Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:43 am  

Seems like the deadline for the 500k has now miraculously been changed to 9th at 5pm.
Anyone else that pledged/donated last night feel conned?

Re: Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:49 am  

They're not getting a penny out of me. I think the whole sorry tale stinks.

Re: Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:51 am  

FGB wrote:

Seems like the deadline for the 500k has now miraculously been changed to 9th at 5pm.
Anyone else that pledged/donated last night feel conned?

Well it always seemed quite convenient to me that the deadline for this first 500k just happened to coincide with the Leeds game. So it doesn't really surprise me that they've moved the goalposts now that they haven't quite hit the target.

Re: Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:52 am  

Ouzo wrote:

They're not getting a penny out of me. I think the whole sorry tale stinks.

Agreed. They got my ticket money in fairness, but they get that every year.

Re: Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:46 am  

GCM1980 wrote:

Agreed. They got my ticket money in fairness, but they get that every year.

Ditto

Re: Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:32 pm  

While I do honestly wish the best for the bulls, they set a target to raise half of the money needed. They haven't even hit that.

The whole thing is down the financial mismanagement (waisting money on masses of fireworks and smoke at the tunnel etc..) of a now underachieving club. A huge lack of business acumen all-round (They now have no assets or collateral to encourage a buyer after giving the RFL Odslum to wipe out the debts with the RFL) and a massive risk (the season tickets) turning into a gigantic flop.

I would have been horrified to see stupid things like fireworks if my club were asking fans to donate and even local kids to hand over their pocket money. At least they didn't have the usual chav on a go kart!

A further question is raised if it comes to missing the target, does the raised money simply become part of Bradford Bulls or have they established a company to handle all the funds that have been raised to prevent donations going down with a sinking ship?

Would the Bulls be better entering into administration and then being purchased for £1 by someone who can pay off the debt and start fresh? Im sure that the recently graded 'Grade B licence' club (The RFL need to be able to pay rent for Odslum) won't be punished into the Championships anyway!

Just some thoughts. Perhaps Bradford should have been saving for a rainy day! Are they saving Bradford Bulls or are they saving the owners who put them into the mess?

Re: Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:23 pm  

It would seem that the PR skills of he Bull's board of directors are as bad as their finanacial management skills.

The whole episode has a fishy smell to it. I may have missed something but normally when a company has financial difficulties it looks to it's shareholder to stump up first. Did this happen?

If the shareholders were not prepared to inject more capital then it seems a bit of a cheek to ask the supporters to find 500K. Had some sort of shareholding been offered to those that made the full pledge then it could have raised more funds IMO.

Has money, that could have paid off the tax bills etc, been used to reduce the overdraft and so reduce the Directors personal guarantees? It is all as muddy as the Odsal pitch.

Re: Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:25 pm  

GCM1980 wrote:

Well it always seemed quite convenient to me that the deadline for this first 500k just happened to coincide with the Leeds game. So it doesn't really surprise me that they've moved the goalposts now that they haven't quite hit the target.

If they moved them last night, would Sinfield have got the extras??

Re: Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 2:02 pm  

This is probably my ignorance on the situation but, what happens if they raise the first 500k then fail to get up to the 1 million, will the people who contributed to the first half get their money returned or is it accounted for after the 9th?

Re: Bradford lying to fans again? : Sat Apr 07, 2012 2:49 pm  

Seth wrote:

This is probably my ignorance on the situation but, what happens if they raise the first 500k then fail to get up to the 1 million, will the people who contributed to the first half get their money returned or is it accounted for after the 9th?

I'd expect them to lose it.