I'd like to think if we developed the popular side we might remove those?





I could cope with some pillars if it meant we got a new stand!

doubt it would be extra as speaker poles could then be eliminated, with speakers moving up into the roof. So instead of all the speaker poles you'd have 3 or 4 pillars supporting roof. And looking at the ones on the main stand they arent ridiculously thick ones either. Swings and roundablouts really as, as adey says, we cant afford to do it anyway. But going forwards we are going to have to do something before 2015 franchise round.

Pillars would be a nightmare.... no thanks

How about NL1?

I cant think of one newer stand/stadium that has columns rather than the modern cantilever.



I would expect a solution similar to huddersfield to be used which negates the need for expensive piling and anchoring.



Still not cheap by any means given the size of the popular side.



Odsals problem when it comes to redevelopment is its sheer size, everything is done on a larger scale as the bowl is twice as big as it actually needs to be.

A move to VP looks ever more likely. Let's face it, it's what the council has wanted for decades.

I wonder how much it would cost Westfield to buy out of their agreement to build a shopping centre?



We have a prepared site and potential funding sat in the middle of town (assuming its still like that - I don't live anywhere near Bradford).

What funding?



At the moment, I suspect the value of Westfield's commitment is approximately two bent washers.



No way anyway would any council allow a second stadium to be built within sight of VP - imagine the uproar?. No-one could justify building a new stadium in the city centre anyway on any grounds, certainly not economic. And who would pay for it?



When's that merger with Halifax going to manifest itself?

I sit in the main stand and never notice the pillars. If the option are a) No new stand and supporters standing in the rain or b) A relatively cheap stand erected while we spend the next 40 years discussing the wholesale redevelopment of the site then I'd vote for option b.



We have to move past discussing £200million options and doing nothing.

I gather putting a roof over the popular terrace and related works, bit like a mirror of the main stand, would cost several million (was told that a while ago). It would generate little additional income on its own, so where would the funding come from?



Bear in mind too the layout of the site: the popular terrace does not extend as far along towards the Coral Stand as the Main Stand does, and there is the big bank above the top of the Popular Terrace that is not there in the same way behind the Main Stand. There is also the matter that - IIRC - the Bulls' long lease does not actually cover all the buildings above the Popular Terrace, and one of the transport plans had some of that land being used for the South Bradford transport improvements? You'd almost certainly be looking at new offices etc as part of any development, I think. have I suspect these factors could add to the cost. Anyone know how much the Main Stand cost to build for the 1986 world speedway championships?



I'm not sure whether a lid on the Popular Terrace would by itself be enough to tick all the RFL's boxes for stadium criteria by the time we get to 2015, although you would hope we'd tick most given last time our stadium was rated as being "in need of some improvement" rather than being a "tired old stadium" like the ones who were told they HAD to get a new stadium.

In all seriousness (although I do wish they'd get rid of those bloody speaker poles), I think Adey has hit the nail on the head.



Yeah I may change my mind when I'm p*ss wet through and freezing, but I'd actually prefer to not have a roof than the club waste their own money on building one. As has been said, it will not make any significant money back and certainly won't pay for itself, so the club paying for it would just mean that money could not be spent elsewhere.



Sure, if it's needed for a franchise, it's worth it and does pay for itself. But if not, I'd rather get wet and have the club spend the money on something far more important.

Didn't Peter Hood say last year that they had a back-up plan or plans? Or do they just do nothing, because in effect that is what they have been doing for the last 15 years while all these pie in the sky schemes came and went? And how much has Bradford Council spent on feasibility studies for all manner of projects that never materialised? It would be a real shame for the Club to have done so much work bringing the Fans back and not to have a Plan B for the Stadium!