Surely the extra income would come from people not being put off when it rains, more young people coming owing to a better atmosphere. Most of the kids in the South stand at Leeds don't appear to watch the game but they have a great time singing and pay their entry like everyone else.



We've gone to great trouble and I suspect no little expense to re-engage with families and one good downpour could literally p**s on the whole parade. Mum won't bring kids to catch pneumonia.



I'm not blaming Peter Hood as he could have done little else but champion the OSV but maybe we need to look at (cheap) realistic options.

I would think most of those affected by that who have little kids would either already pay to go in the family stand or not go anyway because it's still going to be cold.



Eventually, it probably would pay for itself with that, but it would take a long long long time.

Oh, isn't it just so predictable, that when things seem to be going so well, we get a punch in the gut over the stadium





Seriously, this can hardly be unexpected can it? When the Council has to make compulsory redundancies across the provision of its services, it would hardly seem likely - removing our most biased of hats - that it is reasonable to spend on something that, at the end of the day, is something of a luxury. Unless there's a sugar daddy on the horizon, and if there is then he's doing a great job of staying off the radar - we look to be well and truly stuck.



I suspect that the next round franchise 'feedback' will be next key 'driver'. Assuming we are safe with our next franchise (I believe that we are OK with our other criteria), then we'll need to take careful note of our feedback. If there is talk of 'need to replace ground with more modern facility' or similar, then we can't just mooch around for two or three years doing nothing. Or, even worse, place our faith is yet another 'pie in the sky' scheme.



It would seem the only two viable options between now and 2015, would be either to somehow scrape together the money for a modest upgrade of Odsal (taking care to do just enough to meet minimum franchise qualifications) or to move to Valley Parade once and for all.



Personally, I'm OK with the latter, but I'm probably in the minority.

When I used to travel to all away grounds I always thought Odsal to be one of the better grounds, & that was before some of the more recent developments. Now, though, all of the poor grounds have been replaced or are looking fairly likely, except Wakey who I fear are doomed. So the bar has obviously been raised but I still think Odsal is acceptable, however the maintenacne costs must be a nightmare. I've said all along that OSV will not happen, about a year ago there was a programme put forward for the development that was impossible to achieve. The club were naive or very poorly advised if they ever thought it would happen to those timescales. I have worked on numerous construction projects when you get the feel early on that you are wasting time & fees continuing, but there are usually some important people who have invested a lot of effort & reputation in the job & bury their heads in the sand. I feel there is an element of this in OSV.

Although a roof over the pop side will make no difference to me attending games at Odsal, I guess the view is it would attract the floating punter who clubs are chasing. Estimates of several million do seem excessive to me. I quoted the total cost of Leigh's new stadium (c£17m IIRC) on a previous thread, we are only talking a roof here. I guess the best bet for the Bulls would be to get into bed with someone like Caddick to build one for them.

But Leigh was on a level, prepared site - and not having to be built up the side of a steep bank over an existing concrete terrace, with a cinder underfill, and needing to be at least twice as high as a result. I think that was one of the main reasons why the Odsal crater would have had to be filled in with a million tons or more of hardcore so there was a level site to build on? That said, I guess you save the costs of building the concrete ramped stand...?

I appreciate Odsal is not the easiest of grounds topographically, however construction companies are used to building incredibly complex structures in the middle of city centres surrounded by living businesses & thousands of workers & shoppers. Odsal would be vacated for the duration of the build, obviously the off-season so no loss of income. Any cantilevered construction would have to be piled anyway therefore the poor sub-soil is relatively of little additional cost I would think. Given the number of consultants working on OSV, several who we work with, I would be astounded if the Bulls have not got a reasonably accurate estimate just for a new roof. The devil is always in the detail. There will never be a better time to get competitive costs for construction works, between 30-50% less than 2 or 3 years ago (when Leigh was built).

...and bloody great holes too...

There are a few hundred piles unused in the ground there. If you could come up with an easy system of extracting them you would be a rich man.

Unlikely.



Since if I could, I would be utilising most of them to jam up the respective 'arrises of the various muppets who allowed that situation to develop...

Valley Parade will be the death of the club.

TBH I don't think the chances of the OSV are any worse (or better) than they have ever been, I don't think the "cuts" affect it a great deal. The big question is and always has been whether there is a real desire on the part of the local authority to push it through, that is what has been sorely lacking in Bradford for many decades and if the current or recent councils had really wanted things to happen then they could have made them happen much quicker. It was and remains at least "possible" as opposed to all the previous "pie in the sky" schemes but was and remains unlikely to progress for the foreseeable. By which I mean REAL progress towards picks and shovels, not six-monthly talking shops.



I remember clearly reading that the big issue with a cantilever on the popular terrace is that Odsal is built on a tip and this would make constructing anything modern ruinously expensive, which is why the cheaper option, apparently, was to fill in the bowl and build on top. One of the biggest shames of the plan was that we would forever lose that magnificent and awe-inspiring Odsal bowl, but as the bean-counters of the OSV plans have decreed that - even if we had the money in place to build it tomorrow - we can't afford to build around the edges, but must fill it in for cost reasons, then there's your answer, the cost of supporting a cantilever stand over the terrace makes it not feasible. Not impossible, if you have enough money you can build anything anywhere - just financially not feasible.



Building a shed roof with supports, a la Coral stand, would just be embarrassing. Thank god there's zero chance of it happening.

It may end up our only option. Odsal in it's present state isn't fit for purpose, that's what the chairman says and he's right.



The club will find it increasingly difficult if it stays in an undeveloped Odsal. It's massive financial millstone as it is and will only cost more and more eventually dragging it under.



As has been said above the Council have never had the will to do anything with it and that means it'll never get re-developed.



I predict we'll be at VP within 5 years.