: Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:58 pm
ok. I didn't make masses of notes about most of it because others were doing that.
OSV.
Peter Hood said he was confident of the funding. The contribution from the club is the ground with it's freehold lease worth a lot of money for them to build on. Other funding sources are the revenue from the sale of the RD centre land - obviously to be input by the council for the development of the new sports stadium.
Funding is not seen to be an issue.
A number of interested hotel groups are already making enquiries about the hotel part of the complex which is actually attached to the stadium and would have to be built at the same time. They would pay for the building of this. There is a huge shortage of hotel rooms in Bradford and this hotel would be perfectly situated.
The main concerns were given as "planning and operating revenue". Much work is going on now and will go on in the next few months to address these.
Planning is estimated to be put in in December.
The plan includes the bowl to be filled in to the level of the top of the terracing.
The drawing that we've all seen linked to on here is already changing and will continue to change during the next phases.
They have not yet ruled out some standing areas in the ground and the capacity may increase a bit but is unlikely to be massively different.
Studies have shown that 18k is about as much as we'd usually need for a superleague game. There is no desire to turn odsal into Old Trafford.
18k is seen as cost effective and realistic.
We want atmosphere in the ground and we want to create demand for tickets too. If there are limited numbers of tickets available then people will buy in advance and the club won't lose out if it happens to rain on the day etc. We currently rely too much on walk-up crowds.
The plans include an access road from Rooley Ave. This and the carpark would, along with the stadium and hotel, be the first parts built and would be open before the rest of the complex.
There is no desire to turn the sports complex into an Olympic village. The council want the ground to open in 2012 to reflect the growth in interest in sports which is expected in the Olympic year.
Bradford Bulls are an official partner in the scheme. Bradford City are not.
Our plan B would be to look at other options at the club. We have a 150 year lease and would look to do something with that if the scheme doesn't go ahead.
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breaking news
ANDY LYNCH HAS SIGNED FOR ANOTHER THREE YEARS (cue much applause)
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Squad development
The long term plan is to bring through the best of the juniors as the core of future squads. We're only seeing the beginnings of this at the moment.
Developing your own juniors creates a squad who have grown up together, share a passion for the club and know eachother's strengths and weaknesses.
Also it's cheaper than signing a squad full of superstars.
Under 18s are progressing well as a team and Bradford fans are encouraged to come to the stadium to watch them play.
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Season tickets
Season ticket prices have not yet being set for next year - much depends on where we will be playing and what that will cost us. They are seeking to get the prices sorted ASAP
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Salary Cap
We are under it - but not by lots.
If talent becomes available we have the money to sign them, we also have some room for movement under the cap
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Openness, communication and the on-line community
Steve agrees that the club being more open could counter negative on-line comments. He's not particularly worried about comments about him on forums like this, he doesn't even look at them.
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Iestyn Harris - has lasting damage been caused to the club financially by the IH affair?
No lasting damage was caused.
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Is Valley Parade up to code as far as the RFL are concerned?
Yes - we are however looking at all the available options. We're not about to go to the owners of VP and say 'please can we use your stadium - how much do you want because we've got no choice but to play here'. We have choices. We might take them up too. Dewsbury was mentioned.
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The timing of the fans forum was not to coincide with the the OSV announcement. They just chose the middle of the season as a good time to have a second forum after people asked last time.
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Sadly Blotto then gave Steve some coaching advice, expect our season to get worse if he listened to any of it!
one last little snippet of info
it will take 300,000 cubic metres of stuff to fill up the bowl before they can start building the new stadium. It's a pity we couldn't link the hole with the amount of crap which comes off this board somehow - we'd fill it up in no time.
). I showed Andrea my email as the points came out, so she can attest to how the club addressed my questions using exactly my words and answered reasonably comprehensively. I also heard other questions read out exactly as people posted them on here - and that included some quite hard-hitting ones. So I think its fair to say the club read out real questions exactly as they were submitted, and answered some that I thought would be quite sensitive. I'd suggest very big credit should be given to the club for responding in this way.
