Bradford Bulls hold instructive fans' forum at Odsal

Sorra, a successful businesswoman, has spent hours and hours poring over the IMG grading criteria, with the club firmly of the belief that they score highly on finances and stadium, two aspects of the club that have come in for criticism down the years.

And while Bulls were unwilling to commit to any sort of score, and admitted there are areas to improve upon, they feel they will be given a ‘high B grade’ and therefore on the cusp of Super League for 2025.

Speaking honestly, Sorra said: “We won’t be an A, but we believe a number of Super League teams won’t be either.

“It’s fair to say the RFL do not believe there will be 12 A teams and we believe we’ll be a strong B, potentially strong enough to get in.

“We’ve not been known for our financial prowess down the years, but we do really well here, as our turnover is virtually all self-generated, not from Sky and the RFL.

“We score right at top on non-centralised turnover, at over 90 per cent, and we score the maximum possible on adjusted profit too.

“We’re definitely not over £500,000 on owner investment but we just need to clarify whether we do just sneak over the £100,000 and score 0.25.

“We need that ratifying with the RFL because we need to know the exact details around it, but it is feasible we score zero on that.

“We don’t score highly on balance sheet strength ultimately, as we don’t own our own stadium and aren’t a Super League team at present.”

As for the stadium, for all Odsal has its critics, Bulls believe it does score well based on the criteria set by IMG.

Odsal has had its critics, but the club believe it ticks a lot of boxes. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

Sorra said: “We’ve got a capacity of over 5,000, we have over 2,000 permanent seats, and we tick the boxes needed for corporate and broadcast facilities.

“For all we don’t have the LEDs and a big screen, we’re discussing how much that will cost and how much it will be to install them, so it’s our plan to get them.”

Hirst added: “The feedback from the RFL is that we’re more on board and on the front foot than some of our rivals with responding to the criteria.

“One of the key milestones will be our provisional score end of season but we’re 99.99 per cent certain we’ll be B, and a high-scoring B.

“There are areas to improve on and when we get our provisional score in September we’ll get further into plans of action.”

As for those areas to improve on, Sorra called on the fans to do their bit if they can, saying: “Followers covers all social media platforms.

“We’re on the cusp of two of grades and we believe we need another 5,000 followers to move up to level, as we’re at the middle ranking at present.

“We’re also on the cusp between two grades over engagement, so the more you can share, retweet, attend games and engage, that all means you could help us get into Super League.

“We rank about halfway in that pillar, but it won’t take much to get to a higher level.

“On viewership though, we’re near the bottom as it’s not a Sky or Channel 4 deal.”

On that, Hirst added: “I’m led to believe that a new TV deal is forthcoming, but what it’ll look like and how much money it’ll mean remains to be seen.

“TV money gone down in last five years, so I hope the RFL can reverse that trend.

Monday night rugby league on Viaplay has proved to be a failed experiment. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“It’s massive for the sport, because the more money in the TV deal, the more it helps with central funding.

“It’ll be interesting to see what comes out as TV on a Monday night is not the greatest to the fans.

“I hope any deal is more sympathetic to them, as they can’t necessarily bring their children along on a Monday night for example.”

In terms of other grading points, Hirst confirmed that Bulls will be fighting as hard as possible to finish as high as they can, as second will make a huge difference to their performance score over fifth.

Meanwhile, Sorra insisted that, provided the Bulls Foundation has same turnover this year as the last two, they should be near the top score on that.