Given the size of Bradford as a city and the attendances they attract, the Bantams have punched below their weight for some time. But now visitors to the city of culture are finding themselves 'pecked by the chickens'.
A quick glance at the League One table says as much.
Bradford sit second in English football’s third tier after eight games, behind
leaders Cardiff City on goal difference. The two clubs meet on Saturday in
south Wales.
Next week also brings a trip to Newcastle United in the
Carabao Cup third round and a reminder for the 5,000 travelling fans of the
heady days around the turn of the millennium when the West Yorkshire side
visited venues such as St James’ Park every other week in back-to-back years as
a top-flight club.
“Great times,” says Mike Harrison, editor of the
long-running, award-winning City Gent fanzine. “I went to all 78 games, home
and away, in those two seasons, as I suspected it might not happen again. We’ve
been through a lot since then, but Newcastle will be a tremendous evening for
everyone.”
City paid a big price for those two years among the elite,
with relegation in 2001 costing the club a lot more than their Premier League
status. Two stints in administration,
plus the enforced sale of their Valley Parade stadium to keep creditors at bay,
were merely the start of a slide that saw City dumped into League Two just six
years after rubbing shoulders with Manchester United, Arsenal et al.
Now, though, things are very much moving in the right
direction again following last season’s promotion. The club have told The
Athletic that season ticket sales stand at a record 16,064, earning
£3.157million in receipts after tax, another record. Turnover is also up and
expected to hit £12m-£13m this season, compared to the £8.5m-£9m banked last
season, which was already their highest outside those Premier League days.
Commercial and sponsorship income has played a big part in
that rise, with club coffers set to be swelled by an estimated £2.1million this
season, while an unnamed American company has already been lined up as a
back-of-shirt sponsor on a three-year deal that will kick in next summer.
Not so long ago, the atmosphere inside Valley Parade was
more funereal than fun. Up to 4,000 season-ticket holders were staying away
every game towards the end of Derek Adams’ stint as manager in the 2021-22
season, despite having paid up front for their seats. Even as recently as March last year, there
was a small pre-match protest in the stadium’s car park calling for chief
executive Ryan Sparks and owner Stefan Rupp to both go.
An owner based in Germany rarely being seen at Valley Parade
formed part of that narrative, so his enthusiastic presence at recent games has
been welcome. As, too, has been his decision to increase budgets after a few
years when the club was run very much on a self-sustaining basis. The upshot is
the club expect to lose around £2million this season, on the back of a likely
£2.8m deficit in 2024-25. Small beer to some in a division where clubs made a
combined £117m loss in 2023-24, but still significant for Bradford.
Rupp’s calculated gamble has so far paid off via promotion
and a strong start to this season. It’s also eased what to previous regimes had
been the millstone of renting Valley Parade, sold for around £2.5million to the
Flamingo Land Pension Scheme at the height of the early 2000s financial crisis.
Under the terms of a 25-year lease signed in 2003 that has
seen rent rise by 2.5 per cent every five years, City now pay around £500,000
per year regardless of what division they are in. In League Two, this
represented a decent chunk of annual turnover. A division higher, however, such
an outlay is less arduous, while if City can earn another promotion to return
to the second-tier Championship, their rent will become a drop in the ocean.
The current deal includes a clause to extend by a further 25 years in 2028.
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