Odsal is No Way Fit Enough to Stage SL!!

[The Daddy]

I can't believe more hasn't been made of the state of Odsal in this so called 'selection process' for SL. 

SL is the shop window of our sport and the product both at the stadium and tv viewer experience should be first class. My perception of the sport through watching it through an Odsal lens is not good, I get flashbacks of Bradford Northern during winter rugby, mud and dirt tracks.

London, York and Toulouse on the other hand have top class stadiums perfect for SL and exactly the image we want the casual viewer to see. 

I hope the right decision is made for the sake of the sport. 

[Hopie]

How are you objectively measuring this perception? "I don't like the ground" is not a reason to block a club from entry to the top division. 

[M j M]

27 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

I can't believe more hasn't been made of the state of Odsal in this so called 'selection process' for SL. 

SL is the shop window of our sport and the product both at the stadium and tv viewer experience should be first class. My perception of the sport through watching it through an Odsal lens is not good, I get flashbacks of Bradford Northern during winter rugby, mud and dirt tracks.

London, York and Toulouse on the other hand have top class stadiums perfect for SL and exactly the image we want the casual viewer to see. 

I hope the right decision is made for the sake of the sport. 

Does 10k at Odsal look worse on tv than 3k at Huddersfield? Is this "my perception" criteria a metric in the IMG spreadsheet?

[Bulls2487]

31 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

I can't believe more hasn't been made of the state of Odsal in this so called 'selection process' for SL. 

SL is the shop window of our sport and the product both at the stadium and tv viewer experience should be first class. My perception of the sport through watching it through an Odsal lens is not good, I get flashbacks of Bradford Northern during winter rugby, mud and dirt tracks.

London, York and Toulouse on the other hand have top class stadiums perfect for SL and exactly the image we want the casual viewer to see. 

I hope the right decision is made for the sake of the sport. 

Why should London be selected because they have a decent Stadium? They just finished 10th and don't get fans through the gates. But lets put them in SL because the Stadium is perfect for it?

[SUPERSTUD]

I have no personal affinity to any of the clubs mentioned. However Odsal is a truly awful embarrassing venue. It is absolute garbage.

[Coggo]

37 minutes ago, M j M said:

Does 10k at Odsal look worse on tv than 3k at Huddersfield? Is this "my perception" criteria a metric in the IMG spreadsheet?

Yep, Huddersfield are a total embarrassment. Give us Bradford any day. 

[Magicman]

Problem is the img gradings seem to focus on other things , gantries, electronic scoreboards etc when other things like spectator comfort  toilet facilities, pitch dimensions, etc aren't a priority which i find strange.

[The Daddy]

2 hours ago, Bulls2487 said:

Why should London be selected because they have a decent Stadium? They just finished 10th and don't get fans through the gates. But lets put them in SL because the Stadium is perfect for it?

I'm not in favour of the way this process is being done but London is an essential market for RL to prosper and must be in the competition irrespective of the format and means of entry. 

Especially now we have the stadium and backing at ownership level. 

Edited September 24 by The Daddy

[Pulga]

1 hour ago, Hopie said:

How are you objectively measuring this perception? "I don't like the ground" is not a reason to block a club from entry to the top division. 

As an Aussie that only sees it through photos and video, to me it looks like a former Soviet national stadium that has fallen into disrepair.

To think that top flight rugby league could be played there is a joke.

How does PNG have a better stadium?

 

[Hopie]

4 minutes ago, Pulga said:

As an Aussie that only sees it through photos and video, to me it looks like a former Soviet national stadium that has fallen into disrepair.

To think that top flight rugby league could be played there is a joke.

How does PNG have a better stadium?

 

"Looks a bit Soviet to me"

[17 stone giant]

7 minutes ago, Pulga said:

As an Aussie that only sees it through photos and video, to me it looks like a former Soviet national stadium that has fallen into disrepair.

Such criticism will not be tolerated. It's off to the Gulag for you, comrade. Would you prefer Siberia or Salford?

[Shaggy]

27 minutes ago, Pulga said:

As an Aussie that only sees it through photos and video, to me it looks like a former Soviet national stadium that has fallen into disrepair.

To think that top flight rugby league could be played there is a joke.

How does PNG have a better stadium?

 

China?

[The Duke]

If stadiums are held in such high regard why wouldn’t Donny be in with a shout 

Or Widnes for that 

 

I think London will be in but we all need to accept they shouldn’t be based on any performance basis 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I would love to see Odsal done up and I shouldn't think it would be too difficult. Put a new bank of seating up to and round the front of the executive boxes to complete the oval. Add some more seats, maybe leave the ends standing, and stick a roof on it. I know its easy to say do it up but where are the funds coming from? 

Bradford should be in SL over other clubs. Bradford are a big club with some rich history in recent times as well. It has been such a shame to see them stuck in Championship for so long and they need to be back in SL, especially over London.

As others have said, 10,000 fans at a historical ground like Odsal will be far more appealing than maybe 2,000 at most, at a characterless, atmospherically dead modern ground in London.

Edited September 25 by The Hallucinating Goose

[hindle xiii]

Here we go again.

[gingerjon]

10 hours ago, M j M said:

Does 10k at Odsal look worse on tv than 3k at Huddersfield? Is this "my perception" criteria a metric in the IMG spreadsheet?

Perception is not an IMG metric. The RFL/IMG grading was always a bit more definite than that.

Vibes and vague ideas in a business plan is all part of the process for clubs 13 and 14, though. The future is whatever feels right.

[Vyvyan]

Great to see a thread about Odsal, can't believe this hasn't been discussed before.

[Ainley Top]

As i've said before, the state of Odsal is a smokescreen. There are numerous other reasons why Bradford shouldn't be in SL. 

Edited September 25 by Ainley Top

[Expatknight]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I would love to see Odsal done up and I shouldn't think it would be too difficult. Put a new bank of seating up to and round the front of the executive boxes to complete the oval. Add some more seats, maybe leave the ends standing, and stick a roof on it. I know its easy to say do it up but where are the funds coming from? 

Bradford should be in SL over other clubs. Bradford are a big club with some rich history in recent times as well. It has been such a shame to see them stuck in Championship for so long and they need to be back in SL, especially over London.

As others have said, 10,000 fans at a historical ground like Odsal will be far more appealing than maybe 2,000 at most, at a characterless, atmospherically dead modern ground in London.

It was a dump 20 years ago, there isn’t a rugby league club in the country who could afford to ‘do up’ Odsal, let alone Bradford Bulls, the cost would be horrendous, as for your other comments the Bradford Bulls you see now don’t bear any relation to Bradford Northern who went bust, Bradford Bulls ( Super league era) who went bust, apart from the name Bradford and the fact they play at the run down hole in the ground known as Odsal. If they are so good a club why aren’t they league champions or even runners up, So tell me why they deserve to be in Super league over ant of the other clubs that have applied?

[cookey]

Its delusional to think that Bradford will get crowds of 10,000. 

They might, for an opening game against Leeds. However, once they are being regularly beaten by 30 points, they will be lucky to get crowds of 5,000, which will look absolutely shambolic on tv. 

No significant money has been spent on Odsal for at least 70 yrs. After their dreadful financial history / mis management, they should be absolutely no where near SL. After the first half dozen games, Clubs like Saints and Warrington will be lucky if 500 Bradford fans turn up on  a friday night. 

I predict another financial disaster at Bradford. There is little or no chance of Nigel spending any of the money he has made out of the game at Odsal. 

[lucky 7]

19 minutes ago, Expatknight said:

It was a dump 20 years ago, there isn’t a rugby league club in the country who could afford to ‘do up’ Odsal, let alone Bradford Bulls, the cost would be horrendous, as for your other comments the Bradford Bulls you see now don’t bear any relation to Bradford Northern who went bust, Bradford Bulls ( Super league era) who went bust, apart from the name Bradford and the fact they play at the run down hole in the ground known as Odsal. If they are so good a club why aren’t they league champions or even runners up, So tell me why they deserve to be in Super league over ant of the other clubs that have applied?

Hence why Super League games shouldn't be played at Odsal

[M j M]

2 minutes ago, cookey said:

No significant money has been spent on Odsal for at least 70 yrs. 

There's no denying Odsal is a mess and wouldn't meet lots of people's expectations for a modern stadium. 

However... to be factual all sides of the stadium gained their current incarnations in the past four decades, be it the work done for the 1985 World Speedway Championship or the later developments funded by the Bulls.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

29 minutes ago, Expatknight said:

It was a dump 20 years ago, there isn’t a rugby league club in the country who could afford to ‘do up’ Odsal, let alone Bradford Bulls, the cost would be horrendous, as for your other comments the Bradford Bulls you see now don’t bear any relation to Bradford Northern who went bust, Bradford Bulls ( Super league era) who went bust, apart from the name Bradford and the fact they play at the run down hole in the ground known as Odsal. If they are so good a club why aren’t they league champions or even runners up, So tell me why they deserve to be in Super league over ant of the other clubs that have applied?

My two personal choices for admittance to SL are York and Toulouse but whatever. 

Why is success the only measure of a good club? There are quite a number of clubs with fantastic facilities, stadium and training wise, strong academies, huge fan bases that are based in large cities/towns but haven't won anything for a while or certainly don't win much often. I suppose we better kick Warrington or Hull out of SL? 

We talk about Odsal being a dump, and it is, but there are quite a number of other below par stadiums in the Championship, whether that be aging structures, lack of facilities or simply just being too small. Odsal always gets singled out in this respect. 

I will point out as well that Bradford got the highest average attendance in the league this year and London had the lowest. Yeah Bradford might not take too many fans to away games but how many are London gonna take? Maybe just a couple of family members of a couple of players... London play in a modern stadium but it is still very empty every week and isn't gonna be filled much more in SL. Let's admit a club to SL that will have by far the lowest average attendance and will look just as empty as Odsal just cos their stadium is alright!

[The Hallucinating Goose]

10 hours ago, Pulga said:

As an Aussie that only sees it through photos and video, to me it looks like a former Soviet national stadium that has fallen into disrepair.

To think that top flight rugby league could be played there is a joke.

How does PNG have a better stadium?

 

Because its a national stadium that was done up for the Pacific Games?

[The Art of Hand and Foot]

It's not just the 'stadium' its the pitch. Get rid of the stock car track and widen the pitch and have permanent corners. Then it'll be up to championship standard. Still not superleague.