Wednesday 11th February, 2009last year, mid-February
It’s our home
Whenever you start to believe that the financial problems which have blighted Bradford City during the last eight years are behind us, you remember about Valley Parade.
It was presented as good news when City’s stadium was bought by then-Chairman Gordon Gibb in the summer of 2003, because it got the pressure of a mortgage lender owed millions of pounds off our back. Sure, the owner’s pension fund held the ground’s deeds rather than the club, but no one was going to repossess and kick us out of it. We had a Chairman committed to a bright new future who was creating headlines by offering City’s then-squad a seven figure bonus if promotion to the Premiership could be achieved in the season ahead.
Not even six months later the new dawn had given away to dark clouds. Gibb left and a mud-slinging battle with the Rhodes’ ensued which threatened to spell the end of a club which was supposed to be celebrating its centenary. In July 2004 it looked like it really was over, but an 11th hour peace-deal was eventually brokered between the man who held the keys to the stadium and the family who held the keys to the club’s future. City carried on, but with hefty rent payments to meet from their no-longer friendly landlord.
When Mark Lawn was quizzed about the stadium ownership at the fans forum last year he spoke of attempts to buy back the stadium been met with an uninterested response from Gibb, who was apparently enjoying the money. Reports today suggest Gibb never received a formal approach. For sure there seems to be no threat of Gibb evicting City to build luxury flats in the near future, the credit crunch if nothing else has seen to that. But like for many people renting is not ideal, sees much-needed money sucked down a black hole and there persists a feeling that your home is never truly your own. I doubt City are allowed to redecorate, or keep pets.
Reports are circulating today that City are considering moving to play at Odsal when it is redeveloped. When should really be if because for years we’ve heard fanciful talk of a super stadium springing up on Odsal top and it seems no closer than ever. Maybe this time it’s different, maybe one day pigs really will learn to fly.
Who knows how true the reports of City’s interest really are, but they are certain to worry Gibb. Valley Parade is in far from the most beautiful of locations and there is no sporting team who’d be willing to move in and pay equivalent rent payments. The credit crunch makes it a foolish time to plan building flats on the site instead and, even when the economy returns to normal, who’s going to buy a high-rise pad overlooking the sex shops of Manningham Lane?
Perhaps that’s the point of these stories, a whiff that the Bradford City gravy train might be departing up the road surely weakens Gibb’s position at the bargaining table. Maybe City just want to force him into negotiation over rent payments or ownership.
As for the prospect of moving away from Valley Parade, it’s clearly an emotive subject for all fans. Personally I’d scream no, but if the rent payments from staying are so significant they can seriously hamper future progress then sacrificing tradition must at least be considered. I hate seeing these pop-up grounds like at Doncaster which have no character, and if that’s what a ‘community stadium’ in Bradford might look like then the pleasure of going to watch my team will be less.
But for me the efforts which have been undertaken during the last couple of years must continue. The Bradford City Supporters Trust has done much to lobby the Council to be more even-handed in its support of the district’s two largest professional clubs and it must continue. Sure I’m biased when I believe the Council should help more, but I don’t think tax-payers’ should subsidise what is ultimately a business – just for some equality with Bradford Bulls.
The credit crunch means less bank managers are going to be prepared to loan Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes the money to make Gibb an offer, but is a solution to suit both parties possible? Can’t the deal be restructured, for example, so that City’s rent payments become repayments and eventually Gibb receives back what he originally paid, plus interest, and we take back what belongs to us.
Maybe that’s naive, but at the very least good relations with Gibb must be built. There is probably still anger there between the Gibb and Rhodes families – but this isn’t just about boardrooms, it’s about 12,000+ people who watch Bradford City play every other fortnight from whom Valley Parade is home. We’ve been coming to our gaff for years and we even redecorated it before Gibb came along. It’s a place we expect to keep coming to for a long time, and then for our children to bring their children to.
Moving to Odsal might seem a tempting option, but let’s not give up on our home just yet.
I would certainly support a move to a redeveloped Odsal on the right terms. The location is far better.
However in the present economic climate I think this unlikely in the foreseeable future.
This whole Odsal thing stinks to high heaven and Bradford Council are implicit in making the smell.
Some years ago our esteemed Council GAVE Bradford Bulls Odsal and agreed to pay them £500,000 per annum towards it’s upkeep for a period of (or so I believe) 10 years. The reason being that it was costing the Council too much in up keep of the dump.
Around the same time, a fellah who was a senior manager at a local stone company told me that the tipping right on his own companies quarry were worth around £10million, and conjectured that on that basis Odsal was worth around £25 million in tipping right.
Do the maths. If the council evicted the Bulls they could have earned a fortune, but they chose to subsidise the Bulls instead. A great gesture that (to Bulls fans at least) the Council should be applauded for.
Now Bradford Bulls want that self same Council to sell Horsfall playing fields and use the money to help pay of Odsal Sporting village. This at the time when we have a ruddy great hole in the centre of Bradford and shops shutting left right and centre………..yes take every penny you’ve got and throw it at the local rugby team.
It’s no wonder that until last year when they f**ked it up on the field, that they were hated by every other Rugby team. Fact is they have never had to stand on their own two feet. Every time a crisis comes along they run to BMDC for some more money.
Imagine the uproar if we demanded (because that’s what their emotional blackmailing tactics are amounting too) that BMDC sell Lister Park to fund us rebuilding the Bradford end with a luxury hotel in it, oh and a gym that local residents could use if they can afford the subscriptions ????
To further oil the wheels they are “suggesting” that Bradford City would be welcome at Odsal too. See straight through it………. this is another ruse to get the Council to sell Horsfall and give them the money.
We must say no to any move to Odsal. Not just out of sentiment, but simple logistics. Bradford City are supported far up the Aire Valley and Odsal is on the wrong side of the City. Move half a mile away from Odsal and you are encroaching into Huddersfield Town land… move to Odsal and gates WILL drop.
It’s time Bradford Bulls were cut adrift of their umbilical cord at City Hall and if they want to build Odsal Village they do what any other business would do and raise the money themselves, pay interest on the loans and have a business plan that would allow those repayments…… but they won’t will they because they saw it didn’t work in BD8 and without a sugar daddy in won’t work in BD6.
Reject all attempts to move to Odsal, if the council want to back a joint stadium then they should take Odsal back, sell it as a landfill (or better still use it for their own landfill), kick Westfield off Broadway and build a 20,000 capacity stadium on the whole in the ground that both Bulls & City can use !!!
Unless the whole thing is a ruse by BCFC to get Gordon Gibb to sell Valley Parade cheap, but that’s another conspiracy theory
I’m never sure why the location of Odsal is supposed to be better than Valley Parade but I suspect it has more to do with the location of the M62 than it does The Fighting Cock, The Corn Dolly, The Sweet Centre, The New Beehive and the other places that City fans call home and while there is an obvious advantage at having to fight through less traffic if one is coming from outside Bradford I cannot help but think that such a move towards the culture of parking next to the ground, going in, watching going home (as typified by the Boltons and Boros of this world) as opposed to the making an afternoon of it that some (and not all, and not especially me) City fans enjoy would damage something intrinsic to the club, the fans and the atmosphere they generate.
It could be argued that that atmosphere is not very good but having been to Middlesbrough and similar destination football grounds (as opposed to in-community football grounds) then I would suggest it is different and worse there with supporters showing the loyalty and attitude of shoppers at Meadowhall.
Which is a way of getting around to agreeing with the thrust of Jonathan Jackson’s comment about building a stadium on Broadway. It seems to be massively silly, against conventional wisdom and a little bit unrealistic but brave planning makes for great Cities. Why not make a sports ground rather than a shopping area the centre of your City in the post credit crunch, Internet Shopping era?
With a pension fund and not an individual owning the freehold of VP it is rather more complex and certain legislation has to be adhered to – I’m presuming this pension fund is a SIPP style scheme – who knows, maybe it’s more of a family trust or executive based one.
The only people who know all the details of the lease to City are few in number and they hold the key to a lot of the questions raised – are there exit or negotitation clauses? – opportunities to buy back the freehold?
I would have thought due diligence would have applied when the ownership of club changed with ML coming in as an equal sahreholder.
Is it all another hot air balloon ride – $50m Odsal sporting village project, City move out of VP vacating a lease (hmmmm that could be expensive).
A hard headed look at why this oft discredited plan has come up again…Notwithstanding the difficulties City would have in extracating themselves from the existing lease agreements on ground and office block.
Mr. Hood didn’t make the groundshare request out of the goodness of his heart. It was done due to the current financial constraints his club is operating under and is being considered by the City joint chairmen for the same reason…short term financial restrictions at their existing home..
There, the similarities between the two clubs end.
City, although in the 4th tier is still the bigger club with enormous potential for advancement through promotions. That is how Soccer is in this country.. It is difficult to see the Bulls being able to progress much further. As one of the top handful of clubs in Rugby league what can they do that they haven’t already done? where can they go from here.
The Bulls are in sole charge at Odsal right now. It would be almost impossible to envisage them accepting being the junior partners in any new set up. Would City seriously consider moving to Odsal as juniors to the rugby club? I think not! Imagine City having to defer to the Bulls on such things as what days they could play on. Such an arrangement would severely hamper City’s chances of progress. Imagine if City got back to the Premier league being junior partners to the rugby club at their own ground. Also, there is the loss of ground sponsorship revenue, the loss of advertising income and the loss of income from bars and banqueting suite (whether directly or from a 3rd party) to consider.
Much has been made of successful groundshares at Hull, Wigan and Huddersfield. 2 points are conveniently overlooked by those who support such a plan for Bradford. Firstly, in all 3 cases the soccer club is the major player with a bigger share. Secondly they were all 3 totally new grounds which both clubs moved into. Hull city weren’t compelled to move in with Hull f.c. Wigan athletic didn’t move in with the rugby league club. Why should Bradford City a.f.c. get less of a consideration?
Then there is the actual playing surface. Odsal is notorious for being a mudbath in good weather and frozen in winter even when the rest of Bradford isn’t enjoying sub zero temperatures. The drainage is almost nin-existent. Imagine City trying to play there through winter…a recipe for a huge number of postponements. Accoring to a civil engineer i know, to try and install good drainage would mean taking the drains right down to Mayo avenue to outlet. Played on all year there would be no period of non-use when the pitch could be worked on.
Finally there is the positioning. City still draw a big majority of their support from north Bradford and the Aire valley. What business would seriously consider relocating well away from its customers. City fans have the right to be just as opposed as the Bulls fans were to a permanent move to Valley Parade. Indeed, the only arguement i’ve heard put forward is that as Odsal is near to the M606 it would be good for visitors to get to. This is surely a bad joke! Inconvenience 12,000 bradford people who come at least 23 times a year just to keep non-bradfordians who come once a year happy.
The closer the current plan is examined, as on previous occasions, the worse it tends to look.