THE man hoping to buy the Bulls insists that the club will live within their means under his watch.
Chris Brereton is leading the consortium looking to take over from chairman Andrew Chalmers and rescue them from the latest financial turmoil.
The club are understood to owe more than £500,000 to creditors and are faced with losing players to help pay off the debts.
Brereton insists belts will be tightened if he takes charge as part of a four-point action plan similar to the one he implemented with Michael Carter at Wakefield in 2013 – with a view to getting the Bulls debt-free within a couple of years.
Speaking exclusively to the Telegraph & Argus, Brereton said: “It’s just like any business, it’s got to live within its means.
“Because there’s a ball involved, people like to forget about that but unfortunately PAYE and VAT don’t. It’s a business and can only spend money that it earns.
“If you’ve got difficulty in accepting that, then somebody else needs to step forward.
“I can’t attempt running a business that you know full well from day one you’re going to lose money. Our aim would be four-fold.
“We want to trade through the club’s present position and try and get it debt free within a couple of years.
“We’ll try to keep the club in the Championship or hopefully above and deliver to Bradford a rugby league club it can sustain.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and then being surprised and disappointed at the result. Somebody has got to break that cycle.
“When we went into Wakefield, I didn’t find a window or a till that was open. Tenners weren’t blowing out the window.
“We didn’t find a tap or a boiler that’s been left on. It was just spending too much money on players – that’s where it all goes.”
The potential buy-out still has to go before the RFL board for approval and Brereton confirmed that negotiations are on-going.
“We’re waiting for a couple of things from Andrew,” he added.
“I’m not so sure we’ll be able to get it over the line this week but maybe the middle of next week.”
That could coincide with the two fans forums set up for Tuesday and Wednesday at Dewsbury’s Tetley’s Stadium, where the Bulls will be based next year.
Brereton has no interest in the limelight if he takes over but feels it is important to address the concerns of the supporters.
He said: “So much negativity was out there and we felt we had to call them in and just give them one voice.
“This started for me in March when I offered to give assistance to Andrew. I absolutely did not go looking to be taking over another ailing rugby league club.
“But I do think it’s got some potential. I put on over 100 first-team events on at Belle Vue and we never got a crowd of over 7,500, and that includes the Million Pound Game against Bradford.
“Bradford have had two crowds in excess of that last season. Obviously, there was an unusual event of playing Leeds in the Challenge Cup but it does show that the support is there.
“They’ve just been beaten up a bit too much really.”
