Odsal Redevelopment, Council Finances, Council Services & The Private Sector

Bulk of the fanbase live Aire Valley/Shipley/App bridge? How do you know this??? Or just guessing?

 

You cant just force residents out of those houses.

why does the stand even need extending? If they played their before the pitch must be within RL size regulations.

 

It's too small. They got dispensation from the RFL to play at VP for a short period.
The RFL seem keen to bend the rules though. The in-goal areas for the Grand Final, at Old Trafford, were tiny. Players were flying into the advertising hoardings.

 

The SL needs big teams like the Bulls. Their brand and reach is better than the small sides, and their academy is better than a lot of those in Super League even now and has churned out top class players who’ve played on the biggest stage.

Bulls did well last season and they’ve retained key players for next year and got rid of a supposed bad egg in Patton.

Hopefully they build on this year under the new coach who has just come in.

 

ah ok. Yes, in goal areas not idea at OT, made worse by the elevation of the pitch from the undersoil heating. There was an incident wasn’t there - one player went flying down into the boards

 

I think when they moved in last time it was a 2 year deal, but they moved out after 12 months. I may be wrong.
They must have got dispensation for 2 years?

 

I had to go from Brighouse to Valley Parade for a home game a month or two back due to work. Took me about 20 minutes. Never really had a problem getting to Valley Parade.in my time watching them, it's only about a 15 minute walk to the ground from the city centre if using public transport or the train. That said the location is hardly ideal, makes Gaza look like a 5 star holiday destination.

 

As a supporter of both clubs I'm not sure on the hate of either club from fans. I get that a number of fans don't want to groundshare for various reasons but ultimately both clubs doing well does a lot for the city itself in terms of revenue brought into the city and job creation. Especially in a city that is dying on its arse with two failing sporting clubs off the back of it.

 

I think there was a bit more to it than that, including finances etc, and the sponsors of the stadium (AJ Bell) plus a massive say from the actual ground (lease) owners who I believe are Sale Sharks and have a lease until 2037. The decision had little or nothing to do with Koukash as Salford City Reds are just tenants of Sale Sharks.

 

I believe the Bulls only lost the one game whilst playing at Valley Parade against Leeds in the Challenge Cup ?.

 

We’ve discussed the boom times at Odsal before.
I lived by the old Craven Heifer from being a kid. The mid 90’s when the Bulls were the biggest and best team in Super league were great times.
The ten years that followed under Elliot and Noble showed the rest of rugby how to put on a match day experience.
It became a proper family day out,not just the 80 minutes of actual rugby.
The facilities around there were definitely limited but that didn’t stop 15/20,000 turning up (mostly on a Friday night) on a regular basis.
Local pubs and shops definitely benefited from a successful Bulls team.

I’ve not been for a lot of years but the one thing I am slightly jealous of is how limited the actual match day experience is at VP.
There’s just no incentive to turn up any more than 5 minutes before kick off and then head straight home 1 minute after the final whistle.

The Bulls in their pomp certainly got that bit right.

 

. Try fact checking your own comment about a through rail line in Bradford from the Aire Valley to Odsal top. typographically nigh on impossible if one wants to route via Bradford City centre, another focal point for originating supporters. Bradford sits in a bowl, haven’t you noticed. It’s a 1 in 50 to Bowling tunnel from the Interchange . Bowling tunnel ( Roughly 100ft below Parkside Rd. ) is 100’s of feet lower than Odsal top. The Interchange probably 60-70 ft lower than Forster Sq. To build such a line would put HS2 from Euston to Old Oak Common in the shade and would require rack and pinion traction. A bit like railways in the Swiss Alps. Please fact check first. A railways slong the lines you indicate is an absolute non starter.

 

All I can find regarding average attendances in the Championship last season up to July shows the following.



Not one team averaging over 4k, 3 over 3k and a further 4 over 2k. So only 7 of the 14 teams last season averaged over 2k. The biggest gate of the season was Bradford v Keighley with 4,879.

I mean that is dire overall when you look at it.

The Super League are happy to keep a closed shop, in reality Rugby League should be 2 leagues, A Super League of say 16 teams so thats 30 games and the rest in a league below with a fair promotion and relegation. To my knowledge Newcastle listed above have announced they won't take part next season. It's no surprise that of the top 13 on that list, all have been in Super League within the last two seasons because beyond that the game in it's current format just dies, and those within the Championship know realistically there is the lottery of the play offs even if you win 95% of the games in the season, if you lose once after finishing top you are done for, as Featherstone found out.

 

To get Northern in the super league and stay there would require huge investment on footballing grounds. They tried that scheme before , we all know what happened. If City cannot afford it , then Northern don’t have a chance. We have to be realistic. The taxpayer should and the Council suggest likewise, keep well away from such fairy stories.

 

They did , fair point. The only issue was…….It was ALL on borrowed money. A bit like our BFG era.
We know what followed. .

 

The beginning of the end for the Bulls was when they were daft enough to sell the lease to Odsal which was secured against another debt. So as soon as that sale went through the debt it was secured on was called in.

I mean if I sold my house and decided to keep the money I'm pretty sure the bank could call in my mortgage.