I don't think it's a coincidence that the RFL have bought the stadium with the biggest capacity, and i'd say by far the most amount of land and room for expansion of any club.



I'm quite optimistic about this, as an earlier poster said earlier, RL needs a home. Odsal fits the bill for me.



And if next years MM is in Bradford-good! Let's start making some money for our game rather than paying everyone else to use their facilities.

Exactly what I have been saying for years, a national home for RL, if it brought in a fraction of the amount Twickers does or a similar amount to Murrayfield would pour millions into the game every year.



Whether Odsal fits that bill I don't know but it will be interesting to see how things pan out.

The stadium meets the current criteria [inow[/i. This move seemingly means that the Bulls can relax knowing that it will always meet the criteria in future without them having to spend a penny on it. That's not a unique situation in itself, but the fact that it's the RFL who have enabled it is.

Were those stadia offered to the RFL on an attractive buy & lease back deal?



What you suggested for Saints, CAs and Oldham were all very different propositions.

Bill it would be years if not decades before Odsall was in a position to generate any money back into the sport, this would most definatly be long term planning, in fact initially it would be doing the opposite, using money to develop that would be used elswhere in the sport, unless Nigel has found 30 million down the back of a Red Hall sofa?

Paves the way for a london stadium.

I think a lot of people are reading this as "The RFL are buying Bradford Bulls a brand new stadium"



They're not.



I know that it's traditional to grab the wrong end of the stick and start beating around the bush with it but seriously folks, read the press release, check the facts, then comment.



The way the press release reads the Bulls were about to have their stadium sold from under them The RFL have stepped in, bought the ground and are RENTING it back to Bradford. It also states the RFL have no plans for redevelopment of the stadium.



However, if Odsal was to be redeveloped as the home of RL then I'd hope they'd go with the new stadium plan from the OSV which involved filling the bowl in to a level with the concourse where the bars and food stalls are and then building a stadium up from that base rather than attempt to redevelop the stadium in it's current state.

Seems to make complete sense to me. The RFL own a large venue that, while not perfect, is up to the standards required, and a club has it's home secured. Why would they have splashed out on Belle Vue which is not up to it, hence the plans to move. Everyone wants to see a conspiracy where there isn't one. I didn't even know they owned other stadia until today.



I really can't get involved with all this 'Lewis and Wood out' nonsense. The reason Wakefield are in the hole they are is bad management for decades and some supporters who were willing to be complicit in it by toadying up to that management. Not the RFL's fault.

Maybe they will sell Red Hall, move the offices to Odsal and save money that way?

If Bradford were paying the council rent before, and now they're paying the RFL, does this not mean the RFL are already making money out of it?

Maybe thats what you need to ask yourself. Why have these things happened?

You assume that the RFL have stepped in to 'save' Bradford. I think that is the exact opposite of what has happened, and it is also the reason why other clubs (not all, remember this isnt the first or only time) may not have been in the position to do so the same thing.



Would it not be more likely that there have been (as mentioned in the release) that Odsal was subject to 'predatory approaches' and that left the club in a position where the Stadium could be sold out from underneath them, turned in to a supermarket and Bradford were homeless. So they approached the RFL and showed them a solid business plan where they could continue to grow and exist whilst paying a market value in rent for Odsal but simply couldnt afford the capital outlay required to buy the stadium, the RFL looking for somewhere to invest buys that property and rents it out for a few years when either Bradford buy the stadium off them, or find an alternative venue and the RFL makes a profit on the capital outlay and on the rent which they recoup from Bradford.



That is a massively different situation to giving Saints a million quid, paying over the odds for Cas's stadium (which we know they would need to do as if the market value of the Jungle was enough to allow them to build a new stadium then they would have already sold it) or building Oldham a stadium, or the position Wakefield were in.

This is the RFL showing ambition and people are assuming they have stepped in to 'save' Bradford.