GARETH Roberts has indicated that the prospect of Bradford Bulls being based at Horsfall Stadium or the creation of a new professional rugby league team to play there remains an option.

The Bradford Park Avenue owner is planning to install a 3G pitch at their ground next year, which will be played on by the club's teams and be available for community use.

The move is part of a planned wider upgrade of facilities now Avenue have secured a 30-year lease at Horsfall with improvements to lighting, access and security.

Read more: Park Avenue plan Horsfall upgrade after securing lease

Roberts is not thought to have held discussions with the Bulls' new owners over a potential ground share but had previously pledged support to accommodate the club following their decision to leave Odsal.

The Avenue chairman wants the proposed new pitch to be suitable for rugby and says the capacity at Horsfall could be expanded to 5,000.

He said: "We need to get the 3G pitch laid, with a crash pad underneath, so it suits both rugby and football, before we can have rugby played there.

"The project is primarily for the benefit of the community and there will be play on the 3G pitch during the week and on weekends.

"We could stage amateur rugby league games if teams want to use it, and we could potentially look at enabling or creating another rugby league team to play there, up to Championship rugby league standard.

"To come up to those standards we would need a few things doing, but not too much. And our official capacity is about 3,500 but with a few changes, we could quickly expand that to 5,000.”

Roberts dubbed the Bulls' move out of the city to play at Dewsbury 'a sad day for Bradford' when their decision was announced.

While stating at the time the ground share option with Bulls would be kept open for a period, he also confirmed in August that talks about the possibility of creating another professional rugby league club in the city had been held.

Bulls will play their 'home' games in 2020 at Dewsbury's Tetley's Stadium but the new ownership have made it their priority to return the club to Bradford.

Odsal has been mothballed by the RFL, who own the lease and estimate it will cost £130,000 to maintain the empty stadium next year with the hope Bulls will return to Odsal in 2021.