City and Bulls lock horns over ground-sharing in Bradford

Bradford City joint-chairman Mark Lawn called for councillors to end the long-running saga over Odsal by supporting a plan to take Bradford Bulls to Valley Parade – sparking a heated response from his opposite number Peter Hood.

A 75.5m sporting village based at the home of the city's rugby league club was last month kicked into touch by a funding shortfall.

The ambitious scheme, backed by Bradford Council, included a new 18,000 all-seater stadium plus plans to replace the nearby Richard Dunn Sports Centre.

But a decision by the Learning and Skills Council to freeze funding for major campus refurbishment plans at Bradford College, a major partner in the proposed Odsal Sports Village, left the local authority with just 19.3m of the required money.

As a result, the Council, who have committed 15m from their own capital budget and secured backing from Yorkshire Forward, were forced to look at several scaled-down options for Odsal.

This has, however, infuriated City joint-chairman Lawn, who now believes the time has come for both to be housed at Valley Parade, with the Odsal site possibly sold to help fund a move across town.

Lawn said: "It's important all City fans are made aware of the plans that the Council has to, effectively, give another 15m to Bradford Bulls to ensure their stadium is fit for Super League.

"This is just the latest gesture from a council which has never showed any similar interest in supporting Bradford City in any way at all.

"Recently, the Council spent 2m looking into a proposal that would see City and the Bulls playing together at Odsal, but this entire process was a farce.

"They never even took the time to contact us for our financial information. Instead, they ended up using figures which showed our proposed earnings being in excess of the time when we were in the Premier League.

"It's our position that the proposal to spend 15m in this way is the wrong decision for Bradford at a time when the city has so many other more pressing priorities.

"We feel that the council should instead support a plan which would see both clubs accommodated at Valley Parade."

Bulls chairman Hood was quick to refute many of Lawn's claims.

"First, no one ever 'gave' the Bulls 'another 15m' or indeed any millions," he said. "I suspect Mr Lawn is thinking about the 5m or so we received from the council upon returning from Valley Parade to Odsal in 2002.

"We negotiated a deal which enabled the council to buy themselves out of their obligations under our previous lease that would have cost ratepayers an estimated 20m. In my judgment that was a very good deal for the taxpayer."

Hood continued: "The 15m in question originates with the sale of Leeds-Bradford Airport.

"It has been committed as part of the funding for the OSV which is not all about Bradford Bulls – it will deliver sport, recreation and leisure facilities for all the people of the district by replacing an ageing Richard Dunn centre with a state-of-art facility and pool, as well as providing education for our young people via Bradford College."

Hood showed his staunch belief in the current plan by adding: "When the OSV goes ahead it will be owned and operated by a not-for-profit Trust managed by the stakeholders, including in particular the council.

"That's where the 15m will go, together with the Odsal stadium site – not to Bradford Bulls."

The debate about whether they should share a stadium has been raging for decades. Both have played at the other's home temporarily – City moved to Odsal in the wake of the 1985 fire disaster, while the Bulls played at Valley Parade for two years from 2001.

A more long-term arrangement has, however, been resisted with fans of either club appearing unwilling to make the switch.

The question over both sharing Valley Parade is also complicated by the football club merely being tenants at the stadium.