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Sad for the fans of a once great club.
http://www.loverugbyleague.com/news_...istration.html
Sad for the fans of a once great club.
Humans are more concerned with having than being.
I feel sure they'll make it through this, and I hope they do. Would love to get back to the fantastic days of our rivalry in the late 90s, early 00s.
They're still suffering fallout from the 'Icarus effect'
From what I've read the whole thing has been a sham since they got in trouble the first time. It seems they're just playing for time until someone with some real money and most importantly a willingness to spend it comes along.
For all the criticism of Saints at the moment, I suppose we should be thankful we're not Bradford. Our club just needs to be mindful that there are two routes to financial doom in sport, being over ambitious and lacking ambition. Almost all clubs have the same destination as Bradford, just some are on the other path.
Bratfud's problem (as with all sporting clubs, it seems) is that despite entering insolvency, they can't just restart with a clean debt slate in the way a company in the normal 'business world' would. IIRC the RFL insist on clubs retaining the debt as a condition of continuing in the league.
The insolvency laws in this country are horrendously lax and open to abuse, but in certain circumstances a company/organisation can only have a future if it sheds itself of the millstone of debt.
If I were Bratfud, I'd be tempted to go fully insolvent then restart from scratch in League 1. Given their support base & resources, promotion back to the Championship should be achievable first season, then they can look to rebuild to target SL entry. There could be an issue with regards to the RFL ownership of Odsal, but I don't know enough about that arrangement.
I hope the RFL are pleased. They might not like Koukash but they shouldn't have blocked his move to buy the club 'for his wife'. With investment they could have been back in super league by now pulling in 10000+ crowds every week.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
Maybe not on a consistent basis but take the 6000+ fans they pull in for bigger games in the championship, add in a couple of thousand away fans for games vs Saints, Wigan, Leeds, Wire etc and you'll get some good crowds.
If Salford had the same history, fan base and youth development that Bradford do, they'd be in a much better place. Koukash trying to buy Bradford was him realising he'd made a mistake with Salford. If he'd got Bradford do you think he'd have stuck with Salford?
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
Bradford as a rugby league club have historically always been boom and bust, they went from market leaders after world war 2 to crowds of 400 and bankruptcy in 1964. Their greatest asset Odsal as also been the achilies heel of the club it has seen a crowd of 104,000 and at the start of the summer era had a renaissance period following the years in the winter fog bowl.
However even since the summer era they never had a significant investor and that has now bitten them twice. Derek Beaumont made that point in a DB way at Odsal causing a bit of ill feeling between the Bulls and Leigh but he was actually right they are a bit of a basket case very similar to Wakey but with better fans. The Bulls drove down season tickets prices even in their latter Super League days to a point that they emulated the cost at Batley you cant run a pro club on those lines.
Last edited by Furlongs; 14th November 2016 at 21:25.
Of course not he'd have dropped Salford like the RL turd it is. He could have got Bradford back challenging again in SL and for all I used to hate going there I'm sure he would have got odslum rocking again like it used too when they had a bit of razzmatazz going on.
Real shame for Bradford , they just need someone with the cash and business know how to get them going again.
Got a soft spot for Bratfut as my mate from my time at UMIST was a fan. Hope they can sort it out and get back up. Should be a Super League stalwart.
I hated them.
Growing up in the 80's desperate to see us knock those piescum off their perch, when the 6-fingered lot went into a decline, I thought it was our moment to boss the sport. But them emerged Bratfud (and with their focus on big players grinding the opposition down). 'F*cking typical' I think were my thoughts at the time.
I know sport in general is like that, and I do realise that wi*an's dominance was a disaster for our game so wouldn't have wanted us to win everything to the exclusion of all other teams. But, even though Bratfud never beat us in a final, it's still annoying that we had such a strong rival at the time our star was at its brightest.
Assuming the compete next season it will be on the back of a large points deduction for going into administration again so they wont be back in the big league anytime soon I suspect.
As for the doctor he may have backed the wrong horse however I don't think a person should have an interest in two clubs its obviously a potential conflict of interest,
Never stopped the double glazers Everest Hethrington and wife! Leeds Hull Wakey before we even get to Sheffield and mergers! Better leave it there!