A group of people, own a company called BBBBB Ltd (which stands for Bringing Bradford Bulls Back to Bradford) which in turn owns Bulls 2017 Ltd. The club was previously owned by a company called Orcas’ Limited which was owned by Mr & Mrs Chalmers. Clearly a company had to be created to take over Orcas Ltd. position.
I'm pretty sure that is not actually true and the shares could have been transferred to individuals. Quite possibly cheaper though as only one transfer to process.
What I take from that, especially in the last response, is that it's pretty much the fault of the fans.
I'm sure that we should unquestioningly accept this new set of strangers who promise us the same 'stability' and 'within our means' again, just like the last lot and the lot before that. I've seen no incentive as to why I should renew my season ticket yet. In fact by selling/ridding players who are fan favourites actually does the opposite, and not only for me too I'm sure.
Let's see the £1 million that they have, in the hands of the RFL, to ensure that they have the means to take the club forward, and not just skin us poor fans again and asset strip the club (again).
Just incredible.
Edit: And if they try the whole emotional blackmail with me ("without us, you won't have a club, that's why you should support the club") after all we have been through, that is me completely done with the sport. Hell, I'm teetering on the edge of that now anyway....
Good idea from Club but for goodness sake CHECK your facts before publishing. Even a casual fan knows BMDC own Odsal and only they can sell it.
That same thought occurred to me while I was reading it, although I confess I've never been totally clear on the situation so assumed I was reading it wrong or I'd understood it wrong in the first place.
I also notice the shareholder figures don't seem to tally up necessarily with the list of shareholders listed on this thread, although again that may be me misunderstanding something rather than inaccuracy.
I will say, if everything in that statement is taken at face value, one line I do like. "The only way to prove that there is no ulterior motive, is by proof of actions, over the passage of time.". That is absolutely correct and I hope they are genuine in understanding that. It does seem a little contradictory to then criticise people too, but I suppose they're just trying to do what they can to stop people being negative online, since I don't doubt it won't be helping with tickets sales and sponsorship. Unfortunately though, that's the inevitable truth of the damage the last few years has caused rather than fans just being negative for the sake of it.
I hope someone there does understand that the lack of trust and the negativity is something that isn't going away yet. There's too much damage been done for it to just disappear. There will be plenty like myself who need to see plenty of action before they're going to start coming around, and even then they're going to be tentative about letting themselves get emotionally invested again.
I agree with pretty much all of what Dilligraf says in the post above, and Friday's post above that one as well.
It's true that the 'proof of the pudding will be in the eating' as they rightly observe. It's going to take some while to get a lot of the fans on board again. I'm one who will take some convincing.
But I really don't think it helps in any way to sign off by being negative about what fans are writing on social media (which I assume includes this forum). After everything we've all been through, you really can't blame people for being cynical, and it would be good to have some recognition of that.
Instead, we basically have them saying that the fans are to blame for some people not investing! It's nothing more than guilt-tripping, and achieves nothing really, especially when they are trying to sell season tickets to those same people!
Well I guess the idea is ok if there are people who feel they need answers before committing to a season ticket or whatever. To be honest they could buy half the Australian international team and I still wouldn't buy a season ticket. Neither the club or RL in general is that important to me anymore that I would commit so much of my free time and money to it again. However as I've said before, if there is still a Bradford Bulls in Feb that has a side worth watching then I'll most probably get to some games at Dewsbury. The rights or wrongs of the off field shenanigans I'm sort of past caring about though it's clearly important to some and that's fair enough. I've just found it's a lot easier to just see it as sort of transactional ie is the afternoons entertainment worth my brass.
In a different context admittedly but there is a poem by Phillip Larkin which has the lines; "Man hands on misery to man, It builds like a coastal shelf" - and this is very true.
Our misery has built 'like a coastal shelf' over the last three or four owners, rather than our 'mums and dads' as in Phillips' poem, but the truth remains. It becomes ingrained. We find it hard to trust owners when one by one they let us down. Trust is hard earned and easily lost.
So, we have new owners, well whoopee, hot digity dog, but now you now have to earn our trust. It can't, and won't, just be given. Four times bitten - how may times shy?
In a different context admittedly but there is a poem by Phillip Larkin which has the lines; "Man hands on misery to man, It builds like a coastal shelf" - and this is very true.
Our misery has built 'like a coastal shelf' over the last three or four owners, rather than our 'mums and dads' as in Phillips' poem, but the truth remains. It becomes ingrained. We find it hard to trust owners when one by one they let us down. Trust is hard earned and easily lost.
So, we have new owners, well whoopee, hot digity dog, but now you now have to earn our trust. It can't, and won't, just be given. Four times bitten - how may times shy?
By God I have reached the point of chucking the towel in with the club just like a good numbers of members on here. May I also say things that have happened since 2012 on the surface seem to little Fishy and some questions need to be answered and may well be in the fullness of time . Before I get jumped on no I'm not being blindly Lead or wearing rose tinted specs I am calling as i see it imo
Since 2012 who have we had in the senior management team who had any experience in the uk rugby league club management . Only one i can think of was MR S Ferris who came with a reputation of doing more harm than good to his previous clubs ! RHP was Ceo at one point but his training from what I believe is in commercial marketing and not sports club management administration etc.
Look what we now have Eric P ,Mark S, The Batley owner who's name i cant recall and Nigel W All who have experience of building clubs from the ground up and proven track records All of their experience and knowledge will be being drawn against to resolve the clubs issues and put tried and tested procedures, practices and governance in place to run the club going forward.I feel we can say for certain that the days of the back of a fag packet accounting and trying to hoodwink the tax man by changing season tickets to memberships have gone.
Look what has been done so far:
Identified debts as best as humanly possible
Sold players off But the debts have to be payed , Paid Pension Debt , Paid largest creditor off , and got Andrew charmers to write off his business loans
Negotiated with Bradford council the change of rates so that the Odsal shop / office can be used without having to pay rates on the full stadium
On going meetings with council re returning to Bradford
Finally the bit we all want to see is started the recruitment for next year.
Don't forget all of the gents above have reputations in the game itself to up keep its a lot bigger risk for them than it is for any of us even though it may not feel like it is with the amount of money time an emotion we have put into the club of the last decade
Let's see the £1 million that they have, in the hands of the RFL, to ensure that they have the means to take the club forward, and not just skin us poor fans again and asset strip the club (again).
And look what a debt-accruing, player-losing, pension-payment-dodging, sh!tst0rm THAT resulted in!
I hope that the RFL have verified that our new masters have enough capital to ensure that we're not doomed to another catastrophy sometime soon, by abiding by their stipulations from last time and asking for a bond to be placed with them to guarantee a stable financial foundation for the club.
I'm not holding my breath though.
Bulls4Champs wrote:
What £1 million do you speak of?
Finger in the air figure mate. But looking at expenses and debts I don't think it's far wrong.
And look what a debt-accruing, player-losing, pension-payment-dodging, sh!tst0rm THAT resulted in!
I hope that the RFL have verified that our new masters have enough capital to ensure that we're not doomed to another catastrophy sometime soon, by abiding by their stipulations from last time and asking for a bond to be placed with them to guarantee a stable financial foundation for the club.