeling inside. It is a painful and traumatic thing indeed to lose one's faith so quicjkly and devastatingly. In a less cruel world, others would have pity on us, and even buy us beers unlooked-for. For we'll sure as hell need a lot of those to get over this apocalyptic event...

At least the Arch-Antichrist himself has not (yet?) come out of the Headingley bunker, and said he wholeheartedly supports the RFL's actions, and wishes the Bulls every success. THAT is a shock to the system few Bulls fans could take, and the consequences for the NHS do not bear thinking about. In the interests of humanity, let us hope that that one rock of stability, that one certainty, that knowledge that he truly hates and despises us and spends his every waking minute plotting our downfall, is not pulled away from us. If it IS, I truly fear for us all.

Seems valid to me.

What is in it for the RFL?

If this is merely a 'bail out' by another name it doen't inspire much confidence in the licencing process in that less than a year has passed since the Bulls' business plan/future income projections etc were 'thoroughly' scrutinised.......

Although, if it's all due to image rights payments, as some have suggested, I expect the RFL will quite likely 'own' quite a few more grounds before long. After all they will have set a precedent....

Just wait for Bradford to win a game through a 50/50 call or maybe even an incorrect refereeing decision. The message boards will be red hot!!

Without knowing the full ins and outs, nobody can be sure, but from the few things published so far, this is a tarted up bail out. Nothing more, nothing less.

That the current 14 SL clubs will finish the season

Your point on the immediate need for the bail out is probably correct supported by the probability that were the club to enter administration or worse, be liquidated the long lease would not necessarily be passed to the new owner and even if it were it would contain the same clauses that demanded the Bulls play their home games at Odsal. Therefore, the idea of a predatory approach seeing the Bulls as vulnerable does not stand up as it would not mean the 'approachee' would ever get their hands on the Odsal site without the Bulls in it. Additionally, the RFL has about 6/7 clubs that could realistically sell 20 000 tickets for a final and the Bulls are one of them.

However, I'd be interested in the sequence of events. If Hood approached the RFL and asked for the SKY money and explained precisley why, it wouldn't shock me to hear the idea of buying lease came from the RFL. Odsal is unique in its size, scope and location. The RFL could never dream of getting its hands on a comparable site for £25 million let alone the reported 7 figure sum (whatever that may be). Simply put the grounds of Cas, Wakey, Saints, Oldham are worthless to the RFL whereas Odsal is big enough to potentiall realise something truly priceless for rugby league in this country.