UK Edition
Bradford Bulls bid farewell to Odsal Stadium with victory as cautionary tale sees fallen giants leave city
As hundreds, if not thousands, of Bradford Bulls supporters descended on the pitch at the final hooter, it did not look or feel like a club ready to part company with their iconic home of 85 years.
Rugby league’s fallen giants have suffered an extraordinary fall from grace during the past decade and Sunday’s 30-10 Championship victory against Sheffield Eagles marked the end of an era.
Raw emotion dripped from every corner of Odsal, a decaying but unique amphitheatre where the pitch sits at the bottom of a huge bowl and which, curiously, has its own micro-climate.
In 1954 it housed a then world-record crowd of 102,569 but a ground where the ashes of several generations of Bradford supporters are scattered will now close after owner Andrew Chalmers said he could no longer afford its rates, rent and maintenance.
More alarming still is the club being placed in special measures by the Rugby Football League due to concerns over their financial sustainability.
From next season, the Bulls will share a ground with Dewsbury Rams some 10 miles away and, crucially, outside the Bradford district.
There was great sadness among the 7,531 crowd, which included many legends such as Keith Mumby, Deryck Fox and Leon Pryce, at how it had come to this.
Early in the millennium, Bradford reached five successive Super League Grand Finals and won three of them. They did the treble in 2003 and were World Club champions three times during that glorious era. They set standards off the pitch when the “Bullmania” match-day experience became the envy of the rest of Super League.
Since 2012, however, Bradford have suffered three administrations, two relegations and a liquidation. Various owners have talked about returning the club to their former glories but have none have delivered; opportunism overcoming all modesty or, as it usually turns out, ability.
One long-standing fan said: “After everything we’ve been through, I’m cynical and I still think we could be back at Odsal next season. Look at the support here today – I love the club and will still go regardless of where we play.”
Odsal itself and its associated costs has partly proved the club’s undoing. In 2012, the RFL bought the lease on the stadium from the Bulls and later that year came the first financial meltdown and spell in administration. The club’s entire coaching staff were made redundant but worked without pay for three months. Images of players washing cars and flipping burgers at Odsal to raise cash to keep the Bulls afloat remain iconic.
After a third spell in administration in November 2016 came liquidation and an unthinkable fall into the third tier. In January 2017, the reformed club were handed to Chalmers, a New Zealander with no links to Bradford.
The RFL owns the lease on Odsal but now has no tenant and closure of the site will lead to numerous Bradford employees losing their jobs. With only 14 players contracted for next season and coach John Kear unable to sign anyone while the club remains in special measures, the future remains uncertain.
Despite this victory, Bradford’s play-off hopes ended due to results elsewhere but among their try-scorers were local lads Ethan Ryan, Brandon Pickersgill and Ross Peltier, emphasising the home-grown heart in the side.
Kear said: “It is sad to be leaving Odsal, but we have just got to keep this club alive and kicking and hopefully progressing. That’s what we will be attempting to do at Dewsbury next year before we hopefully find somewhere in Bradford that is befitting of a team that is challenging for Super League or is in Super League.”