Bradford Enter Administration

[Mike]

I'm no expert, but basically the franchises all revenue share. So strong teams in the competition effectively subsidise the weak ones. This allows the week ones to have success and therefore become stonger in a financial sense. They take this to extremes with the draft which favours poor playing teams. Everything is done for the competition and not for individual clubs. If a franchise is not pulling its weight revenue wise it gets moved to a new city with a change of owners usually.

To put this system in place would require a huge change of mindset for the people running the clubs - they'd need to put the health of the competition above the position of their own club. Its not likely to happen.

IMO if you are going to have franchising then you have to have revenue sharing otherwise it doesn't work. We have probably the worst of both situations - no promtion, but also little financial support. It can work I suppose, but it seems pointless to me.

[josie andrews]

Super League ready to buy the Bulls

Super League is trying to rescue the Bradford Bulls by buying the club on behalf of the 13 other clubs in the competition.

One of the summer rugby era's most successful clubs have been under threat of closure since entering administration five weeks ago and are in imminent threat of liquidation.

But now the game's administrators have come up with an innovative plan to save the club. The Rugby League's chief executive, Nigel Wood, said: "Positive, direct action is required to safeguard the future of the Bradford Bulls. It is to the credit of the Super League clubs that they have given their unanimous support to this move and are not prepared to sit idly by and allow the Bulls to disappear."

Brendan Guilfoyle, the joint administrator who has been running the club since 26 June, welcomed the initiative. Guilfoyle described it as "totally unexpected, completely unprecedented, but a brilliant development".

If that suggests an apparent willingness to accept the bid, then the details still remain to be ironed out.

The takeover would produce the strange situation of clubs facing Bradford owning their opponents.

Ideally, Super League would like to be only temporary stewards of the Bulls' future, before handing it on to a new regime capable of running it.

Backroom and coaching staff have not been paid since they were made redundant by the administrator last month, but fans have contributed more than £5,000 to a hardship fund to help them out.

The Bulls play Widnes on Sunday at Odsal, a stadium already owned by the RFL, which bought it in January. But running the whole show is something different again.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 02193.html

This must have been the outcome of the meeting held the other day including all SL clubs bar Bradford

[BriH]

Forgive me for appearing to be stupid, but how can Nigel Wood be CEO with the RFL and CEO with Super League Europe (Ltd)?
Isn't there a conflict of interests?
How can he evaluate bids from a Consortium without being biased if he is also batting for Super League etc.?
The more I see of this sorry mess the more depressed I get about the future of this great game of ours.

[Mike]

The CEO issue is definitely not right. Separate organisations need separate CEOs.

Although if the shareholders/owners don't care then its OK.

[ancientnloyal]

Could we be starting to see the beginning of central contracts and/or an NFL-style setup? I hope not.

[platt-warrior]

Could we be starting to see the beginning of central contracts and/or an NFL-style setup? I hope not.

I agree A\L

[i'm spartacus]

I bet this new bid gets a guarantee that the bulls will stay in SL and that they get to own the ground.

Wonder what the problem was with the other offer?? It may have been that they did have plans for the Odsal that weren't in RL's best interest.

Like everyone i've discussed this with, I was under the illusion that the RFL had bought the ground. Apparently this is not the case at all; the RFL bought the lease to the ground and not the actual ground itself. This means that there is an actual freeholder somewhere whoever it may be. I don't know what the terms of the lease are, or if there are any covenants in it relating to its usage. Generally though, a lease of this type sets out conditions that must exist in order for the lease to continue. If those conditions do not exist, the lease comes to an end, and the land returns to the freeholder.

I think you probably hit the nail on the head. Most likely the consortium had knowledge of the freeholder and seeing that the consortium had 'property developers' amongst its numbers, it most likely had plans that didn't include Bradford Bulls

Forgive me for appearing to be stupid, but how can Nigel Wood be CEO with the RFL and CEO with Super League Europe (Ltd)?
Isn't there a conflict of interests?
How can he evaluate bids from a Consortium without being biased if he is also batting for Super League etc.?
The more I see of this sorry mess the more depressed I get about the future of this great game of ours.

Totally agree with those comments which takes me back to an earlier comment I posted on the subject

what about any solvent clubs in the championship who want entry into the big league. The RFL as the governing body are not immune from being brought before the courts if they fail to properly consider other clubs under their jurisdiction, or act in a manner which is unfair. I have no idea what their own rules say about this situation, but I can be fairly certain that they would be exposed if they bend or adapt any rules to benefit one particular club over another; if it transpires that a disadvantaged party chooses to make an issue of it.

The RFL administer the whole of RL, not just the SL. If it's your job to do that, you have to be unbiased and be seen to be unbiased. For my tuppence worth, the whole thing smacks of unfairness; not so much for the SL clubs, but for the lower league clubs who are not afforded the same level of support, and are denied access to the means of improving their lot.

Let's suppose you are the chairman of Halifax for instance, and the SL decide that the competition will retain the same number of teams for 2013. The decision as to whether to keep Bradford in the SL will be down to the RFL who have a vested interest in SL and Bradford, and let's suppose the RFL decide to keep Bradford in.

If you was the chairman at Fax, you would be thinking that the situation was totally biased and unfair and you would be considering a day in court.

[Nezza Faz]

Unless I'm mistaken, Spartacus, it's not the RFL or SL, who will decide Bradford's situation, it will actually be all the Clubs themselves who will vote on Bradford's immediate future.

[i'm spartacus]

Unless I'm mistaken, Spartacus, it's not the RFL or SL, who will decide Bradford's situation, it will actually be all the Clubs themselves who will vote on Bradford's immediate future.

The clubs only have input into the situation, not the say of whether it happens or not

From Friday

The RFL chief confirmed any decision on whether Bulls could remain in the top flight would be made by the governing body’s board and the club’s position would be “weakened” if debts remained unpaid. It is understood the cash would be “morally” owed rather than legally.

He said: “To have been in £1 million of debt and expect to continue in the competition in the next year without difficulty is a problem for a lot of clubs.”

In the meeting with fans’ groups, Mr Solly said he could not guarantee the Bulls would remain in Super League for 2013 and revealed that, if the latest bid is accepted, Bulls players would be free to speak to other clubs to secure their futures for next season.

A statement from BullBuilder said: “In a constructive meeting, we established that SLE look on this as a short-term measure and are confident of attracting a long-term, unconditional bid in the near future.

“Solly could give no guarantees about the division in which the club will play next season. He commented that the debt of the club remains a concern and is estimated to be approximately £1.5m.

“However, he assured BullBuilder that the club would continue to play at Odsal for the foreseeable future.”

[BriH]

Unless I'm mistaken, Spartacus, it's not the RFL or SL, who will decide Bradford's situation, it will actually be all the Clubs themselves who will vote on Bradford's immediate future.

The clubs only have input into the situation, not the say of whether it happens or not

From Friday

The RFL chief confirmed any decision on whether Bulls could remain in the top flight would be made by the governing body’s board and the club’s position would be “weakened” if debts remained unpaid. It is understood the cash would be “morally” owed rather than legally.

He said: “To have been in £1 million of debt and expect to continue in the competition in the next year without difficulty is a problem for a lot of clubs.”

In the meeting with fans’ groups, Mr Solly said he could not guarantee the Bulls would remain in Super League for 2013 and revealed that, if the latest bid is accepted, Bulls players would be free to speak to other clubs to secure their futures for next season.

A statement from BullBuilder said: “In a constructive meeting, we established that SLE look on this as a short-term measure and are confident of attracting a long-term, unconditional bid in the near future.

“Solly could give no guarantees about the division in which the club will play next season. He commented that the debt of the club remains a concern and is estimated to be approximately £1.5m.

“However, he assured BullBuilder that the club would continue to play at Odsal for the foreseeable future.”

Two great posts Spartacus.

I knew it was the Lease that the RFL had bought. Raises interesting points: who owns the Freehold and what is the duration of the Leasehold? Sometimes 99 years or, in exceptional cases longer.
As usual, all murky.