Re: Fans Forum : Thu Jul 16, 2015 3:00 pm
Nothus wrote:
What would happen if Marc bought the freehold, as he has stated his intentions to do before now. Would that override any agreement regarding Odsal's use for sport etc?
Generally speaking, are there still supporters out there who are hell bent on the club never leaving Odsal? All I see it as now, and have done for years, is a lead weight around the club just preventing it from ever making any progress, both in a financial and sporting manner.
I would have absolutely no problem ground sharing with BPA, over the road from Odsal or wherever. They have plenty of money now since the recent takeover.
Generally speaking, are there still supporters out there who are hell bent on the club never leaving Odsal? All I see it as now, and have done for years, is a lead weight around the club just preventing it from ever making any progress, both in a financial and sporting manner.
I would have absolutely no problem ground sharing with BPA, over the road from Odsal or wherever. They have plenty of money now since the recent takeover.
The problem was with the old Odsal lease, which had moved the responsibility of ground upkeep, along with around £8m [or some such figure], to the club. The cash was supposed to be up front money for the ground maintenance but was quite quickly spent on superstars for the first team. IIRC, presumably to prevent the club from cutting and running with the cash, the council put in a clause which said that the Bulls had to play the vast majority of home games at Odsal until, I think, around 2018, a year which you may remember Mick mentioned earlier.
The penalty for not doing so was to repay a lump of of the already spent £8m, which was the reason for me, and others, suggesting that moving wasn't very likely. Well, that and the only alternative location was always VP which, fine soccer stadium as it is, I certainly regard as not totally suitable for RL.
However the old lease is now gone so the payback [which applied to one of the old companies - don't ask..] is no longer a bar to moving. As for for Park Avenue and their 'billionaire' owner, I've not seen an influx of international stars to Horsfall [not even the 'ex' variety] nor does any investment seem to have been made in their facilities - not even an announcement about the future prospects of one.
I could certainly envisage a swap being done with the council; the stadium for the Richard Dunn site, along with Avenue, or not, with the stadium returning to its former use.
