Andy Todd, Stefan Rupp & City's Financial Position

Thank you for the response. We are pleased that you and @wetherbywhaler come on this site and promote events that are happening in the summer. However, what you cannot do and I am not asking is speak on the club’s behalf regarding the manager, squad, and recruitment in general. We are asking for transparency and honesty about our current state. We have done what the club have asked and bought season tickets, which would be the envy of all LG 2 clubs and probably the majority of LG 1 clubs.

We have been relegated, we have not had any communication from the club regarding this very serious event, and certainly not part of the 3 year plan that was put forward by Rahic and Rupp when they came to this club. We have had no apology, explanation or any plans going forward. We have no idea how this has left our club both financially and structure of the club. This week we have seen Anton and Andy leave the club, presumably due to financial restrictions. When Rahic left, Rupp promised to support this club going forward and put right what had happened. We were unable or restricted in signing players we needed in January, we lose another manager, and Bowyer and Todd came in. Now in my ignorance I actually thought that Rupp was keeping his tinder dry with a view to fully supporting GB and AT in their quest to keep us up, and if not at least for the up and coming campaign.

1. Does Rupp intend to continue to own and financially support our club Going forward; when he came he said he was here for the long term, but given the collapse of the business plan such as it was, is this still his intention?

2. How long is Julian staying for?

3. When are we recruiting a new CEO?

4. When are we recruiting a media man/woman, someone to properly sell this club in the wider community and beyond.

5. Do we intend to run a reserve team?

6. Do we intend to recruit a managers assistant?

7. Do we intend to recruit quality scouts?

8.;Do we intend to recruit any coaches?

9. When is the short term plan being released to the fans?

10. What is our long term plan? Rupp said he was aiming for PL, is that still our plan?


These are all valid questions that our long suffering fans need an answer. Whilst our near neighbours, Sheffield United into the PL. Barnsley into the Championship as is Huddersfield, Leeds in the playoffs for the PL. Sheffield Wednesday just missed out on the playoffs. Yet here we are sliding into LG2 without a whimper, whilst our neighbours are making very good progress.

The above questions are not for you to answer even if you knew, but questions we should not try and work out from social media, but through the official club.

 

Very well put @Onside

 

Excellent post.

Add to that.

Is the club up for sale?

Is Mr Rupp going to be involved more with the running of the club?

Bradford City Football is a shambles at this minute.

 

Good post @Onside.

For me, what we're seeing is classic pre-sale behaviour.

Who wants to buy a business that is massively overspending, or locked into bad deals or ongoing contracts?

Even if Rupp did allow the club to spend, he will presumably only fund such action while he's here.

If his mentality is that he wants to sell up, which I assume it is, then he has to make us as close to self sufficient as he can.

In retail, a poorly performing company would close stores and issue redundancies before any sale was likely to go through. People would say that meant the company was on its knees, but actually getting a smaller, tighter estate makes for a more attractive proposition to potential buyers.

Maybe that's what we are seeing. In which case, there is a lot of work to do.

 

This is football though and if your manager can't pick his coaches then the club is in trouble.

A club has to be attractive an show ambition.

We just need honesty.. Sunderland, Sheffield Utd fans have of late but our club seems to just want to mess fans about.

 

Were we have fallen KHAZI league there are some pretty good teams too...it will not be a walkover at all. I hope that as far as we fall?

 

That may be the case Jon, but that is a risky strategy, cost cutting by someone who doesn’t know the football business might well be catastrophic for the club. Stefan never did see the need for James Mason for instance!

 

I don't believe a club showing ambition is more attractive to a buyer - if that buyer wants to save rescue, or elevate a club, there are far more important factors.

Read up on why Darragh McAnthony bought Peterborough, it will show you what I mean.

 

Mate, we've sold 13k season tickets this really isn't the time for the club to lack ambition.

Rupp is worth 120m euro and if we are acting like we don't have a pot to pi&£ in them it's not good no matter how much you want to make excuses and try to dress it up.

 

It will always be hard to get information on the club and its ambitions when the two men in charge are one who has no interest and one who is all but a recluse,

It seems next season will be run on two buttons and a bag of sweets

 

@Ricc could be right again.

 

You don't seem to understand, or aren't wiling to acknowledge what I'm saying.

The viability of Bradford City as a business has nothing to do with Stefan Rupp or what he may be worth.

How much money Rupp has is irrelevant to Bradford City being self-sufficient, which is what might make us more attractive.

Forget the 120 million. It doesn't matter. Rupp isn't going to spend it just to sell us. That strategy makes no sense.

 

I fully understand what you're saying.

Most football clubs are lost makers and most require the owner to pump loads in to make it successful.

If Rupp isn't willing to do that then he shouldn't be owning the club or not one like us anyway.

 

You are quite correct Mr Rupps personal wealth can not be counted in any prospective sale of the club
However he is the custodian of the club and his decisions will determine our future
The big questions are
Does he carry on investing a very small part of his wealth into the club to keep it going (ticking over) or does he invest more to make the club a viable proposition and take it forward hoping for a larger return or does he say enoughs enough no more investment and leave us to our fate (admin)
Who would purchase the club at Mr Rupps price rather than bid with a receiver
In two out of three scenarios Mr Rupps personal wealth plays a big part in our future
Whichever way he decides (I wouldn't like to be in his shoes) it needs to be done quickly and more importantly keep the fans informed

 

Are you trying to give @Park bantam an heart attack we all know that @Ricc just makes stuff up... Look what he told us about uncle Edin he couldn't have been further from the truth.....

 

The more and more we look at our situation as you say @JonButterfield Rupp was never going to put into the club the funds that @Fordy117 alludes to, so you have to wonder was Rahic a great salesman and Rupp fell for the spiel that after developing a few players Bradford City would be self financing.
I find it more and more intriguing that a guy like Rupp who build a business and has a personal wealth of 120 Euro's be naive enough to not have cottoned on to what was happening at Valley Parade letting Rahic get the club into a situation where he was only made aware of the clubs plight because two Bradford City fans went to Munich and spoke to him face to face.
The club bring the likes of Gary Bowyer in knowing he would want to bring his own backroom staff in, only to be told we cant afford Andy Todd, that for me is very worrying, if we can't give Bowyer help what does that say for the type of players Bowyer might want to bring in, great if we can get some of the big earners out but if not if it "free transfers" he will be left with, and if so how can it possibly be a top 3 budget.

 

Salford and in Particular Fylde own their own purpose built stadia Fylde have great facilities and with more to come Salford are owned by a group of wealthy ex footballers and Fylde by a super rich football fan who has pumped fortunes in.
Neither of these teams or in fact probably any other club in league 2 have a wage bill like we are having to carry over from last season.
Todays piece from Bowyer is very depressing but it’s the reality of things as they are we have a stadium to big for what we need which is costing us 500k every year before we start.
Raising fans expectations with statements about having competitive budgets with a complete change of tone after the season ticket deadline is wrong. The statement is probably right but most of it will go on what we already have.
People calling for more “investment” are dealing with false hope Investment is looking for a Profit and there no chance of a profit with us. I can not see Mr Rupp putting in any more money Other than what is needed to keep us going. Whilst I can see people possibly being interested in buying us I can only see the club being run on business lines just as it has for years. There are no city loving philanthropist about as far as I can see nobody wants to put money into anything Bradford.

 

No one is expecting him to pump in 120m of his own money but we all know that owners have to put in a fair amount of money to make a club fairly successful.

I just don't get the feeling he wants Bradford City enough.

 

Why can't you see him putting some of his money in?

Look, if he won't then he shouldn't be a football owner.

You talk about Salford. Do you think the owners didn't put money in? All decent owners have too.

Problem is Rupp got sold a footballing dream and the question is is he now think sh@t need out. It's fine wanting out just be honest with the fans if so.

Either way like @Onside excellent post many questions need to be answered.

It's not a time to put your head in the clouds.

 

Am sure he doesn't
He is a business man doesn't matter if it's a football club or a biscuit factory he will expect a healthy return for his investment or he will bail out
How far down the line that will be or how much more he is prepared to throw at it remains to be seen
He was taken in by the talk of his ex partner and is now left holding the reins
I think his last throw of the dice was to bring JR in to sort things that failed spectacularly so where does he go from here is anyone's guess