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Bradford Bulls on the cusp of major Odsal development

Bradford Bulls will welcome Widnes Vikings to Odsal in one of the broadcast games from Round Four. CHampionship

The future of Bradford Bulls is up in the air ahead of this new era under IMG with the lease for Odsal up for grabs moving forward.

It has been confirmed on the club’s website that they are one of those vying for the leasehold moving forward.

However, there are a number of others wanting the leasehold and there has even been speculation that someone outside of rugby league could secure the lease and use Odsal for things outside of rugby league.

That being said, this is unlikely with the RFL having a say in where the lease ends up moving forward.

Odsal is a big part of the club’s identity but it is also something that is holding them back in terms of their IMG score.

Bradford Bulls set to keep Academy

Bradford Bulls players celebrate during the Bradford Bulls v York Knights Championship Play-Off Eliminator Quarter Final match at ODSAL Stadium, Bradford, England on the 1 October 2023.

Speaking to the Telegraph and Argus via the Bradford Bulls website, Jason Hirst confirmed the club’s plan to sustain their academy moving forward: “I don’t think you can ever say never, but I don’t envisage any time soon where we won’t have an academy.

“A couple of years ago, when I first came in as CEO, I might have had a different answer for you.

“But in those 20 months since I joined, the club looks different for lots of reasons, the main one being, and this is critical to the academy, that we’ve got a stronger leadership and ownership group.

“There are individuals on the board putting their hard-earned cash into the club to help with things like funding the academy.

“We’re rightly proud of our elite academy and I don’t think we always get the credit we deserve for it, whether that be from close quarters or further afield.

“It’s well documented it costs around £140,000 to run and I get fans challenging me regularly on that and ask why we, along with the Bradford Bulls Foundation, run nine teams, including an Elite Academy, instead of just ploughing all our money into the first team.

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