Why are they relatively poor then?

Honest question, not meant as a dig, but the arguments being made here are that Fev are looking promising for an SL gig, which means they need to be judged by SL standards.

In the late 90's, early 00's we had a fair few financial issues, that thankfully we moved on from, however in 1997 the family stand was built, moving from a terraced (roofed) stand, into a modern all seating stand.

Just before the club got relegated it improved it's learning centre, meaning the club could work more with the local schools etc.

In 2004, the club hit a low point and was relegated in National League 2 (at the time), seeing us in 2005 hit a real low point and really was the start of promising things to come.

The club in 2007 then had a new chairman (Mark Campbell) who was influenced by the friend of Featherstone, with new directors coming in and starting what we have today.

Since then, the club has extended it's offices, coaching area, training facilities, updated the clubhouse and co-operate facilities etc.

In the last 3 weeks we've seen the start of the new state of the art training facilities. Plus also we've seen the railway end demolished and a new stand progressing nicely. Once this has been completed, the clubhouse will be extended allowing more than 120 sponsors in the dining area.

For a club that doesn't get much tv revenue, I personally believe it is huge progress compared to other Super League clubs who have had an awful lot of financial backing.

Final point is, we own our own stadium and 17 acres of land, so everything in the stadium is run by the club.

Hope that answers your question.

Is that the standards set by Bradford, Salford & Wakefield at some point or other in their franchise tenure?

Congratulations Featherstone - the man from KPMG - he say yeeeeaaah!!"

I also forgot the addition of more disabled facilities around the clubhouse.

What improvements would you like to see?

Obviously the level of the pitch and terracing at the post office round end would be obvious answers.

I don’t think you understand what happened.

You need to be about 170 miles south of where you currently are. Watford should do it.

FML!!

PR. They want to project the image of a club on the rise, and as a bigger club than London Broncos. If this was their big day, they definitely had to post a crowd of over 3,594 (London's highest of the season so far).



Having said that, I didnt see the game so have no idea what the crowd was and whether the number is realistic.

Unfortunately it doesn’t. The question I asked was why they were still relatively so poor. Not as an absolute. I have no doubt that Fev have done well to get decent facilities for a semi-pro community club. They don’t have poor facilities for a full-time SL club, they just simply don’t have the facilities of a full-time SL club. They simply aren’t there.

Clubs are proving time and time again that they can’t compete with average attendances bigger than the fev stadium holds, how are Fev going to compete when they haven’t been able to afford to get in place the facilities and infrastructure to even hold the amount of people they need? Are we hoping Mr Nahaboo and his friends just throw money at the club in perpetuity?

They do say ignorance is bliss.

Indeed

[urlhttp://www1.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12213/7842396/bulls-enter-administration[/url

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19991897[/url

[urlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/wakefield/9383611.stm[/url

[urlhttp://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/celtic-crusaders-go-into-administration-1885448[/url

Now im certain you don’t understand.

Not even I, can educate pork.

So you are stating that we need to raise our capacity then our facilities would go from poor or okay?

I think you are being pretty harsh on the club, when you compare us to say:
- London Broncos (where are they playing next year?)
- Castleford Tigers (Years of 'planning and sky money' but similar level)
- Wakefield - What have they done since 98'

What else would you like to see the club do facility wise?

A lot more has gone at Featherstone than just improving facilities in the last 5 years. It's had to improve it's infrastructure, youth development, media & commercial departments.

As the club positively moves forward then we'll see even more progress through all departments.

Top-class baby changing facilities. So important for getting a big tick.

They are still poor, but double the capacity and we have a start.

If you look at those clubs you see the point I am making. Wakefield and Cas with bigger stadiums, a better start point and a bigger potential market haven’t been able to compete at the top, and have struggled to be sustainable even simply bumbling around at the bottom. How are Fev, with the disadvantages they face going to be able to be so much better? Because if they aren’t, they are going to face exactly the same problems Wakefield and Cas do, plus those ones which are specific to Fev.

What is the point of the Bradford Bulls when they can't pay wages on time... AGAIN?



I've no reason to question the attendance at Featherstone last night, as opposed to the CC Final where corporate indifference to the event resulted in 15,000 empty club wembley seats being included in the official attendance.

Then you must have reached Nirvana.

It looked like they'd sold a lot of flat caps though.

This result is just in your head, though. If OTOH you speak to Wembley stadium, as I did, they will tell you that the attendance is persons scanned as coming into the stadium. It doesn't matter where they sit. But you wouldn't speak to them, because you would already know in advance that they would be lying, as part of some sort of bizarre conspiracy with which your said head seems to be filled.

You say that you've no reason to question the attendance but, that's your full time job.
It is isn't it ????

But what's poor in regards to facilities? Just the capacity?

If so, they are increasing that with the new stand and clubhouse expansion.

You spoke to Wembley Stadium?



How's the wage situation at the Bulls this month? Hope the rumours aren't true. Supposed to be a 12 team SL from 2015, not next year.

My mistake. Average is 2,495. Box unticked. Someone (besides me) mis-calculated.

The experience as a whole. The Capacity especially. What are the increasing it to? Are they doubling it?

And i Know that some will bring up 'well what about stadium X, that’s also rubbish'. Yes, it probably is. But that’s the problem isn’t it. We need to improve.

Is the bigfella’s going to attract the 10k minimum needed to compete at SL level? Ever?

I'm not sure what the official capacity will be Smokey. I assume in the region of 8,000? 3/4 of the stadium will be seated - now that is good facilities!

We do need to improve, that's why the club have spent thousands of pounds improving it.

Is that a 10,000 average crowd attendance? Not many teams do, but with the club owning the ground and food and drink outlets i'm sure they wouldn't need this magical number.