I can imagine the headline now: "Vandals in Odsal do £30,000 of improvements"

Yeah, it would have been hard to make the toilets any worse, to be fair

Update on FB from group behind the stock cars return.

It is almost 12 months since we commenced again our aspiration to return Stock Cars to Odsal, the fourth attempt since 2001, having come very,very close in 2013 only to fail when OK Bulls went into administration.
Therefore this has been a lot of hard work, and for a few months in my own mind may have been again, speculative. However, we have continually negotiated with integrity from RFL COO Mr Tony Sutton who we cannot thank enough for his investment and interest and, yesterday, we have concluded a secure long term arrangement commercially that could see the sport secure at Odsal for 12 years. The agreement reached will require ratification by the RFL board early next month of which we are very positive. We held further discussions yesterday 'pm' with the new Bulls shareholders who, currently have a huge workload commitment in bidding for the Bulls to return in the Super League. From the beginning of this journey, we sought a commitment that both us and the Bulls approached Odsal 'jointly'and together and what came across very clearly from the Bulls stakeholders [ again to whom we thank them for their time ] is a shared vision to 'save' Odsal' and see it return to it's former glory. That really is positive fundamentally to us as it is about the commitment of our sports to regenerate Odsal for the city of Bradford.
Our next stage will be opening discussions with Bradford Council who are aware of the plans, to secure the necessary permissions we require and clarification of what was established in 2013 in terms of planning consent etc. We plan to move things along rapidly and are working to be able to offer more clarity on Sunday 6th December as, if we manage to tick all the boxes, it is our ambition to open the doors on Saturday 3rd April 2021. We are 'almost' there! Whilst discussion has been detailed and taken some 12 months, reality is dawning that this has been the 'easy bit!'
The dedication and work required to re-open it, refurbishment is massive and planning for that is 'underway' however 'just' to open the doors for sport will require joint investment of at least £500,000. When we get to this stage, hopefully early next month, we will be asking the whole sport to play it's part - in a similar way to the outpouring of support offered to help restore Coventry and will be seeking volunteers to help with the project from tradespeople and the community to assist with this huge task with work anticipated to commence late January 21. Hopefully on 6th we will be able to complete the vision and make Odsal a reality after 23 years.

Where is this original FB page?

Startrax stockcar racing group

Thanks. This is beginning to make sense now. Dual sport stadium, sharing upgrade costs, ongoing maintenance and rent

Why would we be sharing rent?. Prior to us leaving we held sub lease and could have charged rent to startrax. Unless we somehow have retained the sublease Startrax would be renting from RFL direct so would imagine RFL would just charge us both full rent. Other clubs would kickoff if charged us less than commercial rent. Only thing we could maybe argue is that we don't have full use of stadium like we had before and only pay for days we use it rather than full 7 days a week.

Sharing maintenance and business rates is likely to be where bigger savings can be made. Noticed inhaStartrax article they are talking about costing 500k to renovate stadium with costs being shared between us and them, Presumably that would only be for areas that both sports use and they would be footing full bill for re-instating fences, pitch corner modifications etc. Worrying bit was they were also calling for tradespeople to donate time/materials suggesting they might not have that much money to invest.

I think I might become the voice of doom and gloom because being positive never got me anywhere when it comes to Bradford. You can regularly maintain a dog turd by spraying it with hair spray, putting in the fridge, maybe varnishing it. You can do that every year if you like. But maybe then consider if you'd actually be better off putting it in the bin.

The thing about maintenance which is all people seem to aspire for, is that by definition it simply leaves Odsal as it is and stops it getting worse. We have to have a vision for going WAY beyond that, and improving the ground. We need to have a roof on the terrace for starters. I'm a real cynic here because nothing is being said about how you make the ground fit for modern times.

To be right Pumpy I'd guess that the maintenance simply hasn't been done. Upkeep would only be an ongoing cost if the stadium was being used, which it currently isn't, no fans in means no safety certificate required, and of course, if we were to be the new tenant we'd be saddled with that cost not the RFL. £200K seems a stab in the dark (with a massive and erratic big pointer) and not a serious estimate of the RFL's costs.

I think the club are still using the offices, though I've not been up for a while. Apparently, the office, shop and lottery bit was never part of the old lease and is being leased separately, direct from the council, or so I was informed by someone working in it. Don't know if this has changed though.