BY ROSS HEPPENSTALL
PETER Hood’s voice was shaking.
“Ross, you need to come up and see me. Three o’clock this afternoon, my office. It’s a story.”
“I’m sorry Peter, I’m off today, could we do this tomorrow?”
“Absolutely not. I’m telling you that you need to be at Odsal at 3 o’clock today.”
And with that briefest of conversations in March 2012, the seeds were sown to publicise to the world the news that Bradford Bulls were heading for a full-blown crisis.
A crisis that set them on the road to oblivion, a destination that came into sharp focus this week with the grim news that the club are to leave their historic home at Odsal and move to Dewsbury Rams.
Hood would not divulge the nature of the story during that infamous phone call but his facial expression and demeanour as I arrived said everything.
He looked concerned – deeply concerned – and with good reason.
“We’re in serious trouble and we need to get some cash in pretty damn quick,” said the then Bulls chairman.
Fellow director Andrew Bennett put it even more bluntly: “We’re at death’s door and we need to find at least half a million quid by mid-April.”
The following day, the desperate news was splashed across the front and back pages of The Bradford Telegraph & Argus, the local newspaper I was working for as rugby league reporter at the time.
It was subsequently picked up by the national media and quickly became a very big story, albeit a ‘bad news’ one.
The Bulls said they needed to raise £1million – at least half by mid-April in 2012 – to stay in business.
A major fundraising campaign began involving fans, players and ex-players and indeed the wider rugby league community.
They called it ‘The Quest for Survival’.
At Odsal, Mick Potter’s players washed fans’ cars and flipped burgers at barbeques to bring in more funds.
Bulls legend Stuart Fielden, injured and on crutches and then a Wigan player, came to Odsal and spent a day on the phone taking pledges of financial support from fans.
I will never forget being in the offices to interview Fielden about the crisis and what the club meant to him.
“Hello, Bradford Bulls, Stuart Fielden speaking,” said Fielden, sat a desk answering calls from fans keen to pledge their cash.
“You’re wanting to pledge how much? That’s great. If I could take your name and address, thank you.”
In their hour of need, a city and a club welcomed such support with open arms.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent room was a severely stressed-out Hood, hot under the collar and pacing around his office on the phone, fending off bids from Warrington for John Bateman. The two contrasting images said much for goings on at Odsal at that time.
Seven and a half years on, they remain firmly etched in my memory bank.
At the end of the first week of the campaign, the pledge figure had reached around £250,000, a wonderful effort.
It was heart-warming yet it all seemed unfathomable.
How could a club that dominated Super League in the early years of the Millennium, leading the way on and off the field as ‘Bullmania’ whipped the huge crowds into a frenzy at Odsal, be allowed to fall into such a sorry state?
Let it be remembered that, under Brian Noble, Bradford famously featured in five successive Grand Finals between 2001 and 2005.
They won three of them, lifted the Challenge Cup in 2000 and 2003 and were also crowned World Club Challenge winners in 2002, 2004 and 2006.
They spent big in their pursuit of that silverware and lived beyond their means, something that has caught up with them since they made history charging from third place to beat Leeds in 2005.
There were financial problems – enormous financial problems – off the pitch and a club that once gorged on silverware become also-rans on it.
That financial meltdown in 2012 kick-started the most dramatic decline in British rugby league history.
Since then, the Bulls have entered administration three times, been relegated twice – from Super League and then the Championship – before finally being liquidated in January 2017.
Essentially, the club then ceased to exist.
It felt like the slow, painful death of a terminally ill patient who had spent years on life support but had finally had a white sheet thrown over them.
In reality, it marked the death of a rugby league institution made famous on both sides of the world by so many legendary players.
In January 2017, a new club was formed under the ownership of New Zealander Andrew Chalmers.
More on him and the shambles that followed later.
The reasons for their decade-long demise have been hotly debated and continue to be.
Never more so than this week when Chalmers announced that Bradford will leave Odsal and play at nearby Dewsbury’s Tetley’s Stadium for the next two seasons.
The road to oblivion for Bradford has been long and winding.
The story has been largely about bad owners and terrible administrators.
Having covered the club on a daily basis at the T&A for just over five years between September 2011 and November 2016, the list of shocking decisions I have seen made is literally endless.
During my time, the ownership regimes included Hood and Bennett, then Omar Khan, a ludicrous scenario which saw a trio of local businessmen (Andrew Calvert, Mark Moore and Ian Watt) in position for the briefest of spells before Marc Green seized power.
None of them ever convinced me they were capable of taking the club back to where many felt it deserved to be – competing for trophies at the top end of Super League.
The popular theory and arguably misconception is that the origins of the Bulls’ monetary woes are rooted in the Iestyn Harris saga.
Back in 2004, the Bulls sensationally brought Harris back from Wales RU but his previous club Leeds argued that he had signed an agreement with them should he ever return to Super League.
A long, bitter and expensive legal saga ensued.
That was only ended in May 2008 when the Bulls agreed to pay the Rhinos a settlement, the final instalment of which was made in 2011.
It may partly explain why Bradford struggled financially in those years, although it is not as simple as saying that deal was the root cause of where they ended up.
It is believed the Harris saga cost the Bulls around £800,000 in compensation payments, but it is also worth noting they received over half that figure from the sale of Fielden to Wigan in 2006.
Shontayne Hape’s cross-code switch to Bath in 2008 saw the Bulls paid a significant undisclosed fee.
Then there was a compensation fee from South Sydney for Sam Burgess in 2009.
So while the Harris affair certainly left a sizeable hole in their coffers, the Bulls had money coming in.
But the economic climate led to a vast reduction in sponsorship deals and commercial revenue at Odsal.
The Bulls’ generally poor on-field performance further dissuaded sponsors from pumping money into the club.
Then there was the annual pledge scheme, the brainchild of Bennett and Hood whereby fans bought season tickets for just £85.
The scheme saw the Bulls backed in decent numbers, but such low prices did not bring in the kind of revenue the club needed.
After all, aside from the television money paid by the RFL, a club’s main source of revenue is from the cash through the gate.
The Bulls frequently borrowed money from the RFL in the years leading up to their crash in 2012.
“Since 2009, at various times and for various reasons, the Bradford club has been bailed out by SLE (Super League Europe) to the tune of more than one and a quarter million pounds in total,” Hood told me in 2012.
“Without this assistance it is difficult to see how the club could have got this far.
“But the RFL and SLE have made it clear that there is no more money on the table.”
The Bulls sold the lease on their historic home to the RFL for £1.25million in January 2012 as the governing body recovered a £750,000 loan it had made to the club.
The Bulls have since paid rent to the RFL and the freehold to the site is still owned by Bradford Council.
The sale of the lease on Odsal to the governing body in allowed Bradford to pay back monies owed to the RFL, the taxman and other debts.
But when the Bulls’ initial cash crisis materialised, Hood say they did not originally expect the RFL to call in all of their debts straight away when the deal was agreed at the end of 2011.
They said that, along with a change in their lending arrangements from the Royal Bank of Scotland, notably an overdraft reduction, had left them with literally no cash in the business.
So, the club had sold Odsal, its main asset, had no cash whatsoever, and entered administration in June 2012.
Potter, assistant Francis Cummins and other backroom staff worked for three months without pay after being made redundant.
Potter headed home to Australia at the end of the season and Cummins took over as head coach.
More significantly, when Hood and Bennett shuffled off out of Odsal, the club was brought out of administration by local restaurant owner Khan.
A Bradfordian of Pakistani heritage, Khan’s tenure of the club was surreal at times.
Not a rugby league man by any stretch of the imagination, Khan claimed to have attended matches at Odsal during their title-winning pomp.
He was charismatic, charming and he talked a good game.
Khan lasted just a year before clearing off on the grounds of “ill health”.
That was in September 2013 and that is when things started to get ugly. Very ugly.
Ryan Whitcut, the club’s general manager during Khan’s tenure, and Moore tried to take control before Calvert and Watt also appeared on the scene.
It got messy as a loan made to the club by Green led to a shambolic ownership saga, which saw Whitcut leave after he failed the RFL’s fit and proper person’s test.
Moore, Calvert and Watt attempted to seize control themselves but Green, still owed a sizeable sum, lurked in the background.
In January 2014, the Bulls entered administration again, ensuring a six-point deduction and prompting Moore, Calvert and Watt to walk away.
That sparked a bitter public and very war of words with the RFL as the governing body came under scrutiny.
Moore said at the time: “It is with great sadness and frustration that we have been led to this point.
“I believe that we have been forced into making this decision, due to the Rugby Football League’s proposed sanction of a six-point deduction, making relegation almost a certainty.
“In addition, the governing body wished to place the club’s licence into special measures, which, as successful businessmen, will likely taint our personal dealings while embarrassing us all professionally.
“We have, time and time again been complemented for the measures we have put in place by RFL representatives, so have taken this complete lack of support with surprise and shock.”
RFL boss Ralph Rimmer said the situation was of the club’s own making, caused by an attempt by Moore and Whitcut to purchase the Bulls using the club’s own money.
“Throughout our dealings with them, the club’s directors were unable to provide any evidence of new capital investment into Bradford Bulls and consequently, the RFL Executive had no confidence in the business plan that was presented,” said Rimmer.
“We will continue to work with the administrator to find a solvent and viable solution for the club and will provide an update to the other Super League clubs at their scheduled meeting on Wednesday.”
If this all sounds like an utter farce then it is with good reason – it was pantomime season but nobody was laughing.
The net result was that the ownership of the club went to Green, whose loan had made him a secured creditor.
A Londoner who ran a security business in Leeds, Green was another to talk a good game.
He failed to significantly strengthen the squad when he took over; he brought in Steve Ferres as managing director with Robbie Hunter-Paul as chief executive.
Three months after taking over, Green sacked Cummins as head coach – Cummins later successfully sued Green for unfair dismissal – and replaced him with Bulls legend Jimmy Lowes.
He could not prevent the club being relegated to the Championship and so the 2015 campaign saw the club begin life in the second tier.
In fairness to Green, he brought a period of stability to the club during this time, allowing Ferres to assemble a large squad in the hope of an immediate Super League return.
The Bulls made the inaugural Million Pound Game in their first season outside of the top flight but lost to Wakefield and Green had a face like thunder at Belle Vue afterwards.
In 2016, the Bulls suffered a hangover from the previous campaign and two months into the season, Lowes quit as head coach.
Rohan Smith, the son of Australian former Bradford boss Brian Smith, stepped into the breach but failed to guide the Bulls into the Qualifiers.
A dismal 20-0 defeat at Featherstone Rovers in July 16 saw to that and laid the platform for more uncertainty and another financial shortfall as winding-up orders were issued against the Bulls.
Ferres jumped ship soon after that Featherstone debacle and Hunter-Paul was not far behind.
In November 2016, with more money to the taxman, Green placed the club in administration again.
In January 2017, the Bulls were liquidated and the ‘new club’ were hit with a 12-point penalty this time as they sought to avoid relegation to League One.
The question was, who would take over as the club’s new owners?
It was Chalmers, a long-standing associate of then RFL supremo Nigel Wood who had no allegiance to Bradford as a city or Bradford Bulls.
Chalmers’ track record in his homeland showed that he quit as New Zealand Rugby League chairman in 2009, after just a year in the job amid rumours that the NZRL had accumulated huge debts under his stewardship, and a number of foresty businesses he had been involved with had been liquidated.
Nevertheless, he was handed the club by the RFL and the onus was on Chalmers to build a team capable of avoiding the drop.
This, he never did as a side filled mainly with kids slid towards relegation to the third tier, the ultimate indignity.
Geoff Toovey, the legendary former Manly hooker, was in charge that season and left at the end of the year after a long-running saga over being granted a visa.
As is so often the case at Bradford, things are rarely as they seem.
There is usually a subtext. You have to read between the lines.
When Toovey headed off at the end of the year, John Kear arrived to take the reins and lead the fight to make an immediate return to the Championship.
He achieved that, just about, after finishing second behind title winners York City Knights but doubts have persisted about the club’s financial position.
Why was Chalmers chosen as the owner of the ‘new’ club in January 2017 and how is he funding it?
Wood, a Bradfordian who was effectively forced out of the RFL last year, is often spotted at Bulls games and has been for some time.
This year has raised more fears about the club’s cashflow.
County Court Judgments have been issued against the Bulls and Chalmers himself admitted this week the club cannot afford to stay at Odsal and so they will soon leave their home of 85 years.
Moving to Dewsbury for the next two years while they begin “the process of identifying potential alternative stadium development sites” which Chalmers says will “realistically be a two to four year process” will see lose Odsal employees lose jobs.
It will also see the club’s support dwindle further.
For many fans, whose weary heartstrings took another battering with this week’s news, Dewsbury will be a step too far.
Moving to Valley Parade or Bradford Park Avenue appear not to be viable options.
And so the Tetley’s Stadium it is.
The fear is that Chalmers will walk away and that no-one will be willing to fund a club who ground-share at Dewsbury with no home of their own.
As for Chalmers’ financial wherewithal, if he cannot afford or is not willing to keep the club at Odsal, how is he going to fund a new stadium back in the city of Bradford?
The RFL have yet to approve the Bulls’ proposed move to Dewsbury, so the pantomime continues. Again.
Despite everything, the club still intrigues.
Super League supremos like Gary Hetherington and others surely yearn for the days when Bradford would bring several thousand passionate fans to places like Headingley and the DW Stadium.
It guaranteed a bumper payday for those clubs but, with a final home game to be played at Odsal against Sheffield Eagles on September 1, the future of the historic bowl itself is now shrouded in huge uncertainty.
Personally, I would not be surprised to see a deal yet being brokered that would see the Bulls still playing at Odsal next year.
One thing I have learned down the years with Bradford is that you can never rule anything in or out.
The drama, or rather the long-running saga, rumbles on.
