Bulls chief executive Abi Ekoku has given the strongest indication yet that the Odsal Stadium re-development will go ahead as planned.

Ekoku has been handling negotiations with all the relevant bodies and fully expects work on the 26,000-capacity complex to commence before the end of the year.

"I know there have been concerns about the project," said Ekoku. "But while publicly things have gone a little bit quiet there has been a massive amount of work going on behind the scenes.

"We have now reached the stage where all the parties are agreed and in view of all the worries I would like to re-assure our fans that we remain extremely optimistic."

The £60m regeneration of the site, which will include a Tesco Superstore, still has to win approval from planners locally and nationally but Ekoku does not anticipate any major problems.

"We are not complacent but the scheme will help to regenerate Bradford enormously and, on that basis, I cannot believe that anyone can stand in its way.

"The contractors tell us that the construction time for the stadium is 50 weeks and we are confident that we are firmly on schedule to begin the 2003 season back at a state-of-the-art Odsal facility."