A crucial new report on the future of the Odsal Sporting Village proposal has revealed that Bradford College has become a key partner in the scheme.

The report, which is the result of eight months' work by an informal Project Review Group, welcomes the college's commitment as a joint partner with Bradford Council and Bradford Bulls in the delivery and future management of the project.

The College's involvement has emerged from discussions about the need to provide a full range of modern sports facilities in Bradford before and after the 2012 Olympic Games.

The report said it was not possible to provide a detailed financial appraisal of the sporting village at this point, but recommended that external consultants be brought in to undertake a full business case for the scheme.

The report also said the Council's strategic director of culture, tourism and sport should be instructed to set up a formal Project Steering Committee to progress the plans.

With complex discussions over land, funding and planning, the long-running saga surrounding the proposed sporting village has seen more twists and turns than a hard-fought rugby league game.

Bulls chairman Peter Hood today expressed frustration with the long wait, but said the new report had given him reason for optimism.

He said: "We are not quite there yet, but we are, I believe, better placed than ever before to deliver a centre of excellence in education, sports and leisure that will be second to none in the UK, a fitting home for a world class rugby club and a solution to community-wide challenges that will put Bradford back on the map in the most positive of ways.

"The Project Review Group has spent six months refining the scheme content and identifying partners and sources of essential capital funding.

"The next stage is detailed financial planning to demonstrate the viability of the Odsal Sports Village from an operational, going concern perspective.

"Hopefully that could be completed in the next two to three months.

"It's such a long process and it has been very time-consuming. It's taken from March until November for this to happen but we have never been in a stronger position and now it's an excellent one from which to bring this off. Overall, it is very positive news and all our efforts and energies are going into making this a reality.

"We want to make progress quickly and if we are to capitalise on the Olympic drive then we do need to move quickly.

"I'd like to think by the early part of 2009 we've actually got some bulldozers on site and there's evidence work is under way."

More than 50 years have passed since Odsal stadium entered sporting folklore when a then-record rugby league crowd of 102,570 packed the sweeping terraces of the showpiece stadium.

But in the last two decades, Odsal entered a less glorious era as the development of state-of-the-art stadiums in other parts of the country, complete with corporate facilities and integrated training centres, raised expectations of sporting venues.

The Bulls even moved away from their beloved home between 2001 and 2003 because the ground was due to undergo a long-overdue transformation, which barely got off the ground.

Since then, the more ambitious plan for a sporting village has emerged, a scheme that would not only involve the existing stadium but adjacent land.

The scheme on the table today would see a roof built over the Popular terrace side of the ground, finally offering fans cover from the elements. A total of 2,600 new seats would also be installed as well as standing provision on that side of Odsal, taking the total of seats at the ground towards the 10,000 mark.

A replacement for the Richard Dunn sports centre and a new health centre would form part of the plan, which would also include three state-of-the-art all-weather pitches, a cricket field with new pavilion, a floodlit football pitch with covered stand, an athletics track, swimming pool and a 3,500 capacity indoor arena.

But a viability shortfall' of £10.8 million meant the Project Review Group, set up in March this year, needed to consider alternative proposals to the preferred scheme to reduce the overall estimated cost of its delivery.

Among various other options, the group looked at removing the eight lane athletics stadium and replacing it with a cycling Velodrome.

Meanwhile, discussions between the Council and the Bulls led to an agreement to remove the proposed administrative office from within the main sports centre and stadium stand and provide such space within the proposed ticket shop and bar building on the concourse approach from Rooley Avenue.

But the report said the final facility mix, outlining exactly what would be included in the scheme, would not be available until further studies were completed in early 2008.

When the proposal was put forward, it soon became clear the scheme would not be without its opponents when, in August 2004, it was revealed that the plan hinged on selling the site of the Richard Dunn sports centre and, more controversially, the Horsfall Playing Fields for housing, to pay for the grand venture.

A protest group emerged in a bid to save the 82-year-old playing fields, which are home to Bradford Park Avenue Football Club, and more than 500 residents signed a petition campaigning against the housing plan. Now the latest progress report, to go before the Council's executive next Tuesday, outlines the latest thinking on how the scheme should be funded and acknowledges there is still a "significant funding gap" on build costs alone. It says: "At present, the principal contribution to the capital cost is predicted on the sale of Council assets and the generation of significant capital receipts."

The report says Bradford College's involvement as a stakeholder could provide access to further public sector funding from the Learning & Skills Council, European sources and regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.