If nothing else, you have to say everything appears controlled and transparent.

Reading the accounts and the comments from the club, it all seems relatively positive (NB I'm no accountant).
It's also good the board are making financial challenges to the RFL in a measured and constructive manner.

I've said elsewhere before, there's got to be a grander plan ready to unveil once the Odsal lease is confirmed. I just don't see this board taking on such a huge debt purely for sentiment.

We’ve just appointed a marketing manager this week. First time we’ve had a dedicated marketing person for years. https://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article ... ng-manager

We’ve just appointed a marketing manager this week. First time we’ve had a dedicated marketing person for years. https://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article ... ng-manager

That's good news as it concerns me how low crowds are and that it just seems to be the same faces. We need to be getting a fresh audience like in 95-97.

It was schools and kids back then, which in turn got whole families hooked.

What is activity like in local schools at the moment? You feel that is always going be key to drumming up new support.

That said in 95/96, there was a air of change, an improving team playing good rugby and in the top tier of the game. Unfortunately, that just isn't there currently (granted I'm on the other side of the world, so could be wrong)
The change in the mid 90's you could almost touch and feel.

I think they could do a lot more with local amateur clubs just for a start. Where are the half-time/pre-match tournaments etc?

They seem to do bits every so often but it seems pretty irregular. Up until recently I was an occasional fan who maybe went to 4 or 5 games a year. They did a community club day early last season where my lads teams ran onto the and got to meet the players etc. Ended up going to the majority of games last season and this year all but one plus several away. Now considering a season ticket for 2025 - surely people like me are the relatively easy wins they should be going after?

The product needs to be there before you can market it. 95/95 was the SL product, this time around we have to be fairly certain of being competitive so hopefully, hiring a marketing manager is a sign of the confidence in that.

Still I am not sure you could make current Odsal attractive to anyone other than Steptoe...may be that's another hint of change coming, but I'm from Bradford so not holing my breath

We made Odsal a welcoming place in the mid 90s thanks to having stuff for the kids to do so it wasn't just about the match. That costs a bit and we don't have the budget we had back then so it's more difficult now - perhaps it's about targeting certain games in the warm summer months when Odsal is less inhospitable.

Close relationships with community clubs is a must - they're already familiar with the game so should be a no-brainer.

What we also need to do is connect with people who've no relationship with the game at all. That was the genius of Peter Deakin's approach in 95-96 and it won us an audience that was new to RL. How we do that is the challenge the new marketing manager has.

95-97 was a time of optimism for the whole country and the sport tapped into that making major changes at exactly the right time. We were one of the best at it but the whole sport was buzzing - look at the crowds London Broncos used to get.

The sport of rugby league feels like it's dying a death at the moment. I used to get excited about watching superleague matches on TV and now I think it's a bit boring.

Any marketing manager working for a club in a championship division that they can't be promoted from, even if they win it, in a sport that's on it's last legs is going to have their work cutout.

Most RL fans (especially my age) can be a but jaded so we're not the people to ask when it comes to marketing. Whenever I take anyone new to a game they absolutely love it. I think sometimes familiarity breeds contempt. It's the newbies we need as they've not got cynical in their old age like us fogies.

One thing IMG has triggered is greater use (and measurement) of Social media footfall. And those numbers are big for a championship club.
Our squad is better than it has been for ages. Barring the odd mental collapse, we are a lot more competitive.
People do ask me how the Bulls are doing more than usual. We've made the playoffs 2 years running. There's a realistic feel good factor - realistic as in people are feeling we've turned a bit of a corner but still realise we have Odsal hanging round our necks.
The Friday night game vs Dewsbury felt good. There may be an option of more of those - maybe as Bullseye says, when Odsal is not likely to be cold & wet.

The job of the marketing manager will be - How to convert that into actual ticket sales?