What next for Odsal stadium?

Question of Sport

The future of Odsal was a debating point long before John Garside first proposed building a super stadium there in 1992.

Ever since Bradford Park Avenue FC went into voluntary liquidation in May 1974, four years after dropping out of the Football League, politicians and the sporting public alike have been saying What about Park Avenue? What about Odsal? And even What about Valley Parade?

The fact is, for a quarter of a century Bradford collectively has failed to come up with a comprehensive, far-sighted strategy for professional sport in the city.

Test cricket went long ago, now County Cricket has been allowed to be taken from Bradford. The future of Rugby League, in the shape of Bradford Bulls, has become clouded due to the uncertainty of the past five years created by the Superdome. In addition, the merits of the Bulls sharing a ground with Bradford City - either at Odsal or at City's Valley Parade - has been sporadic debate ever since the fire disaster in May 1985.

Ground-sharing, highly contentious among the fans of City and the Bulls, nevertheless is still a live issue. Odsal's future - complicated by the politics and procedures of City Hall, the intentions of developers, the state of the former refuse tip, and by the conflicting wishes of residents and fans - may yet be determined by developments at Valley Parade.

Geoffrey Richmond, Bradford City's ambitious chairman, has a four-phase plan in hand to turn Valley Parade, already a handsome stadium, into a ground fit for both Premier League football and Super League rugby. He's also been talking to the Bulls' chairman Chris Caisley about joining forces.

"With the Bulls and City in situ here at Valley Parade we could have an all-singing, all-dancing magnificent stadium with a seated capacity for 29,000.

"The local authority is spending, as their accounts show, £275,000 a year on Odsal, which they are giving partly in cash and partly in staffing and other things. The Council is committed to spending that to 2019 (when the Bulls' lease expires).

"If the Council was to spend that money to allow the Bulls to come here and have a 50 per cent ownership of Valley Parade we could share a home, and the Council could bring in millions by selling the whole Odsal site to a developer and letting him take care of the environmental problem of the tip.

"Whatever comes of what I call 'The Bradford Problem' (Odsal's future) has to be achievable. There's nothing at Odsal that is achievable," he said.

Mr Caisley has always said the Bulls should stay at Odsal. He has been unavailable for comment on the matter.

David Warburton, an Odsal resident and Bulls' fan, is opposed to the idea.

"Personally, I don't think the Bulls would want to join City at Valley Parade, and I think Bulls' supporters would be unhappy if they did. The Bulls have always been a South Bradford club, and a lot of supporters would be annoyed if they moved," he said.

What about the politicians? Gerry Sutcliffe, Labour MP for Bradford South, welcomed the Superdome when he was leader of Bradford Council. Subsequently he changed his public position on it.

"Garside has had a chance but he has not delivered. We have to decide on what scale to move forward. First of all the future of the Bulls has to be sorted out. Are we even talking about the Bulls being at Odsal?

"My view is, we do want a sporting stadium at Odsal. The present one is a good summer stadium, but not good for winter. It's still a financial drain on Council resources: the Council pays the Bulls to play there. I'd like to see a mixture of sport, leisure and retail.

"The sporting option is important: it captures the public's imagination. We need to have that energy in the city because it's a positive," he said.

Mr Sutcliffe thinks Government help may be possible because the £140m redevelopment of Wembley Stadium has hit the buffers, he says, due to disagreements between Brent Council and the Football Association.

"I have got Dick Caborn, the Minister for Regeneration, interested in Odsal. He is aware of the problems and would like to be of assistance, in terms of the size of the retail that would be allowable. He said he was interested in the outcome because of the effect on unemployment," he added.

Shop around the clock

Odsal's future has also become tied up with destiny of a great chunk of Bradford's city centre, namely that swathe of 1960s office building known as Central House on Broadway and Forster Square.

Earlier this year, a consortium led by Knottingley-based Caddick Developments reportedly expressed interest in bulldozing Central House and putting in quality shops. Although the consortium has yet to submit a planning application, the scheme is still a possibility.

Bradford Council's Regeneration Committee chairman, Councillor Dave Green, doesn't want the potential of this development to clash with a major retailing centre a couple of miles south at the top end of Manchester Road. In addition, the collapse of the £40m Vicar Lane leisure complex may make another chunk of the city centre available for shopping.

"About 27 per cent of existing planning consent for Odsal is for retail development. Anyone who wants to build a major retail development there is probably going to face a public inquiry because of changes in the planning laws. It's the planning consent on the site that's valuable, and this runs until the year 2000," said Coun Green.

Early in the New Year he said he intended to meet Odsal residents to tell them what was happening. One of them, Dave Warburton, believes that most people in the area still want a development of some kind, on a reasonable scale.

"Personally, I wouldn't mind a small shopping centre. If we had Superdome we would have had nightclubs, casinos and bowling alleys. The majority of residents didn't want them. We have enough problems with traffic and traffic noise during the day, we don't need loads of people around at night as well.

"What's gone is gone and has been a total disaster. Now we have got to go forward. If the Council has something interesting to put forward they should get the support of the Bulls and local residents. If they tell us what's going on we will support them; but if it's all behind closed doors again they won't get our support.

"In the past the Council has not been prepared to listen. Without consultation local groups will put up a barrier and they won't help," he said.

Gerry Sutcliffe, MP for the area, wants retail as part of a mixed development. He takes issue with those who regard city-centre shopping as the top priority.

"The Council mustn't get caught out in protecting the city centre. The time-table for redeveloping Broadway must not be used as a reason for not doing anything at Odsal," he said.

The argument that a new stadium would be economically unsustainable unless supported by rental income from shops is challenged by Bradford City's chairman Geoffrey Richmond.

"Sunderland's Stadium of Light doesn't have shopping round it, nor does Middlesborough's Riverside Stadium. Smaller stadia at Walsall and Scunthorpe don't have shops either.

"Valley Parade, which we use 25 times a season, is self-financing in terms of revenue and return on capital invested. We built the Midland Road stand for £1.5m. The Football Trust paid half the cost, the club had to find the other half. Additional revenue to the club from that stand is £500,000 per annum.

"The double-decker stand which is replacing the Diamond Seal Kop is costing £2.5m. The Football Trust is paying about £1m of that. I anticipate that the new stand will bring in an extra £750,000 revenue per annum, partly from increased seat prices and partly from sponsorship and additional hospitality areas.

"What's needed up at Odsal is a 30,000 all-seater stadium which could be built, in my opinion, for £15m. The Stadium of Light, which has a 40,000 capacity, cost £16m. Revenues generated by a stadium of this sort would be enormous," he said.

Retailing, then, is an option, not a necessity. Developers such as Eddie Healey may see things differently. He has already proposed one plan, including a 30,000-seater stadium

Mr Healey has not been available to discuss Odsal but a City Hall insider said the Meadowhall owner would put in a bid for Odsal in an open competition.

A clean slate.. and a new start

Bearing in mind Bradford Council's history of backing major schemes which fall through - the West End, the Burton's Forster Square project, Lister City, Vicar Lane, Superdome - what steps are going to be taken to avert more of the same when the Odsal site is re-marketed?

"We are going to have a short sharp marketing exercise, led by the Regeneration directorate. We want a viable scheme from developers and companies with a proven track record in delivering major schemes of this sort," Coun Green replied.

"We need to be sure that the developer jumps through the hoops he has to jump through first, rather than after they have been selected. We will run financial checks, and ask for evidence of past experience. I shall be asking for this information.

"I would hope to be in a position to announce the contents of the contract with a developer by the end of April, and included in that agreement would be a very clear indication of when things would start happening. One of the major criteria for selection is that we are going to look at what they've done and how they've done it. A test of credibility."

Coun Green admitted some people suspected they may be led up the garden path again by the Council but said that as far as he was concerned unless there was any behind-the-scenes third party deal by Bradford Bulls, the rugby club would be the users of any new stadium built under current terms of agreement, which run until 2019.

As to the scale of any proposed development that would prove acceptable, Coun Green, the chairman of the regeneration committee, said the Council would have to wait and see what came through.

"The Council will continue to put up its holdings - the tip and the present stadium - and within these parameters we will see what is offered. One of the things that will require looking at is car access from the south and parking.

"The bottom line is that I and other members of the regeneration committee and officers will need to be convinced that people coming forward with development plans can deliver within a realistic time-frame, have a proven track record, financial backing, and the ability to handle the marketing and public relations elements as well," he added.

MP Gerry Sutcliffe said it was up to City Hall politicians to make sure that officer expectations were realistic and achievable. There should be a clean slate, a new start, and a wider partnership of interested bodies to determine the outcome.

"Residents have got to be involved. There must be a strict time-table for bids and the outcome of those bids. Odsal's future shouldn't just be a Council decision alone.

"Perhaps we could involve the Regional Development Agency - just set up to deal with the economic prosperity and regeneration of Yorkshire & Humberside. The RDA could recommend Government departments to back a new scheme," he added.

There is general agreement that any new proposal has got to take into account the inability of existing roads to cope with additional traffic.

Three options for developing Odsal

l Chelverton Properties Ltd, developers of the Blue Water shopping mall in Kent, is allegedly interested in taking over part of the Superdome plan. Chelverton's managing director Matthew Cattiser says it would have to be "substantially downsized". In plain English this means a smaller, less grandiose, stadium, with a spectator capacity of 40,000 or fewer. Planning permission for the site runs out in the year 2000 and allows for 200,000 sq ft of shopping and the same again for leisure. Chelverton, which would have to submit a plan in open competition with any other interested developers, envisages a multi-sports stadium supported by shopping and leisure.

l Until Chelverton came along the only serious alternative to Superdome was Eddie Healey's £120m proposal for a 30,000-seater stadium supported by a large amount of shopping - something like 500,000 sq ft. Given both the Government's and the Council's lack of favour to big out-of-town shopping malls, compromise on the size and nature of the business around a new stadium was always likely. Mr Healey, however, surprised everyone in November 1998 when he radically redrafted his £120m proposal by removing a new stadium from it. He told the T&A that his thinking took account of the Council's bias against satellite shopping areas and included much more leisure - although it is not known what this may mean in reality.

l Bradford Bulls could always do a deal with Bradford City and share Valley Parade, for which a four-phase plan exists to turn the football ground into a completely-covered 29,000 all-seat stadium. As City's chairman Geoffrey Richmond has said, the Council would then be in a position to offer for sale both the existing Odsal ground and the former Council refuse tip. The price would have to cover the estimated £5m cost of reclaiming the tip. The shared ground option, not new, might incite hostility from both sets of fans at first. To withstand both professional rugby league in the summer and, hopefully, Premier League football for nine months, the Valley Parade pitch would require extensive work costing a six figure sum at least.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.