Bradford fans deserve proper answers

When is an elite competition not an elite competition? When one of its most famous clubs faces the prospect of extinction.

Super League faces the unappealing prospect of seeing one of its clubs enter administration for the third successive year.

When that club is Bradford Bulls – four-time Grand Final winners and three-time World Club Champions – then serious questions must be asked.

Bradford’s perilous financial position will again raise serious concerns about the direction in which Super League is heading.

Clubs in other sports have their fair share of money troubles too but the introduction of the licensing system was supposed to prevent situations like this occurring.

Bulls chairman Peter Hood says the situation is “critical” and the club needs £500,000 by the middle of next month – or else the club will cease to exist in its current form.

There was plenty of speculation about Bradford’s financial fragility when the sale of Odsal to the RFL was announced in January. 

However, the seriousness of the situation has taken many by surprise and the idea that one of Super League’s most famous and iconic clubs is on the verge of collapse is disturbing. 

Hood told the Telegraph and Argus the decision by Royal Bank of Scotland to slash the Bulls overdraft had left the club with “no cash”.

Almost every professional sport club operates with an overdraft – however few are so reliant on what is effectively a loan which banks can insist is repaid at any time. 

Bradford’s current wage bill is believed to be around £2.5 million and the club’s annual turnover somewhere between £3-4 million.

The club has posted losses for the last three financial years – £311,403 in 2010, £78,728 in the previous year and £10,105 in 2008.

Turnover over the same period fell from £4.63million to £3.96 million.

In 2007 the club posted a pre-tax profit of £257,605 and had a turnover of £5.15million.

Bradford’s failure to shine on the field in recent years has undoubtedly contributed to the Bulls worsening financial performance. 

But why have things been allowed to deteriorate to the extent that the club’s very existence has been left hanging in the balance?

I am not sure quite where the finger of blame should be pointed and trying to ascertain who is responsible will not save the Bulls.

Handing over hundreds of thousands of pounds to those who have led to the club to this position seems far from wise. Yet it is perhaps the only way the Bulls can survive.

Whatever the outcome, Bradford fans and players, together with many others within the game, deserve a thorough explantation as to why they were kept in the dark for so long.