Toby Chopra

Spot on, although once inside the flagship comp there still needs to be a pretty high minimum spend too.

Well, yes, but also to protect the value of an asset (Odsal) that's in theory owned by everyone, in the hope they can exit without a loss while not leaving the Bulls homeless and Odsal a landfill site. But all that's probably too much to hope for now. It all goes back to the original deal, which looks a lot worse in hindsight now we know that the Bulls aren't a SL club and there's no money coming to redevelop Odsal.

Worthless as a sporting venue - or at least worth less than the £1.2m the RFL paid for the lease. But certainly not worthless if sold on the free market.

But this hasn't been in secret. And I don't believe Nigel pushed the deal through the RFL in 2012 as part of some grand plan to eventually own the Bulls. He's just been opportunistic with the circumstances after his RFL departure. We've known the terms of the lease for a long time. That doesn't make it a good deal at all, and with hindsight the RFL shouldn't have entered it. But if the stakeholders had wanted to pull the plug on this in previous years they could have - albeit likely crystallising the loss. Maybe now the time has come.

The history of clubs leaving their historical home without a proper long term option to move too is not good. Perhaps Bradford have reached the point where they have no other option. But I can see why they'd try everything to stay and hope to redevelop, as something gets lost for good once you leave, unless you have a purpose built replacement ready to go.

The way I read it, the £100k yearly loss is incurred by the annual repair costs of keeping it as a safe sporting venue, even after the rents. So, yes, past spend won't be recovered. But if Odsal is sold to developers I find it hard to see that they'd only get £700,000k for that site. What they seem to be looking for is a buyer who will take on the stadium as a sporting venue for the existing tenants (or at least the Bulls) In that circumstance, yes, they'll make a loss. Reading between the lines, I wonder if the RFL have leaked this either to put pressure on the Bulls to up their bid - or to soften up public opinion for when they sell the lease back to the Bulls at a loss. I can't decide which yet!

I think that's overly conspiratorial. The details and the RFL's justification of of the Odsal purchase were public at the time and although a lot of people grumbled, it was signed off by Richard Lewis and the RFL board. Which is ultimately the clubs themselves. What no-one predicted in 2012 was that the Bulls - who were still a SL club at the time - would go into sharp decline, lowering the value of the asset. And that nothing would have changed 12 years later. Should they have predicted that? Quite possibly. But it's simple bad management for all to see, dodgy dealings not really necessary. The fact that Nigel took over the Bulls later shows what a small time sport we are, but doesn't mean it's corrupt. The fact is the RFL could still get out of this lease with minimal losses if it sold out to non-sport developers (and got Bradford council's agreement to do so). But that would leave the Bulls homeless and complete their transition into another Oldham-type club: great history but forever dependent on others for a home. In 2012 I can see why some people wanted to avoid that, but perhaps now in 2024 it's time for the RFL to accept that "saving historic Odsal" and dreaming of a resurgent Bulls just aren't a priority any more.

Love it! Bramley and Rydale-York were lineal World Champions. And well done Saints for breaking that Aussie dominance:)

What was the Batley-Cas attendance? These are the sort of ties there would be more of if the SL teams were put in a round earlier, so it would be interesting to see how much interest it generated.

Why would Fax lose money on the game? I get there wouldn't be many away fans but surely more locals than normal would turn out to see one of the top Superleague teams?

Agree wholeheartedly with your analysis, and if the experts tell us that this is good for growth then I'm all for it. It hasn't really resulted in me watching any more rugby league, two or three SL games a week is enough for me, usually the Thursday and Friday games. So it's nice to have the choice on a Friday and I have switched games a couple of times when the first choice became a bit of a procession. I'm planning to try and catch a bit more NRL this year in the mornings.

Agree. Perhaps, if COVID hadn't happened, there was some sort of plan that would have monetised a global rugby star to fix the holes in the TWP business model, but the price of that was a much worse team overall, and that rarely ends well. I look back on it all with a fond memory of idealistic dreams, like most things pre-2020!

Like most things Robert Elstone did, it made very little difference overall.

Overall it sounds like a massive scam to me ($1.5mn please guv, here's your "team", see ya) But if it is legit, and did get some traction, the unfortunate truth is that the English game would be pillaged for players in the early years and serious damage would be done.

On the plus side it's a short walk from a tube station and 5 minutes from the M1, so quite accessible for both London and Northern fans. The area itself isn't prime audience building territory, but staying anywhere for more than a couple of years and not putting out an awful team probably matters more. It wouldn't be the worst option if Hughes/anyone else wanted to put together a proper multi-year plan.