League 2 General Chat Thread

[Indian Dan]

The rent was £400,000 back in 2001 when they moved in. It increases every year. As much as I like seeing them getting screwed over it’s a real piss take from Kassam. Their lease has 2 years left to run which will not be renewed. Think they’re struggling, timescale wise, to sort out a new home. PMSL

 

[クレイグ]

I dunno how true it is but I have a work colleague who supports Bradford and reckons you are paying out near a million a year for the stadium and training facilities which is obviously a big issue, and would make sense why you cannot compete with those at the very top budget wise, but you are still massively underachieving because it’s clearly still competitive.

I don’t doubt whoever comes in needs deep pockets, it’s going to require paying a bit over initially then finding a solution to the stadium and training facility.

I don’t think Rupp can be slagged off for running the club sustainably but obviously the money that is available is not being spent properly and ultimately it’s those at the top to blame.

Though the training facilities are excellent I don't think we're paying half a million for them or thereabouts. The stadium lease runs out in 2028 and we've been recently cozying up to the company that own the ground, so hopefully we can get a better deal.

Agree on the last bit. The money we've spent has been misspent to an alarming degree. Think we had the biggest squad in the league at the start of the season. Brought in so much poor quality; Players who were terrible in relegated sides and handing them three year deals. Then you factor in the cost of sacking Adams and Hughes. Was a rumor going round that Hughes didn't actually take a penny when he was sacked, which is fantastic if true.

I think people would cut Rupp some slack if he actually spoke to the fans. We've only heard from him once this season and it was after a couple of wins. He posted on Instagram "That's for all the doubters," then we've been on a dreadful run of eight without a win and we haven't heard from him since. I feel we need some experience to help Sparks behind the scenes.

 

[クレイグ]

This was quickly deleted the other day. Bit of a disgraceful thing to post if it isn't true. Not sure what the tit was thinking.

 

[Indian Dan]

Begs the question. Why did Rupp buy the club in the first place? Is he making money out of owning it?

 

[DearneValleyRover]

We’ve been playing the sustainability card for years and since we started we’ve gone from the Championship to possibly non league so it’s a great model to follow

 

[Indian Dan]

Why do we all fall for it?

 

[クレイグ]

Begs the question. Why did Rupp buy the club in the first place? Is he making money out of owning it?

Was talked into it by Edin Rahic, who came in with Rupp when he bought the club. They were partners. Everything was fairly rosy in their first season - we got to the playoff final in League One but lost 1-0 to an offside goal against Millwall. Second season and everything started to go wrong. Edin was spending way beyond the budget and was generally seen as a lunatic. Things got so bad that some of our fans actually flew to Germany to speak to Rupp. Rupp got rid of Edin and had to loan the club something like 1-2million to cover what Edin had spent.

Don't think Rupp has made a single penny from Bradford City. I'm surprised he didn't just cut his losses the other year when Wagmi were interested. He has absolutely zero interest in football.

 

[Indian Dan]

You’d be even worse off if Wagmi had bought you. Think they are sinking quickly

 

[Indian Dan]

Remember those halcyon days before social media and we just turned up on matchdays, scoffed at the so-called official attendance, knew fuck all about was going on behind the scenes and just accepted the ‘owners’ were sucking clubs dry.

 

[クレイグ]

You’d be even worse off if Wagmi had bought you. Think they are sinking quickly

Definitely dodged a bullet with them. They did a Twitter space with our fans and they didn't even know that we didn't own the ground. That was just a few days before it was revealed Rupp knocked them back.

 

[Gi Dalor]

If I was a multi-millionaire, I wouldn't buy Bradford City. Mostly because of the ground situation.

Of course I'm guessing a lot of the financial stuff. If I were incredibly rich, maybe I would find out more so that I could evaluate the proposition better.

If I were both rich and famous, I would do it just so I could call the documentary, 'I'm a Celebrity. get me out of League 2'.

However, owning a L2 club is not a good idea unless you're happy to lose money.
I've seen a comment online where someone is upset that Sparks refers to the club as a business, but it is a business. even if an owner is happy to lose money, you still have to run it like a business to ensure the losses are acceptable.

It's not as though I'm happy with the club situation at all. I can live with the matches being unwatchable if we're pushing hard for promotion, and possibly the other way round as well. Bottom half of the table while the matches are so bad fans are going to stop buying season and match tickets, that's a problem.

I would say last season we were relatively successful, but the matches weren't usually great watching. It was more a situation i could tolerate rather than an ideal situation.

We just need to stick with a manager long-term. unfortunately, I'm really not confident that Graham Alexander is the right manager. I do appreciate his honesty. He seems like a solid guy. It's very tough that he now has to base the team around Jake Young, and change the way the team plays, but can't actually do that because Young is injured again. Probably not for long, but I don't think he'll play this week, and sure as hell won't be ready to start. Tyreik's still injured, so at least for the next match Alexander probably has to go back to the plan that's repeatedly failed. At least most of the people paying to watch it won't be our fans. Hopefully they can get some good documentary footage of Wrexham fans stabbing themselves in the eyeballs to relieve the pain.

 

[Chris FGR]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1755623955317092616

Saw him getting kicked out at the Fleetwood home game in April. What a bellend.

 

[Greenacres]

We’ve been playing the sustainability card for years and since we started we’ve gone from the Championship to possibly non league so it’s a great model to follow

So have we...in case anyone hadn't noticed...we went from the National League to League One. Our new fad is recycling, with a return to the National League.

 

[Optipez]

Why do we all fall for it?

I'm not sure we do but there's bugger all we can do to change anything. Sustainable is just doublespeak for belt tightening, usually when the owner's had enough of splurging compensation on managers when the five year plan is failing.

 

[GTFCfish]

Christ an ex player of ours Peter Handyside has died aged just 49, absolute class CB in our Championship days like a lower league Alan Hansen the way he waltzed out of defence with the ball he just oozed class.
Proper shocked to hear this.

 

[AdamStag]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1755623955317092616

Saw him getting kicked out at the Fleetwood home game in April. What a bellend.

A retard like that barely deserves to be known as human, let alone dragging down the club “they support” with them.

 

[Meadow]

A retard like that barely deserves to be known as human, let alone dragging down the club “they support” with them.

I'd argue with the term retard. Plenty of folk suffering from retardation such as my brother are thoroughly nice people without a racist bone in their body. Barely human I can get along with.

 

[saddler78]

Christ an ex player of ours Peter Handyside has died aged just 49, absolute class CB in our Championship days like a lower league Alan Hansen the way he waltzed out of defence with the ball he just oozed class.
Proper shocked to hear this.

A lot of people in there 40s and 50s seem to be dying since covid nothing to see there though apparently.

 

[Meadow]

I'd argue with the term retard. Plenty of folk suffering from retardation such as my brother are thoroughly nice people without a racist bone in their body. Barely human I can get along with.

Actually, in the cold light of day..... Erm, middle of the night - racist fuckwit is a pretty accurate term. How many times have I posted that recently? Too fucking many. Why are there so many racist neanderthals out there? Upbringing, peer pressure? Who knows? Thankfully my offspring - similar age to this neanderthal - whilst not colourblind are not racist.

 

[TheDon]

Actually, in the cold light of day..... Erm, middle of the night - racist fuckwit is a pretty accurate term. How many times have I posted that recently? Too fucking many. Why are there so many racist neanderthals out there? Upbringing, peer pressure? Who knows? Thankfully my offspring - similar age to this neanderthal - whilst not colourblind are not racist.

Careful Meadow, some of my distant ancestors married Neanderthals

 

[Agombar stool]

I'd argue with the term retard. Plenty of folk suffering from retardation such as my brother are thoroughly nice people without a racist bone in their body. Barely human I can get along with.

I abhor that term also.

 

[GTFCfish]

Careful Meadow, some of my distant ancestors married Neanderthals

Pretty sure some of my neighbours are Neanderthals to be honest, it says a lot when I’m probably the most refined person down my street and I’m as common as muck.

 

[Son of Cod]

Christ an ex player of ours Peter Handyside has died aged just 49, absolute class CB in our Championship days like a lower league Alan Hansen the way he waltzed out of defence with the ball he just oozed class.
Proper shocked to hear this.

Yep, easily one of my favourite players growing up in the 90s. Remember him playing alongside the likes of Futcher, Lever and Rodger. Very well liked at Stoke too. Sad news.

 

[EnglishRed]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1756259120154280338

Presumably that 4m of commercial revenue is largely Vince pumping in money through inflated Ecotricity sponsorship?

 

[F!RTHY]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1756259120154280338

Presumably that 4m of commercial revenue is largely Vince pumping in money through inflated Ecotricity sponsorship?

Has to be.

Commercially, we’re turning over £1m+ - which is said to be very high comparative with other clubs at this level (with the exception of Wrexham).

Overall turnover should be around £9m for 22/23 financial year. As a guideline, this is similar to a lower end Championship club, if you take away their standard £6m parachute payments, as most clubs in that bottom 6 category usually turnover circa £15m.

On the topic of our ground rent, it’s just under £500k per annum. However, it’s the general operational costs that are crippling. To play at Valley Parade, will cost us just over £1.4m per annum before a ball has even been kicked.

 

[Reginald Fodstain]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1755623955317092616

Saw him getting kicked out at the Fleetwood home game in April. What a bellend.

He's actually a Tranmere fan - he's had a banning order since 2019 for pitch invading. Don't know him, but I was aware of his existence, mostly because he'd get thrown out of every away game (he had a home stadium ban so could only go away, and the full banning order was obviously only going to be a matter of time). The worrying thing was that he seemed to be a really nice lad on the couple of occasions I spoke to him, albeit he clearly had issues. Hopefully the 9 months inside gives him some time to sort his priorities out and he gets some kind of help. Should never be let near a football ground as long as he lives though!

 

[Meadow]

This came up on my YouTube feed this morning. He's doing the 92 by drone. 18/24 L2 clubs covered so far.92 by drone

 

[Casey]

After me saying we hadn't heard anything from Wagmi for ages they held a fans forum last night.

I couldn't go as I came back from Spain with Bubonic Plague with a side of Rabies but the reports I've seen are mixed.

Looking to extend the lease on the ground (Council owned), tried to sign a couple of strikers early in the window but outbid. A few offers for our players but nothing special.

Preston then said that tonight may be his last live game and, it seems, he was a little emotional (he has had a cancer scare so I do hope it's nothing to do with that).

People have commented that there was lots of past tense sentances (if we were here next season what we would do etc. ). A few rumours we will be sold being fueled.

Casey

 

[Gi Dalor]

After me saying we hadn't heard anything from Wagmi for ages they held a fans forum last night.

I couldn't go as I came back from Spain with Bubonic Plague with a side of Rabies but the reports I've seen are mixed.

Looking to extend the lease on the ground (Council owned), tried to sign a couple of strikers early in the window but outbid. A few offers for our players but nothing special.

Preston then said that tonight may be his last live game and, it seems, he was a little emotional (he has had a cancer scare so I do hope it's nothing to do with that).

People have commented that there was lots of past tense sentences (if we were here next season what we would do etc. ). A few rumours we will be sold being fueled.

Casey

They've said they'll put the video up. Based on twitter it seems that none of the WAGMIOut people turned up.

 

[GTFCfish]

I couldn't go as I came back from Spain with Bubonic Plague.

I went to Spain as a teenager and I came back with something nasty too.
Caught it off a girl from Hull that I met over there.