Rahic Interview

The development squad is a load of bollocks. It's the reserves mate. Let's not dress it up.

The pitch is like a leaking roof in a house you own. It has to be fixed.

Ticketing- cheap way improvements. I don't see modem ticket scanning machines. I see dupe work going on.

No money spent on of their own on the squad. Our owners are fakers. Full of bull.

 

No disrespect @City-since-67 but what's gone on before is irrelevant to now, if you went looking for a new home you would get a surveyor in to make sure the property your about to purchase is sound and will not require major work doing to bring it up to a decent standard apart from your personal choices, decorations. central heating ETC.

But I'll give you my take on the situation for what it's worth.

Because Julian & Mark did not want to drive that side of the business they were quite happy with their % take from the people who ran the food/drink/hospitality side of the club, where as the present owners see that maximizing those areas could give them extra revenue hence the pre-match dinning something that has gone from strength to strength under the new owners (credit to the owners), Julian & Mark refurbished the then Patrons Suite into the 2012/13 Suite I believe ?.
With regards the pitch Julian & Mark maybe didn't go as far as what's required now but they did work on the pitch as stated in this article http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/9823759.Bog_off__Bradford_City_say_good_riddance_to_pitch_problems/ .

Edin mentioned taking the shop back in house because IHO putting a manager in who knew about merchandising and the likes was a better option than letting an outside source run it, maybe in a few years time he will have got people involved to be able to take the running of the suites back in house as Richmond did with Peter Etherington running the show, which again will hopefully generate even more finance.

My worry is not the non-footballing side but what's gone on with regards the thing that makes us want to watch our players perform for Bradford City, IMO they should have taken a back seat for a season or two, then when you have a feel for what you could change for the better football wise then implement it slowly, unfortunately they preferred to do it from the off alienating many fans, fortunately for them the likes of me and you will continue to give our support unfortunately there are IMO up to 10,000 prepared to do that but if the product is not good the others will find other things to do match days.

 

Are you "simba" under a new user name your replies have his ring to them ?

 

Yes it was a bit uncalled for, but would make great listening .

 

All depends on how much money they throw at it.

 

The last house owners had buckets in every room.. now the new owners are actually doing something about it.

 

The drainage system whilst wasn't brilliant under the previous owners was still working. It's now completely knackered. They didn't have any choice but to replace it.

 

That may be so but are they replacing it with a minimal job or a top quality job?

 

Thing is, Steve, I can understand that point of view. I don’t fully agree with it, as I think we should be putting down foundations for the long term.

But that’s not the point you made. You said all other clubs, even Guiesley, were linking with private schools like Man City are doing (which was my example).

Or was that just a lot of rubbish from yourself when trying to make a point, and failing?

 

It’s a top quality job.

 

Time will tell.

 

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/16135208.Pitch_perfect__Bantams_ready_to_revamp_Valley_Parade/

City believe Valley Parade’s long-running drainage issues will be solved by replacing the primary drains, which are 45cm below the surface. The existing set-up has been in place for 31 years – and tests showed they are now operating at zero capacity.


Watson added: “A lot of people have questioned ‘isn’t this what we’ve always done.’


“But all they have targeted are the secondary drains, the gravel bands in the top layer of the pitch. These drains haven’t been replaced or repaired since 1987.


“Lots of work has been done in the last 10 to 15 years on the top-level drains. But if the deeper ones aren’t working, we’ve just masked the issue.

 

The situation has been far from perfect over the years, however, it's got us by-just about. We are now beyond that stage to a point where every odd game when it rains heavily would be called off if we didn't repair or update the drainage system, due to them being completely fecked and more so than before. It's why we were the only team in football, including the semi professional teams,to have had a game called off due to waterlogged pitch during our last postponed game. To put it short, the situation has gone from bad to drastic which is why they were left with no other choice but to repair them. The reason for this is because the lifespan of our drainage system has recently expired whereas previously they still had a bit of life left.

 

"zis is Bullshit", as Edin would say ;-)

 

Just a thought.

 

We would be nuts as fans if we did not want long term expenditure to enhance our club, and build for success. We all want that. I for want to thank our owners for taking care of that.

Now this is the crux, when they arrived they said they wanted our club to be sustainable ie live within in our means; however they also said they wanted promotion to the Championship within 3 years, and the PL within 10 years. What they didn’t tell us was that the infrastructure/capital expenditure and the players, manager and back up staff were incompatible with a sustainable football business. The only way it could have happened would have been for extra investment.

They now need to be honest, and tell us the emphasis will be on bringing young players in to develop and sell on for profit. Trying to keep the truth from fans does not bode well for the future. The very fact that he was saying you do not want to be promoted and have to purchase 20 players, tells me everything I need to know. Well Edin what would have happened last year if we had been promoted?

 

Hence my 'buckets' comment.. the last owners couldn't afford it, they 'masked' the situation.

 

So did our current owners for 2 years until they had no choice. Despite what that article seems to be implying, you can't 'mask' a lifeless drainage system which needs replacing all together. They obviously won't tell you that though.

 

Not really 2 years though was it, 1 at most. The first summer apart from everything else was going on with the manager/lack of players they won't have been able to find what the issue actually was so i'm not sure what you expected them to in the first summer.

All of this still doesn't hide that this is something that should have been done years ago when the club was in a good financial position rather than leaving until it break, other the years with too many things like this the club have done the bare minimum rather than fixing the problem.

 

It should have been done but the clubs philosophy was to give Parkinson all available funds for the first team, which got us out of league 2 to the playoffs in league 1. I didn't see anyone complaining about this at the time.