I think they just put new padlocks on the gates, as no one could confirm how many copies of keys had been made over the years.

I think the only way I can see of them getting it off AC is liquidation II. Someone has covered the costs of running the club, paying the players involved in the dispute etc and Companies House says that's the director. There is only 1 director and that's AC so if you assume there's about £900k of debt to him he's not going to walk.

If the club are put up for sale and they pull the lease stunt again we know where that ends and if they do add in the lease you'd assume Uncle Marwan would come hurtling over the hill which they would not stomach (though you could assume that now they are staring down the trunk of a big, white elephant shaped money pit they could swallow their pride).

So it stays with AC until it goes bang, no lease sale, no interest AC loses his money. The RFL's p155ing pot if even smaller than ours, they can't do anything.

Looks like we have El Macho at 6 next year...

The RFL have proved to be able to interfere in an administration process and dictate to the administrator who they would accept. Can they interfere in a private sale if AC finds a buyer? If they went down the "fit & proper" route to block it, the new buyer could take them to the cleaners.

That sounds about right I thought he had said he would do 3 years

Highlander wrote:When Chalmers was appointed, can anyone remember whether he said how long he would commit? Specifically I'm trying to remember if he said a 3yr plan? Of course, that was when Lowe was fit and that must have been a blow. Or am I confusing it with the RFL? Did they ask for a 3yr bond at the time? This appeared to come out after offers appeared to have started - RFL Conditions

Highlander wrote:When Chalmers was appointed, can anyone remember whether he said how long he would commit? Specifically I'm trying to remember if he said a 3yr plan? Of course, that was when Lowe was fit and that must have been a blow. Or am I confusing it with the RFL? Did they ask for a 3yr bond at the time? This appeared to come out after offers appeared to have started - RFL Conditions

That's what I remembered, thanks

If the RFL are in the mire financially as they are rumoured to be they may be willing to throw in the lease in order to extricate themselves.

The way I see it, the Council is strapped for cash, but Odsal would be worth a decent amount of money to various developers. It would be enough to build a community stadium. I don't see how anyone could complain if the Council took that route; especially as the site (Richard Dunn) is already earmarked for clearance (which won't be cheap) and so far as I know, there's no plan for what to do with the site later.

In my mind I have written off us ever returning to Odsal, because it is simply impossible that anyone will come up with the necessary money to upgrade it.

My only questions would be to the RFL; they loudly proclaimed they were acquiring the lease to save the iconic Odsal for posterity, but it already needed a major upgrade, and you weren't saving anything for anyone unless part of your plan was to finance the upgrade. If there was such a plan I'd be amazed. If there was no such plan, then the RFL have pointlessly acquired a lease which is now a millstone, as they posed as saviours for rugby league, but it seems obvious that won't happen, and that Odsal will never see RL played there again.

I see that Widnes have been told by the RFL that they are now out of special measures.

Short piece in the T&A about Kear and recruitment the other day. Pretty much just he can’t recruit so there’s nothing to say.
Only thing is, again the reason quoted by the T&A for special measures is due to the move to Dewsbury.

Guarantee we’ll be out of special measure just in time for all our out of contract players to be signed for other clubs