RFL Chief Operating Officer Ralph Rimmer admits that the process of analysing bids from four consortia to create a new Bradford Bulls club was a difficult one, but he is confident that the RFL has made the right decision in deciding to award membership of the RFL headed by former NZRL Chairman Andrew Chalmers, who has been a director of Salford Red Devils since 2013, and former New Zealand coach Graham Lowe.
Chalmers was heading to England from Australia over the weekend, and both he and Lowe are expected to re-locate to the United Kingdom to manage the club and take it forward.
League Express understands that no decision has yet been made on who will coach the club and which players it will recruit. The squad is likely to be a mixture of full-time and part-time players for the 2017 season, with a budget thought to be around £400,000.
Rimmer insists that the club has done its due diligence on the new owners and that reports of some business problems in the past were not of Chalmers’ making.
“It’s been a difficult process but we think we have found a compelling consortium that will produce an exciting future for Rugby League in Bradford,” Rimmer told League Express.
“We have confidence in the consortium members after they went through a rigorous process. They bring a wealth of Rugby League experience from which the club will undoubtedly benefit.
“We hope that Rugby League fans in the city will now get behind them. “One fan told me he’d not been to an away game for ten years but he will be going to Hull KR for the opening game of the season because he is just so pleased that the club is coming back from the brink.
“We’re confident the club will be able to field a team for the opening game of the season and we are confident that they will put a building process in place.
“I appreciate how tough it has been for everyone, including those who wanted to have the club but were unsuccessful. But the people of Bradford now have some positive things to look forward to.”
The new club will begin the 2017 season in the Kingstone Press Championship on minus 12 points.
