Can Bradford Bulls be a real force again?

[Davo5]

4 minutes ago, EastLondonMike said:

Not being a Bradford fan or following their recent path outside SL, I don't really know too much about the woes around the ground, aside from it costing them previously to play there. So could someone enlighten me on why it would be such a money pit? what are the issues around upkeep?

I recall they had two good (ish) stands facing the pitch, with terracing at one end of the pitch, and the weird tiered stand at the other, but if they were to just use those two good stands which i my memory always used to hold the vast majority of support what do Bradford fans see being the real challenges with the stadium?

Something along the lines of a 4-5mil investment into the stadium doesn't seem like a huge amount to me, if they had that mythical rich investor turn up on his white horse.

It’s a decrepit hole in the ground,4-5 million wouldn’t scratch the surface.

It might allow them to have a pitch that complies with the rules of the game I suppose.

[17 stone giant]

I've never been to Odsal, but I went to Valley Parade a few years ago. I notice that it has a capacity of 25000. Is that not any good for the Bulls?

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, 17 stone giant said:

I've never been to Odsal, but I went to Valley Parade a few years ago. I notice that it has a capacity of 25000. Is that not any good for the Bulls?

No 

[17 stone giant]

Just now, GUBRATS said:

No 

Too big?

[Davo5]

Just now, 17 stone giant said:

Too big?

It’s pitch is shorter than Odsal’s postage stamp.

[GUBRATS]

Just now, 17 stone giant said:

Too big?

In capacity yes , in pitch size no ( but they get away with that at Odsal ) , plus they'd have to pay to play there , get no revenue from the sales at the stadium , and apparently their fans won't travel to that side of Bradford 

[northamptoncougar]

I drove up north the other month and had the misfortune to miss the 606 turning off the 62. 
 

Now I know there’s bad parts of almost everywhere but my lord what a toilet the main part of Bradford is that I had to go through and that’s doing a disservice to the place i spend 10 minutes every morning.

The amount of £2.50 car washes (laundering fronts for the less worldly) was amazing whilst the place was rank with decay and desperation. 
 

Moving onto the RL club (which I admittedly despise) they are shrouded in mystery, who actually owns them? How are they allowed to play on a kids pitch in a hole in the ground?

They’re obviously toxic and too dodgy to touch!!

[The Blues Ox]

5 minutes ago, northamptoncougar said:

I drove up north the other month and had the misfortune to miss the 606 turning off the 62. 
 

Now I know there’s bad parts of almost everywhere but my lord what a toilet the main part of Bradford is that I had to go through and that’s doing a disservice to the place i spend 10 minutes every morning.

The amount of £2.50 car washes (laundering fronts for the less worldly) was amazing whilst the place was rank with decay and desperation. 
 

Moving onto the RL club (which I admittedly despise) they are shrouded in mystery, who actually owns them? How are they allowed to play on a kids pitch in a hole in the ground?

They’re obviously toxic and too dodgy to touch!!

Sounds like you mistakenly drove through the posh part.

I heard whoever owns them or runs them has great experience of running a SL club so it won't be long before he works his magic on them.

[fieldofclothofgold]

A city the size of Bradford should be challenging in SL and due respect to Bradford City SFC it is a RL city ,but the club has gone bust twice in my living memory while clubs considered smaller than Bradford kept it king over .in 1964 they went bust through lack of support because of a very poor team and the more recent time the Harris issue which resulted in a vendetta with Leeds .they still have a reasonable support base so there is room for optimism  there . They have never owned Odsal 

[EastLondonMike]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

They have one ' stand ' , the rest is terracing , most of it crumbling and dangerous , and of course the curved hospitality ' thing ' 

It'd swallow 5 million without really noticing much improvement 

Have you ever visited Odsal Mike ?

I've never had the pleasure mate, only seen whats been on the TV.

I guess it would have to be a 'project' for a cashed up fan.

[Lowdesert]

8 hours ago, Scubby said:

I am old enough (just) to have been at Odsal on a pss wet Wednesday night in the 1991/92 season when Bradford were scrapping to stay up and there were about 3,000 there. I was also there just 7 years later on one of the most magical nights in SL - 24,020 for a game between the then Champions Bradford and Leeds. Now in just 6/7 years it really shows what can happen if your momentum is going in the right place. No one could have convinced me (soaked to the skin that Wednesday night) that something like that could ever happen at that club.

Other Bulls fans will know better than me but I don't think this was done with a large benefactor. It was just a swirl of momentum timed perfectly around the switch to a summer season (and some great back office recruitment). So it really does beg the question of whether the Bulls can be a real force again in 5-10 years with a bit of luck and direction? Or was that meteoric rise and golden decade just happenstance and a complete one-off?

 

 An Bradford be a force?  Not at the top level imo. Needs too much changing all round.

[Fevrover]

38 minutes ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

A city the size of Bradford should be challenging in SL and due respect to Bradford City SFC it is a RL city ,but the club has gone bust twice in my living memory while clubs considered smaller than Bradford kept it king over .in 1964 they went bust through lack of support because of a very poor team and the more recent time the Harris issue which resulted in a vendetta with Leeds .they still have a reasonable support base so there is room for optimism  there . They have never owned Odsal 

RL City? Why do the football club get more supporters then ?

[Niels]

59 minutes ago, northamptoncougar said:

I drove up north the other month and had the misfortune to miss the 606 turning off the 62. 
 

Now I know there’s bad parts of almost everywhere but my lord what a toilet the main part of Bradford is that I had to go through and that’s doing a disservice to the place i spend 10 minutes every morning.

The amount of £2.50 car washes (laundering fronts for the less worldly) was amazing whilst the place was rank with decay and desperation. 
 

Moving onto the RL club (which I admittedly despise) they are shrouded in mystery, who actually owns them? How are they allowed to play on a kids pitch in a hole in the ground?

They’re obviously toxic and too dodgy to touch!!

The elephant in the room is the population Demographic. Logistically there is a large Asian population that mostly don't attend rugby matches.

This population is 26% and growing so to gain maximum attendance from the city, the team would have to attract fans from the community. 

 

 

 

 

 

[fieldofclothofgold]

13 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

RL City? Why do the football club get more supporters then ?

I dont think it's a case of more supporters . Leeds for instance up until the Revie era was a RL city with 3 clubs even though the football club averaged more support that was because West riding was a RL area ( northern union) , but this is a debate for another thread . Bradford Northern Bulls even though they have had crashes throughout their history theyve also had periods of success . Odsal is totally inadequate  it's now awful, but Bradford have never owned it therefore they couldn't sell it and move to a more suitable site . I believe the RFL are leaseholders, I dont know what they can do with it as Leaseholders, but are they just going to leave it like that 

[fieldofclothofgold]

15 minutes ago, Niels said:

The elephant in the room is the population Demographic. Logistically there is a large Asian population that mostly don't attend rugby matches.

This population is 26% and growing so to gain maximum attendance from the city, the team would have to attract fans from the community. 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe Leicester has a large Asian population, but theyve got a relatively successful football team with quite a wealthy owner 

[yipyee]

On the ground, can they close off half of it and leave it to a later date and just maintain half of it, ie the hospitality and the seated stand.

Once selling these out the funds made can go to rebuild the other 2 sides?

Could they issue bonds like Exeter and build a hotel and conference facilities? Didnt a supermarket want to team up?

Lots of potential options

[daz39]

Depends if they don't pay their bills and use money they haven't got again!.

[fieldofclothofgold]

22 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

It’s not an RL city - nowhere is - but there’s still a lot of interest in the game and despite everything, quite a bit of casual interest if the occasion merits it. 

Not now ,but years ago traditionally 

[OriginalMrC]

3 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

Why does their fan base deserve it ?

Because they are sizeable, passionate and have stuck with the team through thick and thin. Many have put their hands in their own pockets to try to keep the club going. It's not their fault they've had a succession of dodgy owners who've not been transparent about what's really going on. 

[GUBRATS]

1 hour ago, Johnoco said:

Interesting how you seem to know so much about Bradford despite living in a village in Lancashire.

My opinions on Odsal are from visiting and the ongoing costs of maintaining a stadium like Hilton Park 20 years ago 

My opinion on other Bradford ' issues ' including those involving Bradford City FC are mostly due to opinions expressed on here and other RL MBs by Bradford fans 

Feel free to educate me more if you wish 

[GUBRATS]

14 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

Because they are sizeable, passionate and have stuck with the team through thick and thin. Many have put their hands in their own pockets to try to keep the club going. It's not their fault they've had a succession of dodgy owners who've not been transparent about what's really going on. 

They were sizeable when the club was spending money that was supposed to maintain and develop Odsal on a top class influx of overseas players , and tickets were either free or unsustainably cheap , resulting in them winning trophy's , once that ended so did the sizeable fan base 

Yes they've had both dodgy and out of their depth owners since , it in truth without a new suitable stadium facility in Bradford I don't see how they can turn things round , I feel for them , an LSV type stadium even if it wasn't actually theirs could see them build again 

[Niels]

1 hour ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

I believe Leicester has a large Asian population, but theyve got a relatively successful football team with quite a wealthy owner 

That was exactly the example I was thinking of where this has been successful. 

 

 

[GUBRATS]

4 minutes ago, Niels said:

That was exactly the example I was thinking of where this has been successful. 

 

 

Football 

[GUBRATS]

23 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

The fan base is still as big as several SL teams, including your own. And this is after everything.

Being as big as Leigh isn't ' sizeable ' 

[TrueBull]

11 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:

Because they are sizeable, passionate and have stuck with the team through thick and thin. Many have put their hands in their own pockets to try to keep the club going. It's not their fault they've had a succession of dodgy owners who've not been transparent about what's really going on. 

3,500 seems to be the hardcore "base". About 3k stopped coming to games when we dropped from SL to Championship. And we've lost about 1k per admin event over the last 7years. The last group of potential fans need to be able to trust the board before/if they return. The other group may just need SL standard games to return. Or they could be lost to professional RL for good. I know a fair few switched to watching amateur RL. A lot found other things to do on a Sunday afternoon. 

But, the potential is still there. Needs a period of stability.