Hopebull wrote:
It says AC is 'Selling' his shares to the new consortium. Surely they can't be worth the paper they're printed on. What assets are there to sell apart from the brand and that's been completely tarnished. The club don't own anything apart from full time contracts that they can't afford to pay as far as I can see. As has been previously said, nobody is going to pay any money to take on somebody else's debt. Nobody was remotely interested last time until they knew they wouldn't have to pay the previous regimes debt after liquidation. Then, it seems, the RFL had to approach AC to take over.
There's the old saying that the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Every single new owner since the first Admin has done exactly the same as the previous one and the results have been the same. The only difference this time is no Odsal millstone but, ....
Excellent points Hopebull. We can help answer some of the open questions you pose, and seek to clarify a couple of aspects of your post which through no fault of your own we believe are inaccurate.
As far as we understand the club's present debts are huge, but have in all likelihood not been properly determined. It would be no surprise if winding up petitions for the club (which is still Bradford Bulls 2017 Limited) are being threatened or set into motion. Nobody would (or should) be crazy enough to directly, or even indirectly, take on a debt mountain unless they first knew how high the mountain was, or had a very good idea of how much money was owed.
You are in fact not correct in saying 'nobody was remotely interested' in taking the club over after Green's Bulls collapsed - very much the opposite. The administrator received (and recommended to the RFL) a credible and sustainable bid for the Bulls which would likely have paid most (if not all) of the club's debts and outstanding player/ staff wages at the time. It's just that the RFL rejected such an offer, because it would appear to have been more convenient to 'appoint' AC, for reasons explored elsewhere.
Re 'liquidation - whilst the press and even the BBC reported that it did, the club never went into 'liquidation' in early Jan 2017. It's all a bit convoluted, but the liquidation announcement on 3 Jan 2017 was (another) Bulls/RFL inaccurate statement which may well have been a convenient error at the time.
Reference to the Odsal 'milestone' is we believe a myth that is conveniently being portrayed time and time again. Maintenance costs are high yes, but that's principally the RFL's responsibility. Looking at the bigger picture the stadium, and its land footprint and strategic location, always has had (and still has) enormous potential and is a prized asset, that in the ideal world could also serve as a community asset.
As for the definition of madness, sadly it's likely having been a Bulls fan over the past 7-8 years or so.
We believe the truth re what's happened in relation to the Bulls over the past 7-8 years cannot be hidden for ever, and the facts will out. Keep watching this space.
Good related points re some of the above also made in recent posts by Scary and Pickles.
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