How to kill a club in 10 years - the decline of the Bradford Bulls

Thursday 1 July 2004. The events of that day are cited by many as the starting point for the Bulls current troubles.

That day didn't signal the end of the glory times for the Bulls. They would go on to reach the next two Super League Grand Finals, collecting the top prize in 2005, and followed that with a World Club Challenge triumph over Wests Tigers in February 2006.

So what makes that date so important? What happened that day that can be traced through to what the most pessimistic fear may be the end for professional rugby league in Bradford? Iestyn Harris was presented as a Bradford Bulls player on a reported £1 million four-and-a-half year deal.

Harris left the Bulls at the end of the 2008 season, but some claim they are still counting the cost of that deal today as the club sits without an owner, on -2 points in the league table despite back to back February wins and losing players every time you visit the Telegraph & Argus website.

An out of court settlement between Bradford and the Leeds Rhinos over the breach of contract they induced Harris to make was finally agreed in 2008. Some estimates had the figure set in the millions of pounds, £3.2m being the claim raised.

Some clarity was given in 2012 after the compensation payment had been completed and the Bulls were in there first period of administration. It was announced by then director Stephen Coulby that the settlement was £550k, paid over three years after an increase in TV revenues afforded them the opportunity to still afford a competitive side as well...in theory. A total cost of the saga of £629k was given - this included the legal fees the club's books showed between the high court case in 2005 and settlement in 2008.

Surely the much reduced figure actually paid means that the Harris deal can't be the main reason for the state they currently find themselves in? We shouldn't forget that 'Bullmania' was the envy of most other Super League clubs as the Bulls won four of the first ten titles and attracted the league's top crowds along the way. One mistake over the legal ownership of a player's availability can't itself have undone all of that can it? So what other factors were at play?

On the field
Not all Bradford's problems can be seen on the administrators desk in financial reports. Some of what went wrong can be seen by looking at the players on the pitch and the results they produced,

The decline in playing quality started after that last Grand Final win in 2005. You can compare the quality and experience of that side with that which started in Round 1 of 2007, notably the forward packs.

2005 Grand Final
Front row: Jamie Peacock, Ian Henderson, Stuart Fielden
Back row: Paul Johnson, Brad Meyers, Lee Radford
Bench: Jamie Langley, Adrian Morley, Joe Vagana

2007 Round 1
Front row: Joe Vagana, Terry Newton, Chris Feather
Back row: Jamie Langley, Ben Harris, Glenn Morrison
Bench: Matt Cook, Ian Henderson, Sam Burgess

In just over a year the quality in the forwards had notably reduced. There were still some quality players but I know which pack I would have preferred to have playing for me.

None of that 2005 pack were done playing - all of the six that left by 2007 went on for a number years, some playing NRL, many winning trophies elsewhere, and some still playing in play off competing sides now. Yet Bradford somehow let that great team get broken up before it's time was done.

A major factor in the on field decline must be the inability of Bradford to either develop or retain talented players in the last decade.

The 2005 squad had a number of players who had made their names after coming through at Bradford (Peacock, Fielden, Langley, Leon Pryce, Paul Deacon, Rob Parker) and a group of young players starting to emerge through their system (Karl Pryce, Brett Ferres, Stuart Reardon, Matt Cook).

None are now at Bradford. Those retired didn't end their career at the club either. How many of those names would be renowned now for what they did at Bradford? Only really Deacon, Langley and maybe Fielden? Most earned or enhanced their reputations elsewhere. Many have won trophies and/or international honours since leaving the Bulls.

The same tend has been seen since the break up of that side. You can add Ryan Atkins, Craig Kopczak and Joe Wardle to that list, as well as Sam Tom and George Burgess. Jason Crookes, Elliott Whitehead and John Bateman are more recent leavers that will fulfil their potential elsewhere.

The last player to play for one of the top tier international sides whilst at Bradford was Sam Burgess in the 2009 Four Nations.

The last star signing made by Bradford was Matt Orford. The former Dally M winner was brought in on a three year deal in 2010, then aged 31. He was reportedly on Aus$500k per year, roughly £275k at the time. He played a dozen games, busted his shoulder, then forced an early release from his deal before the 2011 season.

They haven't really made any other signings that would set the pulses racing in the last decade, and certainly not in the years since the Orford deal went wrong.

Instead of a team of Britain/England and New Zealand internationals, you would get the odd player to represent a Celtic or South Sea Island nation together with a strong of signings discarded by other clubs or plucked untested from the lower reaches.

No longer could top talent be attracted and the performance level dipped to the point where no playoff appearance has been made since the signing they apparently ruined the club left at the end of the 2008 season. Licencing has not been kind to the Bulls - despite the increased playoff spots allowing mediocre sides a shot at Old Trafford, Bradford haven't made the top 8 in five years of licensing (Okay, in 2012 that was only because of a points deduction for the off field problems).

Off the field
The closing point above shows there is an element of on and off field problems going hand in hand.

In the opening decade of Super League 'Bullmania' saw Bradford be the best or second best supported club in Super League season in season out. And this was despite a dip when they briefly relocated away from Odsal. They only sat outside the top three in the regular season ladder at the end of one of the first 11 campaigns.

In part the relative decline in Bradford crowds is because of on and off field improvements at other clubs. However three of the last five seasons have seen average gates fall below 10,000 so there had also been an absolute fall. Since 2006 when the Bulls last claimed some silverware the attendance rank has only been top 3 once. They've also only finished in the top 3 in the league once and spent most of the last 8 years out of the play offs.

2010 was the low point for attendance and performance. In an effort to get more fans through the turnstiles they slashed season ticket prices for the 2011 season. If 10,000 memberships were sold, adult tickets of £60 were available.

An attempt to reward and draw in fans should be applauded. I'm not sure they ran their numbers right though. We've run some very crude numbers but the result of our calculations suggested that the ticket revenues in 2011 were around half 2010 numbers despite average crowds being a lot higher - average gate went from 8338 to 13352.

It didn't have the desired effect on influencing the team as they again finished 10th. It also was a questionable move coming off the back of £311,403 losses in 2010 and a determination to still spend too the cap limit, whilst paying of the last of the Harris settlement.

Undeterred, Chief Exec Ryan Duckett decided to go around again, this time 2011 tickets would be available for £75 if 12,000 were sold. That target wasn't meet but £90 season tickets were still available. Average crowd dipped to 11761. This would mean a marginal increase in ticket revenues from the year before, but the financial reality started to bite. This scheme was not doing it's job and the key source of ongoing revenue wasn't coming into the club. Money was being forsaken, investment in facilities and playing personnel would be hit. The writing was possibly on the wall for what was to come.

The next step in the sorry saga came with the same of Odsal to the RFL in January 2012. It was positioned that the sale was to protect the iconic venue from property vultures looking to take the site away from our game. Sadly we all fell for this line and didn't expect what was to come. Maybe the RFL fell for the lies too because they had awarded the club another three year license not too long before being needed to step in to protect the club's major asset.

The scale of the issues stated to emerge in March 2012 when the club announced a £1m shortfall in revenues that left the club potentially a fortnight away from liquidation. Begging letters were sent to fans and former players donated treasured memorabilia to the cause as £500k was raised to prevent the Easter derby with Leeds from being the last game at Odsal as had been threatened.

It couldn't however stop the Bulls from administration when the real depth of the crisis was revealed to be a debt of £1.25m or more that prompted administration, a points deduction and the redundancy of all non-playing personnel - the coaching staff and many others at the club returning to work for free shortly after.

A protracted period of administration was survived and the team actually battled to the brink of a play off appearance before the points deduction did for them in that 2012 season. Eventually local restauranteur Omar Khan and politician Gerry Sutcliffe were successful in saving the club in September that year and were even afforded the opportunity to remain in Super League with a 12 month provisional license. The draw back to that was the surrendering of the following years TV money, to be shared amongst the other clubs instead.

That again was another very questionable decision in the whole messy saga. It could therefore have been hardly surprising that more issues would start to show themselves in July 2013 with player wages starting to find themselves delayed with banking issues blamed before owner Omar Khan reportedly released £900k in property equity to fund the club through to the end of the season and apparently the off season too. 

But it wasn't really that clear cut and the drama was about to fully come to light again. Khan and Sutcliffe were to relinquish control of the club at the end of the season, citing ill health of Khan and staying they had achieved their primary objective of saving the club from extinction.

It son became questionable how much that was true, but first their was the issue of one of the new owners, Ryan Whitcut, failing the RFL's fit and proper person tests with a string of badly managed companies on his record books. Of course he had managed to get by despite this and had a board level involvement in the (mis)management of the club since the administration.

Mark Moore remained though and looked set to take over the club with Ian Watt and Andrew Calvert until they started to wrangle with the departing owners about the transfer of shares after finding "massive holes and that cash-flow projections were based on extremely poor forecasts." They claimed to find over £400k outstanding to a host of creditors, with a further undisclosed loan of £180k. This all led to them temporarily stepping down to try and force a deal through on their terms before coming back to the table with apartment RFL guidance and support in early 2014.

No contractual agreement was sorted out so the new company left the old one to be forced into administration on the eve of the new season before claiming to have successfully taken control of the club. All that was apparently left was for RFL ratification and the discovery of what sanctions this latest administration would impose upon them.

An intriguing twist cane when it emerged three other parties were also wanting to bid for the club, but the incumbent board won out. Then came a second 6 point deduction in 3 seasons and a war of words with the RFL about the new ownership's credibility - a combination of which saw the board withdraw their offer for the club.

The other parties remained interested and up on the rails came Mandy Koukash, Dr Marwan's good lady wife. The bids are now in, the decision is with the administrators to make. One thing is clear though, if you want to learn how not to run a sports club you need to look no further than the chequered history of the myriad of owners and chief executives seen pulling the strings at Odsal in the last decade. Who would have thought signing a major world class talent would prompt the demise of one of Super League's champion clubs.

The Bull's aren't quite dead. Long live the Bulls!

Researched and written by Mark - Tom couldn't bring himself to relive it all!