Edin speaks

£5m to redevelop Odsal? Not a chance. It needs four new stands building over the speedway track. The best thing for Odsal is landfill.

 

The stock car promoters have shown there is a place for a stadium like Odsal but not football. I spent many an afternoon and evening up there following Rugby for 25 years and was perfect venue with the switch to summer rugby. There a lack of these sort of stadia but it takes a brave and forward thinking ownership company to get the best from it. And I agree, spending 5 million on it would be like putting lipstick on a pig.

 

Those summer evenings at Odsal with 20k in for games against Leeds, Saints and Wigan were great. I’d forgotten the stock car people were having a go again.

 

Of course you could, I never stated to what spec. We need realistic plans or will get sucked into another costly lease for 25 years, and building a new stadium for £30+ million will get us laughed out of the door.

 

I'd take my lad upto the bonfire night shows they had on, the crowds capped at 10,000 if i remember. As a multi use stadium Odsal becomes viable but like any stadium these days if you are only using it once every two weeks then there is only one ending to the story.

 

Not at all. Done most from Carlisle to Torquay, this recurring theme of developing Odsal is Pie in the sky nonsense. If we end up at Odsal, it would be the same desolate tip we endured in the mid 80's.

 

I completely agree but that wasn't your point.

 

Looks like I'm confusing my knowledge of wills with trusts. It's witnesses that can't be beneficiaries (in wills) not trustees who can't be beneficiaries (in trustss). Still it clarifies that the owner is FLPF, which presumable was/ is for the benefit of all FL employees and not just the Gibb family, other wise it would probably be called the Gibb Family Pension Fund.

I suppose that this also makes the assumption that the FLPF is the one that GG would benefit from and that he and his family don't actually have a separate pension fund, which is quite possible.

As a trustee, GG would then have had a major say in it, but he would still need the approval of the other trustees (assuming he isn't the sole trustee, which I doubt).

Either way, I stand by my view that GG has absolutely nothing to be admonished for in this, his agreement to buy VP stopped liquidation and the terms were fully agreed by the BCAFC board at the time. No=one forced him to do, forced the club to do it and no-one was held to ransom over the terms. As such Gordon Gibb should always been credited with his actions in saving Bradford City.

 

Odsal is not, and never will be suitable for football. Too far from the pitch, the corners need to be lifted and replaced to allow for stock cars & speedway (both of which could be back by the end of 2021) and the exposed site means the potential for a high number of postponements unless under soil heating and effective year round covers are in place.

Parking isn't great, VP isn't ideal but Odsal is worse, and it has very little potential to benefit the City as a whole with no real availability of drinking establishments. All Odsal has to offer is fast transport links via the M606 for away fans.

If we were to move, and I don't want us to but if we had to then so be it, there are two better sites available.

1. The large swathe of land behind Wickes and Seabrooks below Princeville Terrace. Not ideal for the drinking side of things, but that could be improved with a fan zone
2. The former gasworks sandwiched between Thornton Road and Listerhills Road (currently used as a car park) Nearer town for easier access and would require the buildings up to Water Street demolishing.

The ideal location has gone and would have been Nelson Street where they built Trafalgar House Police Station and the new school. Failing that, and this would never happen because BMDC have no foresight, when John Street Market closes and moves to Darley Street, the land earmarked for an urban village (that will be probably mainly social housing and a slum inside 10 years) would be ideal by pulling that, Morrisons, Bradford Brwery and the market building behind it down.

A central location like that could also double as an outside concert / events venue and be used on many more occassions than match days.

 

Isn't he registered with Alfreton Town? He played for Halifax AGAINST Aldershot.

 

Not forgetting the Richard Dunn center is being demolished.

 

All I remember is that it began with A!

 

And being built on

 

Never get the notion that Odsal in ideal location for transport links being close to the motorway. That might be so for away fans, but not, I would guess, for majority of the fans that matter who would go 23 times a year

I think the time spent watching City there in the 80's has left a long lasting mental scar on me that will never heal, no matter what anyone says!