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Agent Harris has done a great job for us!

I fail to see any link at all between Bradford's plight and franchising. If anything, with the struggles they've had on the field the temptation to overspend would be even greater if relegation threatened.

TJ Hughes and now Thomas Cook closing down. The building site in the centre, and now the Bulls under threat. Difficult times for Bradford and its working people.
Leeds's record SL crowd at home was not that long ago against the Bulls, and the same for them at Odsal. Leeds needs a strong Bulls and vice-versa for some proper local rivalry and the income it generates. The two cities as we know are practically connected, and its a shame the intensity has drifted away in matches.

I hope Bradford can rebuild from this.

If enough good folk of Bradford wanted the club to survive at this level they'd have bought their season tickets at full price. It appears not enough of them did though and the whole 'two for a fiver' type scheme had 'bankrupt within two years' written all over it. Sad but fairly inevitable without a financial backer prepared to write a covering cheque I'd have thought.

I noted the other Monday when they played Castleford they still had a pre-match budget to spend and had obtained the services of the Beatles no less. That surprised me a little.

With filed accounts stating a Turnover of £4.6mil in 2010 droppong to £3.9m in 2011, with the same overheads it took no brain specialist to guess what was going to give. The RFL really looked into the accounts when issuing licences out didn't they?

The £500k pledged has been and gone. YOU were told it was a bottomless pit you your pledging to and still did it. Where's the return and loyalty from the Bulls now, its gone on players wages for the last 2.5 months. You were fools to pledge, it was better to buy shares in a Newco, Well at least the Boss of Thomas Cook will be happy sitting on his £15mil wages over the last 4 years while 500 staff are made redundant

Based on experience, the only winners here will be the administrators. What little can be raised from a sale of assets will end up in their pockets rather than with the creditors. It's time sporting bodies took stronger sanctions against clubs who are so recklessly mismanaged. In the same way that Rangers newco shouldn't be voted back into the SPL, the SL clubs need to put sending a message above self interest.

It's not an understatement to say the time is up for the bulls.the clubs management should be more truthful with the fans. Hm revenue are quicker off the mark as I believe they are no longer first in the creditors line. Also allegedly there has been some creative accounting with vat.feel sorry for the fans but the quicker they fold the better it is all round ,apart from the usual poor sods who are owed money by the club. The fun and games will start when they reform,will they go back in the super league,what name will they have. I suspect they will be treated well by the rugby league.after all they need a tennant for odsal.

G1 wrote:

Does Keith believe that promotion and, more importantly, relegation would ease the financial issues facing most Rugby league clubs these days?

I'm not uure. I thinkhis point was that the Bulls shouldn't have got a franchise given their financial predicament and for that reason the RFL had failed in its franchising, rather than franchising had led to the demise of the bulls.

My belief is that most clubs would have problems if there had been a robust review of clubs's finances. You will probably find that business plans for all clubs were optimistic and that whilst not guaranteeing the debts of clubs they would all have said that the owners along with their bankers were in a position to support the clubs balance sheet. In reality that support will have meant little. Suggestions that the club had a dubious interpretation of tax matters, which I am guessing is this additional £1m black hole, would have made it more difficult fot the RFL to carry out it's financial checks.

I just found Keith's comment about franchising a cheap shot without knowing what information the RFL had based it's decision on. He has his views on franchising, my view is that whilst IMO it probably has flawed scoring (everyone will have different ideas on scoring criteria) there is a need to put something in place. The SL can survive with full time clubs but the championship cannot and there is a need to creaste an environment where clubs can plan whist knowing what areas of their business are important to concentrate on for the benefit of RL as a whole.

The comments given when grade B was awarded doesn't sound very good to me..

Bradford Bulls provided a solid submission detailing a strategy, tactical plan and targets to achieve improved commercial and financial performance. The club has a solid fan base, a strong brand and good operating structure/governance in place. However the club faces some challenges . These include the local economic environment, poor recent on-field performance and an ageing facility.

Im hoping this isnt a sign of things to come for other fans..there's comments on other forums stating its been leaked another SL club is going the same way..

I know people think we shouldnt have all pledges however.. when its your club on the line, its difficult not to.

Sadly I fear Bradford is just the tip of the iceberg.

Perhaps the RL can negotiate their own 3 billion from Sky.