Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:48 am  

Good luck for the future guys, i mean that sincerely!
My only offering is to get rid of the people who got you in this mess and start afresh, and sadly in this day and age that involves going into administration.
I nearly gave money to Trinity to help out when we were in trouble, but thought it would only be papering over the cracks.
As it turned out following administration we are in a much healthier position, many of the debts were unnecessarily but honourably settled by the new owner and the cracks that would have been papered over were actually too big to cover.
Plenty more will come out about the problems you have, and there will be some troubling times ahead, but keep the faith and fingers crossed you will emerge, as we did a better and cleaner outfit at the end of it.
I'm sure you will end up in a better place than where you are now!
Good luck.
KC

Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:49 am  

Legionited wrote:

Where has the Andy Lynch money gone?

Good question. I, and imagine a lot of others would like the answer to this and some other questions before pledging money.

Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:53 am  

I feel for the fans, the players, the employees and the city of Bradford.

The years of buying success have finally caught up with the club in a Leeds Utd style. The BoD should have been more careful than living beyond the clubs means.

I do hope that the Bulls come out the other side on this. It might be a massive wake up call for all the clubs. If a team as big as the Bulls can go to the wall it can happen to anyone.

Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:55 am  

bellycouldtackle wrote:

This is the tale I was told about the ground sale / lease deal, :-

`I was told the financial reasons why the RFL had to buy Odsal at the time of the deal going through. It now makes even more sense and it could be argued that the RFL have recovered from a poor situation. Bradford apparently approached the RFL after Christmas in early 2011 prior to the new season starting. The RFL loaned Bradford £ 700,000.00 in order for the club to continue trading, Bradford did not meet any of the repayments and the RFL realised that they were not going to get this money back and what ever assets the loan was secured against could only be realised if Bradford was liquidated. Move forward a year and Bradford are still in problems, low crowds , huge debt, creditors chasing etc etc. They again approach the RFL who see an opportunity to get their original £ 700,000loan back. A deal is agreed Bradford sell the ground to the RFL for £ 1,200,000. The RFL contra the £ 700,000.00 and hand over the £ 500,000 balance and get the deeds to the ground. Good deal by the RFL. `

Well the RFL took a charge on the Bulls' assets in january 2011, so that bears out your account.

What has been announced today, together with the persistent rumours coming (seemingly) out of the RFL and sources close to later last year, would tend to further bear that out.

The 31/12/10 accounts suggested a need for a substantial cash injection, but I did not judge it to be on the scale of £700k. So the financial situation l would have become far worse than even I had feared, if your numbers are right - and at this stage I have no reason to suppose they are not.

I would really like to know for certain more of the true situation over all this!

Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:56 am  

Good luck guys!

Anyone know what Kath Hetherington's doing nowadays?

Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:57 am  

Don't be fooled by the £100 pledge but most importantly don't listen to some on here who are saying "we will be alright if we go down the administration route". Its not always rosy as in Wakey's case.

SL needs Bradford Bulls in SL. The game cannot afford to lose 10,000 supporters. Good luck lads.
Castleford Tigers Supporter.

Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:57 am  

Hope it works out for you lot !

Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:59 am  

Proposal

I'm afraid the discrepancy between public statements Hood has made in the last two months and the situation revealed now is too great for me to have any faith that giving the board £100 will help solve the problem.

If however I was giving £100 or more to buy shares in a non-profit company managed by a supporters trust (Bullbuilder) with a managing committee elected by shareholders I would do so immediately - this trust could then nominate and employ a CEO. All I would ask in return was a shareholders certificate I could put on my wall. I would be happy if this were arranged so that shareholders are entitled to no profits or dividends and cannot sell, assign, or transfer a share to a third party. This is the model the Green Bay Packers have used and they are one of the most successful sporting franchises (and the only community owned one) in the U.S.

In this scenario we would once again be the people's team and I would have something to say I was an 'owner' of the club even if that didn't mean anything in practice other than giving me a vote for who the management committee of the supporter's trust of which I'm already a member.

Given Bullbuilder already exists and I have more faith in the financial management of those organising it, wouldn't it make more sense to donate our money (£100 or whatever people can afford) to the trust and then perhaps we could arrange a loan as an interim measure to the club on terms that could see the eventual transfer to a new model of ownership along the lines suggested above?

Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:59 am  

How much cash would normally be generated from non season ticket holders at the Leeds game?

I could be wrong but I think the club would be hoping to raise 500k on top of the expected income from this game so although the all ticket idea is a good one I'm not sure it will be enough.

Re: Peter Hood says Bulls on brink of going bust. : Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:01 am  

I remember the gut turning feeling when I thought Hull FC were going out of business.
Good luck with your effort feel for you all.