What is staggering here is the RFL's desperation to "save one of the games most iconic stadia".
Central Park gone, The Boulevard gone, Wilderspool gone, Belle Vue and Wheldon Road going.
Now, Idont mind a bit of History, without history there is no future, but why Odsal ?
If Bradford had a good option to move to Valley Parade, which is certainly a more up to date stadium,
why does Odsal need some kind of "preservation order" ?

Well this whole affair appears nothing more than a loan of £1M plus from the RFL to the Bulls. The RFL have taken the lease of the ground over as security, end of.

The interesting bit is that Steve Parkin has obviously been in the background regarding the Bulls. Whatever his true intentions were for the Bulls, Odsal etc we may never know. However should we get the green light in the next couple of months I wonder if he is looking at us again ?

Read adeybulls post , this is nothing to do with Odsal , that was just the usual RFL spin ,this is a loan to the Bulls to keep them in business, plain and simple

Not really no.
You would have paid rent to Bradford Council anyway, now you will pay rent to the RFL. However the RFL have given you money in the meantime.
So in my eyes you've been given a bail out and will now continue to pay rent, all be it to a different party.

As others have said I have no issue with Bradford over this as you look to have done what is necessary to secure your future, the same as we would all wish our own clubs to do.
The problem lies with the RFL executing their own unique style of double standards again, whereby they are willing to bend over backwards to help certain clubs and couldn't give a toss about others.

As for point 2 of your argument, you are right, the admiistration was the best thing that could have happened to us (although obviously not for the creditors of the old club, or the shareholders).

Quite frankly no it doesn't. No matter how you care to dress it up, the fact that the RL got involved in any way finacially, when they have refused help to other clubs smacks of favouritism of the highest order.

It is, of course, excellent business by the Bulls who are to be congratulated in seemingly securing an unlimited SL franchise.

The RL view that they are saving one of our most famous grounds is rubbish. Odsal is famous for one reason-the record crowd for the cup final back in the 50's. Other then that it a shambles and barely better than Belle Vue. In fact I'd rather go to BV any day.

Quote ="gutterfax"You and your club have the sympathy of loads fans around the game and we understand the frustration you must be experiencing, but comments like the ones above do you no favours. I have asked for proof of the assistance received by the London team 10 years......I have yet to receive any. Crusaders were lent money, Catalans were given 3 years free from relegation, we had no special treatment and no financial assistance in any shape or form......so please, stop making yourself look bitter and twisted, as well as stupid. Again...I fully understand the frustration, it does smack of double standards.'" news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 973976.stm I particularly like this bit: "The RFL will help in the office, help in technical support and some financial support too, but that's in the long term, not a big cash pay-out now," explained Hughes.

Quote ="gutterfax"You and your club have the sympathy of loads fans around the game and we understand the frustration you must be experiencing, but comments like the ones above do you no favours. I have asked for proof of the assistance received by the London team 10 years......I have yet to receive any. Crusaders were lent money, Catalans were given 3 years free from relegation, we had no special treatment and no financial assistance in any shape or form......so please, stop making yourself look bitter and twisted, as well as stupid. Again...I fully understand the frustration, it does smack of double standards.'" news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 973976.stm I particularly like this bit: "The RFL will help in the office, help in technical support and some financial support too, but that's in the long term, not a big cash pay-out now," explained Hughes.

I understand why you would ask question number 1. I realise the relevance in terms of Super League, but if the RFL do in fact adopt that stance why is it they felt fit to purchase Cougar Park and Spotland? They're hardly super league standard facilities

The RFL HAVE helped other clubs. Regularly. Including your own, with loans in the past, and recently by allowing a completely new entity to retain and continue with the franchise despite a substantial loss to the taxpayer and others and despite a previous insolvency. They could easily have insisted the new entity starts again at the bottom, and promoted (say) Fax into SL instead. Indeed, the Fax fans were generally seething that the RFL did NOT do this.



How so?

A successful franchise bid consists of a number of elements, of which the stadium is but part. The RFL could quite easily award a franchise to play at Odsal to another team or entity - even you lot. They would still collect the rent as return on their original investment.

Wrong.

We paid a peppercorn to the council.

We will pay a commercial rent to the RFL.

In exchange for that additional annual cost, we get a sum up front. Bit like equity release on your house.

Where is the subsidy in that? (clue: nowhere).

TBH i am now of the belief that, had the RFL helped us, we would probably be in as good a position now as we are, the changes have come as a direct result of a fresh start, and that may not have come if help had been provided.
That does not take away the question for RL in general as to why the RFL act without parity to their member clubs, all of which deserve the same respect and level playing field.
As ever the question will never be answered and we will be stuck with these morons running the game, because they are untouchable, and certainly nobody in the media, certainly not SKYs Wallace and Grommit, (their licensing questioning was absolutely embarrassing!!) can ever get a straight answer from the RFL dictats.

Yeah, I realise that this was spin, its just disappointing that, in the modern world, nobody tells it as it is.
The one sure thing is that situations like this one never come from a position of financial strength.

So who now pays for the upkeep of the stadium?

Not quite like equity release, in that you dont have "equity" in Odsal, unless of course the long lease was considered as equity !

Pretty well as good as - as anyone (especially in London) who "owns" a house that is actually on a very long leasehold will tell you.

But a better analogy would be a normal commercial property "sale and leaseback" - for that is pecisely what we appear to have done. Sold (effectively) our interest in a very long lease, and leased back on a much shorter (we presume) lease.

As for who pays the maintenance? Given we have received a big capital sum up front, I am assuming we still do. Unless the amount of the possible sum has been reduced by the NPV of future maintemance costs that the RFL have taken on. Simple answer is we are not yet clear. But I am sure the capital sum will have reflected whatever has been agreed in this respect.

Course you will, I'm sure the RFL will ensure that you pay a "commercial rent" on Odsal.







As I said before, no issue with Bradford, the issue is with the double standards of the games governing body.

The RFL were dead quick to let you in Superleague in the first place because your ground didn't meet the basic criteria when you beat Featherstone. They've let you continue in Superleague including the first round of licensing despite you not having made the required improvements. They even let you stay in Superleague at the last licensing round despite still not having made the ground improvements and starting as a new entity all together.


The double standards and favouritism shown towards Wakefield by the RFL is a joke!

So what saying is you could not afford to pay Peppercorn to council, but can affrord to pay Commercial rent, so why sell lease, sorry no Bradford game for me, and I will not be watching any other game that is played there, the is my own choice...

Wrong, we had to fight tooth and nail to be let in. We did our first season (or two - I can't remember) without SKY money that everyone else had.

We have improved Belle Vue over the years, to comply with standards. The standards have been changed!
As for licensing we were not the only club that they let get away with this were we??

No need to get all defensive, your club appear to have done a good deal. The RFL however seem to have not done quite such a good deal but as they appear to be above the law and don't disclose anything they don't want to to the fans of our game I guess we'll never know for sure will we?

just managed to catch up with this, and it stinks.

bradford have negotiated themselves a good deal and fair play to them on that, but it unfortuneatly means that there will be no fair play when the next set of licences comes around. bradford will be safer than leeds, warrington and wigan!!

if us and cas both built our grounds in time for the next franchises, then the worst ground in the league would be odsal (then maybe hull kr) and if, as previous applications have gone, if you haven't had a good ground, then you are favourites for the drop - but this will now not happen.

maybe next franchises will score an additional 20 points if they are more than 5 miles away from normanton!!!

I think you may be talking some bull**** here. With the deal that was announced yesterday you lose any possible moral high ground.
As Bradford already had a long lease arrangement, Odsal could not be sold elsewhere for development.
The reality is that we are all in difficult ecconomic times and fair play, the people involved with the Bulls have certainly managed to
do some excellent business.
The league would be a poorer place without the Bulls and again credit where its due, your supporter numbers are excellent, but please dont
come on here and justify whats happened by spouting rubbish.

The RFL think we are all thick, the line about saving a historic ground in Odsal is so crap and transparent that I'm actually insulted by it.

Then we get to the compromised position that the RFL have created with regards to franchising, wtf, how can the next round be seen as fair?

IMO, this franchise period should be the last and P & R with knobs on brought back in 2014/15.

The point here is the "who" is involved.
No one would be even blinking at this if Bradford had got a loan from a bank, or got investment from private companies.
The fact that they have done a deal with the rugby league just raises the question of why were they singled out as more worthy that the rest.

In terms of benefits and advantage, it's hard to say without knowing the numbers involved.
The RFL could have made a shrewd deal themselves if they make money on the rent like any other landlord would (or interest if we call it a loan). Depends on the figures.

Bradford have gained. Not so much because they are guarenteed a franchise, which I know is an emotive subject but they will still have the same criteria to meet, but because they have been financially helped.
If they needed to stay at Odsal and needed to buy the lease to guarentee it, they would need to raise funds to do it. They could have sold some players for fees or reduced their wage bill. I don't know the amounts we are talking about of course so I don't know how close that would make it but they have a decent Super League team of some value. If they played with the team Wakefield played with last year their bill would be massively reduced, and so could fund their own issues.
They haven't done that. They have had funds made available because the RFL have taken the short term financial hit for them and they pay back over a longer period, releasing cash for players.

How life would have been different for Wakefield if we could have released funds for players in the passed.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Has anyone actually read all the information on this, all this does is secures Odsal for the Bulls to continue playing there in the forseeable future, it does NOT guarantee super league status !!!

Are you for real ? So the RFL secure playing at Odsal for the Bulls. Do you really think that the Bulls will ever be relegated with this kind of deal in place. Bearing in mind this could cause them to default on rental payments .

Just to clarify:

The RFL do not own Keighley Cougars ground they own a 60 year lease which, in turn, Keighley let off them (at no cost to the RFL as far as I am aware).

This came about at the end of the last lease when the RFL helped Keighley negotiate with the land owner (the CO-Op) to prevent any chance of the land being sold from under them for retail development.

Keighley did not sell their lease to the RFL like Bradford appear to have done.

Keighley originally owned the ground and much of the surrounding land but had to sell it many moons ago to the Co-op then lease it back.