Found it quite amusing that the club kept insisting he didn't work there, then Look North (or Calendar, I forget which) cut to Odsal while they were showing one of the England games and stated "Damien Irvine of the Bradford Bulls is here with us". He didn't correct them.

Some interesting replies to this intriguing thread.



If the head lease for Odsal is up for grabs (and again that has to be a suspect 'IF') let's hope this time that if a transaction is brewing then the RFL, and also the Council Executive (acting independently of the RFL), will look in rigorous detail in to the true background of all those who may apply for our head lease from both the UK AND abroad, and in particular examine all of their many recent business failures that may leave creditors (inc Bulls fans) many tens, and hundreds of thousands, of pounds out of pocket.



The Bulls supporters do not wish to see (or deserve) a person to own the head lease for our iconic stadium at Odsal (whether directly or indirectly) who has, for example, had at least two business failures (and been involved in another recent failure) in the past 12-18 months. Such a person (and their cohorts) would not be good for the Bulls, would not be good for Bradford, would not be good for Rugby League and should most certainly not be allowed to pass any fair and objective fit and person test carried out by Bradford Council, who are of course the final arbiter of any such lease re-assignment decision.



With regard to the RFL's governance 'duties' let us not forget the RFL's dreadful and well documented recent (and arguably ongoing) record in respect of the Bulls ownership, a fact which must surely raise questions as to whether or not the RFL hierarchy (both past and present) are themselves fit for purpose. In the real world any top company executives with such a bad track record would surely have been dismissed by now as being totally incompetent.

HC, Irvine's probably contracting. Will work for himself so correct in saying he's not working for the bulls and probably couldn't be 4rsed correcting someone during a short TV interview?



Keeps the reported headcount down but gets a role filled...

Technically, ANY club that is a member of the RFL should have full access to utilise Odsal Stadium seeing the governing body hold the lease contract. We don't want the RFL showing any bias do we.

Sums it up nicely.

As a Wakey fan, I see this merely as MC and the other SL Charimen seeking to ensure that something they (the RFL) paid the old regime GBP 1.33m for is not sold back to the new Bulls regime at a cut price GBP 750k (which is what in their accounts the RFL are now saying it is worth)as it is worth more than that



That seems fair enough to me.

Are you saying that the rfl have been disingenuous with their valuation of the odsal lease?

You might want to be careful how you phrase your opinions.

It's clear to me that if Rimmer had been in charge rather than Wood the RFL would never have done that deal on Odsal. Now he's in charge he seems to want to get it off the RFL's hands.



Many of the SL chairman can't stand Chalmers it seems so they don't want the lease sold to him. Not that I think he could afford it TBH, even at a knock down price.



RFL rules prevent other club owners having a piece of it anyway.



I don't expect this to be sorted quickly nor do I expect the value of the lease to ever get back to £1.3m.

The man's obsessed with us. Have Wankfield got a ground to play at next season yet?



Can we still walk away in 2019? If that's the case we should just walk.

Who knows Keith?



Realistically where would we go? Neither Valley Parade or Horsfall are suitable. We'd never afford the rent at VP and we'd be at risk of being told we're not wanted at the end of any contract. Horsfall is little better than a school field and would cost heaps to bring up to standard.

It's owned on behalf of ALL professional clubs not just SL.

Specifically it’ll be the contractual terms of the head lease between Council & RFL and then the sublease between RFL & Bradford which will determine the legal rights of the 3 parties.

Is it just me or is one of the in the know s from last administration back with a new username trying to stir again?

Probably Mat but nothing's been said that isn't in the public domain anyway. So much for being in the know. Innuendo doesn't count.

But if the lease now has less time to run surely the price should be reduced.

How do we know how much time there is left on it?

Obsessed that’s you when it comes to Wakey. I was just offering an opinion as to why MC and other SL chairmen might have expressed an interest in the lease.

Well it was a pretty terrible investment by the RFL if it’s lost over 45% of its value in 6 years and raised questions about why they paid what they did for it in the first place. MC has said he would pay more than 750k for it so that suggests it is worth more than that amount

Seriously!!! I never said I was in the know I offered an opinion as to why the interest from Mc and other SL chairmen and then get jumped on by you and others with a seemingly massive chip on your shoulder.



I have had the same user name since I first joined, if I have an opinion on something I don’t need to change username to give it

I don't think he's talking about you mate, i think he's on about belecki.



I agree with you that them buying it was one of the worst decisions under Woods leadership (and there's plenty to choose from) we didn't benefit it as it's effectively what sent us into Admin1.



I agree that it shouldn't be sold at a cut price (although i don't think the RFL will ever get what they paid for it) i also don't think it should be sold to other club owners at any price. As others have said, it's a conflict of interest.

I'm sure he's talking about Belcki, who does appear to have a similar posting style to people who were posting here in our previous woes



What I would be interested to know is how a guy who doesn't appear to have the money to invest into a new stadium for his own club, and runs that club at 300K below cap (according to todays League Weekly) has the funds to 'invest' in Odsal?



Genuine question, by the way

Ok if that’s the case I apologise to Mat and fwiw I agree with what you say above

Have the RFL ever stated how much the loan on which the lease was secured and how much was repaid?

Just in case people have forgotten how the RFL obtained the lease in the first place.

My guess is he doesn’t want to buy it, it is just a way of raising the issue, so as to highlight the significant drop in value in 6 years and perhaps make it necessary for the RFL to justify the write down, before being able to sell at the lower figure.



MC has said he sees it as an investment opportunity- make of that what you will. FWIW he was going to buy BV for GBP 600k but was told not to by WDMC and YorkCourt as they wanted a clear path

I think I read somewhere it was 1.33m