The third feature of the series examining the aborted launch of an association football team at Park Avenue in 1895 examines the record of Bradford AFC in the four seasons of its existence.

Motives

The dalliance with association football at Park Avenue and other rugby grounds proved to be short lasting and in fact the soccer section of Bradford FC – herein referred to as Bradford AFC – lasted for no more than four seasons. The apparently lukewarm approach made critics question the original commitment.

The poor finances of professional soccer were an open secret and there would have been concern that association football might prove to be costly. For this reason, as well as a shortage of available funds, the rugby clubs would have been naturally cautious. To what extent there had ever been a detailed financial assessment of the profitability of association football is unclear. It was not out of character for financial commitments to be made on the basis of bluster and hope. So far as soccer was concerned, each of the rugby clubs appears to have embarked on the venture with a degree of naivety that if they provided the ground then miraculously the game would thrive. Inevitably there would be disappointment and a mismatch of expectation from all involved.

By the time that soccer was played at Park Avenue, in September, 1895 much of the uncertainty of the previous nine months had been removed. The Northern Union had been formed and whilst this had led to a split in English rugby, it had been established on the basis of broken-time payments rather than full professionalism. As far as Bradford FC was concerned it did not represent the radical shift in business operation that it had once feared and allowed the prospect that rugby could be managed on a profitable basis. The original need for soccer as a viable alternative was thus removed.

Although there were members of the Finance & Property Committee at Park Avenue – most notably Harry Briggs – who championed soccer as a game with greater commercial potential, the attitude among most members towards the code was unlikely to have been much different than in 1882 when the original experiment with association football (the exhibition game at Park Avenue involving players from Blackburn) had not been progressed. The constitution of the Bradford Cricket Athletics & Football Club as a members’ organisation effectively prevented major change without a voting majority of the legible members. In other words, the prospects for soccer at Park Avenue (as well as at Headingley, Fartown or Thrum Hall) were always going to be at the mercy of rugby enthusiasts.

Alfred Pullin of the Yorkshire Evening Post was later critical of the motives of the rugby clubs for diversifying into association with the allegation that it was for the purpose of protecting their names. Indeed, it was a defensive measure to pre-empt anyone else, least of all Manningham from doing so in Bradford. There was also a lesson from the experience of cricket and rugby that to be excluded from the leadership and administration of a sport at county level in its formative years was to risk compromising future prospects. All said, it was a classic strategy of risk minimisation – better to be in control of a potential threat than to lose the initiative. With the state of the club’s finances in 1894/95, Bradford FC could not afford further downward pressure on gate revenues.

The introduction of soccer was also experimental in so far as the club would be a beneficiary if the initiative succeeded. Bradford FC could not afford to risk being left behind and it would have concluded that it had more to lose by not introducing soccer to Park Avenue. The observation was also made that whilst West Yorkshire was a predominantly rugby stronghold, so too was Wearside ten years previously and yet by 1895 Sunderland AFC had emerged as one of the leading sides in the country, champions of the Football League in three out of four seasons between 1891-95 and runners-up in 1893/94. To all intents and purposes Bradford FC was hedging its bets and the example of Sunderland AFC proved what could be achieved.

As far as Bradford FC was concerned there was legitimacy in diversification because there was deemed to be an historic duty for the town’s premier sports club to promote popular sports for the benefit of the people. No self-respecting Bradfordian could allow the soccer initiative to be progressed in Leeds and other local towns at the potential expense of Bradford. Likewise, in 1900 the sport of bowling was introduced to Park Avenue which emulated what had happened at Headingley in 1896. Thus, whilst Bradford’s eventual exit from soccer was blamed on operating losses, the club’s strategy can be recognised as that of an oligopolist matching the actions of its rivals in a market: Bradford FC became involved in the sport when its principal rivals did so and exited likewise.

Soccer offered an insurance policy or fall-back in case the Northern Union project failed and it is no coincidence that commitment to the game receded as the new rugby body became established and demonstrated its permanency. Experimentation with soccer actually enabled the rugby clubs to evaluate for themselves whether association football represented a threat to rugby football as a spectator sport in West Yorkshire. Regardless, faced with a significant decline in gate receipts since 1893 it made financial sense to tap into other sources of income.

Concerns about soccer offering a more attractive spectacle than rugby were sufficient to encourage a bizarre experiment to be organised by the Northern Union at Valley Parade on 1 October, 1895. This involved a 13 aside game in which line outs were abolished and a round ball substituted for an oval one.

The Yorkshireman of 28 September, 1895 reported that ‘There can be no doubt that the Northern Union Committee have acted with great wisdom in allowing an experimental match to take place, for it will afford an interesting exhibition, as well as furnishing a useful test of the desirability of the proposed new changes in the game. Association has taken a great hold on the Yorkshire football public of late, and the Rugbyites will need to lose no opportunity of opening out the game if they desire to retain their popularity with the public.’

Antonio Fattorini had been a champion of trialling new approaches to the game and the Manningham club in particular had a vested interest in countering the potential threat of soccer. It was therefore no coincidence that the Valley Parade experiment was staged so soon after the two opening games at Park Avenue had confirmed local enthusiasm for Association football. The game with Halifax finished as a draw but the innovations were insufficient to persuade people of the need for change. It wasn’t helped by the fact that the round ball burst and a heavy downpour of rain adversely affected the playing conditions.

For the best part of a decade the Northern Union game remained generally similar to that of the Rugby Union. Modifications were made – intended to improve the appeal of the game to a commercial audience – but the changes were marginal and it was not until 1906 that the northern game could genuinely be described as a distinct sport. Whilst traditionalists were opposed to wholesale alteration of the rules – including those who may have held out hope for an eventual rapprochement with the Rugby Union – another reason why radical change was not introduced is that the Yorkshire rugby clubs derived confidence from the failure of soccer to take-off. Of course it was questionable whether the laboratory conditions were ever ideal and whether those clubs had their own predetermined conclusions that they sought to prove. Critics argued that the rugby clubs had a vested interest in killing the sport that they had volunteered to nurture. A decade later, Bradford FC derived more criticism than credit for how it had introduced soccer to the town.

It is fanciful to claim that soccer was intended to cross-subsidise rugby because the former struggled to stand on its own two feet. It was common knowledge that few association clubs actually made a profit despite the existence of a competitive national league structure and established local rivalries. Whilst existing rugby clubs in West Yorkshire had the advantage of enclosures capable of accommodating large crowds, as well as an established organisational infrastructure – both of which would have represented a considerable set-up cost for anyone contemplating the creation of an association club – it was a far cry to suggest that soccer would generate profits without the need first for considerable financial investment.

Ultimately a number of factors conspired against the short-term viability of a new start operation in West Yorkshire: (i) the absence of an established local league structure and a pool of talented local players; (ii) the lack of Football League membership; and (iii) the fact that rugby continued to have a strong local appeal.

Furthermore, in 1895 there remained murky waters about whether a professional soccer team could sit alongside an amateur rugby team, let alone be cross-subsidised by gate receipts from a professional sport without reprimand by the Rugby Union. Notwithstanding that this already occurred in respect of cricket, soccer represented an altogether different (and more emotive) issue.

On balance the motives of the Bradford FC committee with regards to association football were essentially defensive and were certainly not driven by any intrinsic love of soccer. Having endured a 30% collapse in income from £3,302 in 1892/93 to £2,306 in 1894/95 – with a corresponding reduction in profit from £1,167 to £138 – there was also a degree of desperation on the part of Bradford FC who had every incentive to explore different options.

Unfortunately, as far as Bradford FC was concerned there was no surplus funding that could be invested on a speculative basis in an association team – even if the club’s membership was prepared to countenance the option. All told, the experiment with soccer at Park Avenue would be doomed to failure.

Socker at Park Avenue

Instead of forming a new team from scratch, an existing club was co-opted to become the soccer section at Park Avenue to play in the West Yorkshire League. Buckstone Park AFC had been formed in 1893 and played its games at Apperley Bridge. Among its players was Arthur Shepherd (later prominent in lobbying for conversion to soccer at Park Avenue in 1907) and Captain Harry Armitage, a future president of Bradford City (subsequently promoted to colonel and commanding officer of the Artillery Volunteer Corps in Bradford).

At the Bradford FC meeting in May, 1895 it was said that ‘the Association game was growing in popularity in the West Riding, and he had no doubt that there were young fellows in the town who might be anxious to play that game, and the committee thought they ought to have the right to play it on their own enclosure.’

Writing in the Yorkshire Sports on 30 May, 1903 ‘Bong Tong’ (Tom Riley) referred to the launch: ‘I have a lively recollection of Association being first introduced into Bradford. How we laughed at the game and looked upon it merely as the hobby of a few ‘toffs’…but what a difference there is now.’ Nevertheless, there were major reservations among the Bradford FC membership and the opposition was probably no different to that in September, 1882 when soccer had last been played at Park Avenue. The Bradford Observer of 24 August, 1895 reported that ‘an agitation for an inauguration of the Association game at Park Avenue has been going on for some considerable time’ although it added that ‘rugby enthusiasts are looking forward with a mingled feeling of interest and anxiety to the future.’

The journalist’s choice of words was a tactful way of describing the fact that this would have been an extremely emotive affair. It would have added to the tension that already existed in connection with the proposed breakaway [northern league] and raised further suspicion over the intentions of the Bradford FC leadership. The issue of soccer thereby added to the intensity of debate about the northern league and further polarised opinions. Relations between the committee and lobbying groups based around the so-called footballer pubs would have been further fractured as a result.

The members would have been even less enthusiastic about soccer once the Northern Union had been established. The Yorkshireman of 7 September, 1895 commented: ‘A matter which is exciting attention in Park Avenue is how the club’s connection with the Northern Union will affect the Association game there. Is the club still going to try the Association experiment?’

The initial response to soccer at Park Avenue was enthusiastic but the momentum was not maintained. The Bradford Observer of 27 August, 1895 reported: ‘Last night members of the Bradford Amateur Association Club turned out for practice at Park Avenue. The weather was very inclement and the practice was consequently of short duration. It was noticed that several of the members are benefiting from the practice games. About forty of fifty members have up to the present given in their names and a good deal of enthusiasm prevails.’ The deliberate description of the club as amateur may suggest that the venture was originally intended as an amateur affair to avoid the wrath of the Rugby Union.

The club’s first game was at Swinton on 7 September followed by a home game the following Saturday against Moss Side (Manchester). It was reported that a crowd of three thousand attended the debut fixture at Park Avenue and the gate receipts of £40 were described as encouraging. Whilst it was not an exceptional crowd, it was one that the club could have been satisfied about.

On 24 September, 1895 a crowd of four thousand saw the visit of Bolton Wanderers to Park Avenue who played a West Yorkshire representative XI. Included in the Bolton side was the former Bradford FC player, John Sutcliffe as goalkeeper.

In its first season the Bradford team was relatively successful, winning the Leeds Workpeoples’ Hospital Cup by defeating Featherstone in the final and finishing as runners up to Hunslet AFC on goal average in the twelve team West Yorkshire League. If results are going to go by, there was a gulf in standards between the different clubs and considerable inconsistency. There were however a good number of high-scoring games including a 13-0 victory over Rothwell, and a couple of rare victories against Hunslet, 7-4 in the cup and 6-0 in a friendly which offset an earlier 1-7 league defeat.

The subsequent playing record was undistinguished. In 1896/97 Bradford lost to Hunslet in the semi-final of the West Yorkshire FA Cup and again in the semi-final of the Leeds Workpeoples’ Hospital Cup. For good measure they were defeated by Hunslet again, this time in the FA Amateur Cup.

In 1897/98 Bradford finished second to bottom of the ten strong Yorkshire League and was defeated in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup; the following season there was a minor improvement with a seventh place finish and the team reached the second qualifying round of the FA Cup.

Possibly the most prestigious fixture of the era was the visit of the Corinthians to Park Avenue on 30 December, 1897 with a side that included three internationals but neither the 1-6 result nor the attendance of only five hundred was particularly encouraging. The Corinthians was a touring side like the Barbarians and during the 1903/04 season attempts were made by the Bradford City committee to secure a visit to Valley Parade. This proved impossible and it was not until February, 1932 that the Corinthians finally played a game in Manningham and on that occasion 4,662 saw a home victory of 1-0.

On 14 September, 1896 there was an exhibition game at Park Avenue featuring Blackburn Rovers against a West Yorkshire side. The Yorkshire Evening Post reported that ‘the West Riding team led at half-time by 1-0, owing to the Rovers playing a very dilletanti, drawing-room sort of game, gallery tricks being the order of the day.’ (The game was subsequently abandoned in storm conditions with Rovers winning 2-1.)

With the abandonment of the soccer section at Bradford FC at the end of the 1898/99 season it meant that when the visiting Kaffir team from South Africa came to Park Avenue in November, 1899 they played a team comprising district players.

In 1903, when there was talk of conversion at Valley Parade, the Bradford soccer section experiment was looked upon as having been a failure and it made the Park Avenue leadership dismissive about launching a new club. The Bradford Daily Argus of 4 April, 1903 was matter of fact in its assessment of what had happened: ‘There was gate money during the first season to the extent of some £100. But the support afterwards was by no means sustained. The gate receipts of the second and third seasons was about £150 per year, and then there was a sudden drop in the fourth year to about £40. The club recorded a loss of £300, and then wound up its concern in Association affairs.’ The tragedy was that the initiative had never been given a proper chance.

Bradford AFC

Bradford FC remained first and foremost a rugby club and the prevailing attitude towards the association project was that it had to live within a tight financial budget. Other than being allowed rent free tenure at Park Avenue during the club’s first three seasons (NB rent was paid at Old Bowling in 1898/99) the financial support provided to the club appears to have been limited to funding losses and there was an expectation among members that the soccer section should stand on its own two feet.

Because the project was loss-making it was necessary for the members to be consulted and this brought rugby bias to the fore. Among the membership the attitude towards association was lukewarm at best and by 1899 when Bradford FC was dominating the Northern Union, soccer would have been regarded as very much the poor relation. Furthermore, attendances at Northern Union cup games in 1898 confirmed the public interest in rugby. In March of that year a crowd of twenty thousand – boosted by excursion trains from Bradford – witnessed a Bradford victory at Hull. The month later, there was a crowd of just under twenty-eight thousand at Headingley for the final between Batley and Bradford FC. In other words there was no compelling financial argument to abandon rugby and take up soccer. The majority of the Park Avenue membership would have considered association football to be as irrelevant as it had always been.

On the same day of the final in 1898, Bradford AFC had hosted the Sheffield United reserves at Park Avenue ‘before a small gathering of spectators.’ The Bradford Observer reported that news had reached Park Avenue of a Bradford FC victory at Headingley and the association game had had to be suspended, the consequence of ‘a scene of wild enthusiasm for some minutes.’ When the actual result – the defeat of Bradford FC – became known it was said that the altered demeanour of the crowd was most marked.

The reason that the soccer initiative was not progressed came down to the fact that the decision was made by the club’s membership itself at the very time that the parent club had seen a revival in its fortunes; success in the Northern Union contrasted with the association team struggling in the Yorkshire League. The members were committed rugby supporters and generally contemptuous of soccer. It is therefore hardly surprising that when the opportunity arose they opted to withdraw support. Despite a boom in soccer on a national stage, the Bradford members would have seen the failure of the association section to attract decent crowds or break-even, as evidence that West Yorkshire was likely to remain a rugby football stronghold.

The abysmal failure of either the West Yorkshire or Yorkshire Leagues to capture the public imagination hardly inspired confidence that a future league competition might be viable in the county. There was probably also a tacit recognition that ground-sharing was not a feasible option. This, and a degree of shared antipathy, probably goes a long way to explain why ground sharing between association and rugby league clubs was the exception to the rule in succeeding decades.

Ground-sharing

A challenge for any rugby club seeking to adopt association was how to organise games on the same ground for its first team, its reserves as well as a soccer side. Indeed, the only way that Manningham FC could resolve the dilemma when it invited Girlington AFC to ground share at Valley Parade in 1901/02 was to disband its ‘A’ side. Even so, in referring to the number of postponed games the Leeds Mercury of 7 December, 1901 alluded to ‘the difficulties which the managers (of the Girlington club) have experienced with regard to their ground at Valley Parade.’ The previous month, Manningham FC had been refused permission by the Northern Union to cover the pitch with oat husks to remove standing water. It demonstrated the problems faced by rugby and soccer ground-sharing, a problem compounded at Valley Parade by the absence of separate pitches on which to train. Presumably the damage caused to the pitch by the Savage Africa Show in May, 1901 was another factor in this.

Whilst Bradford AFC used Park Avenue on alternate Saturdays during the three seasons, 1895/96 to 1897/98 inclusive, it was occasionally necessary for it to play either at Apperley Bridge, Lidget Green (Horton Grange) or Four Lane Ends (I believe that the latter venue was the one later adopted by Girlington AFC in 1899 at Duncombe Street). Intensive use of Park Avenue would have impacted on the state of the pitch, much the same as at Valley Parade where the Girlington AFC team trained on Monday and Wednesday evenings and that of Manningham on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the 1901/02 season. Another dimension to the ground-sharing issue is provided in an amusing account of rugby players at Ossett being confused by the association pitch markings in a game in October, 1899 and there must have been a similar irritation to the rugby enthusiasts at Park Avenue.

To accommodate the new soccer team, in 1895 the Bradford FC ‘A’ team was relocated to Birch Lane and then in 1896 to Lidget Green (Horton Grange). A ground at Bankfoot was also used. This became a cause of antagonism that led to Major Shepherd to appeal for good relations and at the Bradford FC AGM in May, 1897 he said ‘he would be extremely sorry if the team was not well supported by the Bradford Club.’ The admission at the same meeting that the financial results of the soccer section had not realised expectations reveals that, by the end of its second season, the goodwill and patience of rugby members had already worn thin.

In 1897, following the disbanding of Bowling Old Lane FC, there was a call for the association section to be removed there also. That proposal was rejected out of concern for the impact on gates but at the start of the 1898/99 season, presumably as a result of pressure from those unsympathetic towards soccer, the association section was decamped to Birch Lane where it was expected to pay a rent. Unfortunately, the finances suffered a double whammy from both the cost as well as a decline in attendances. However, the parent Bradford FC membership would have argued that this was the only way to optimise the continuing success of its first team and ensure the development of its reserves. In 1898/99 two games were played at Park Avenue including the club’s last, a victory against The Wednesday reserves on 29 April, 1899.

The association section lost £120 in 1895/96, £185 in 1896/97 and £104 in 1898/99, offset by a profit of £3 in 1897/98. Given the state of the Bradford FC finances, aggregate losses of £406 represented a not insignificant amount of money at a time when it could least be afforded. It is therefore unfair to suggest that the parent (rugby) club was not wholly supportive of the venture.

The extent of the losses in the first two seasons at least would suggest that there was investment in professional players, albeit at much more modest rates than in the Football League and in 1897 it was rumoured in the press that the Halifax team included professionals. It would have been surprising had this not also been the case at Park Avenue given that the Bradford side was of similar standard, if not better. The Bradford club might argue that its investment in soccer had actually been fairly shrewd. At Leeds, aggregate losses of £1,000 had been accrued with no greater degree of success than that at Park Avenue.

Newspaper reports of club meetings hint at the opposition amongst members towards soccer. Certain committee members, including Fred Lister, encouraged patience for the association section to become established. At the club AGM on 28 May, 1897 came the plea: ‘It would be wise to give the Association game a further trial, for another year or two, at any rate. It attracted a good class of players who helped to keep up the prestige of the club.’

By the end of the 1898/99 season however it was becoming a lost cause and the enthusiasm within the section itself had dissipated. In a feature on the history of soccer in Bradford, the Bradford Daily Telegraph of 1 September, 1903 said that ‘After its removal to Bowling Old Lane the club quickly went down and no wonder.’ At the Bradford FC annual meeting in May, 1899 it was reported that there had been six successive games when the team had been incomplete. In the end the Bradford Daily Telegraph reported that ‘it was felt that the club was not in a position at present to support a section of sport at so great a cost.’ In the final event, most people would have shared Tom Riley’s comment in the Yorkshire Sports of 15 August, 1903 that it was ‘a half-hearted effort at Park Avenue (and later at Bowling Old Lane) to establish an Association club.’

Post-mortem

Writing in the Yorkshire Evening Post in December, 1899 Fred Bonsor had referred to the fact that several of the Lancashire soccer clubs (including Bolton and Preston) were struggling financially and that this had led the President of the Football League to call for the pooling of gates. Like many members of Park Avenue, Bonsor considered soccer an expensive luxury that could not be afforded. Although he was not necessarily an expert in soccer finances, his opinion was influential.

In 1908 when Bradford FC applied for membership of the Football League it was claimed that the Northern Union had discouraged soccer and forbade Bradford FC to continue but there is no suggestion of this from contemporary reports. Notwithstanding that the Northern Union did not want to encourage a competing code, it was not until 1901 when soccer represented a much greater threat that opposition from the Northern Union became more public.

I struggle to envisage a scenario in which Bradford FC might have converted to association at the turn of the century. The club’s success in the Northern Union at this time and its recent experience of soccer is good enough reason to conclude that it was highly improbable. There were also financial obstacles to overcome. Firstly, the club would have required firstly heavy investment in new players; secondly it needed membership of the Football League to make it a viable proposition. Whilst envious eyes may have been cast in the direction of Liverpool, Manchester or Sheffield in 1899 I suspect that there was also a sense of being trapped by geography and circumstance – much the same as Glasgow Rangers or Glasgow Celtic nowadays – which prevented membership among the elite of English soccer.

By 1905 when there was talk of conversion to soccer at Park Avenue, the Bradford Daily Argus of 9 September, 1905 reflected on the lost opportunity. ‘It is easy to be wise after the event, and we may all say now that the experiments in Association play at Park Avenue should have been proceeded with, but there was no seer at that time to be relied upon to direct the destinies of the club. They elected to continue the game which had the greatest vogue at that time, and had too much at stake to gamble upon any risks.’ Similarly, from the Bradford Daily Argus of 31 December, 1906 ‘The play was good and the record of the team creditable, but amid adverse feeling the finances failed, and the wish was the father to the thought which led the committee to give up the game. Always relegated to second place, the removal to Bowling Old Lane was attended with such neglect that it became the cemetery of the Socker play of that day.’

The foray with soccer was not entirely wasted and had provided the local public with a taste of the sport. Those involved with Bradford AFC also became involved with other local sides, including Isaac Brogden described by Alfred Pullin in February, 1902 ‘as one of the leading promoters of socker in the Bradford district since the game was taken up. When the old Bradford club was in existence, he was generally to be found hard at work on its behalf and he was also involved with the B&DFA as a promoter and committeeman.’ The Bradford Daily Telegraph of 1 September, 1903 similarly credited the Bradford club for having done ‘a great amount of good to the district for the presence of its former players in other teams helped to raise the class of play.’ Among other former Bradford AFC players, Duncan Menzies later played for Airedale in the Bradford & District League – acclaimed as one of the best players in the competition.

Colonel Harry Armitage subsequently became president of the Bradford & District Football Association (B&DFA) and presented a trophy to be contested as the B&D FA Cup in 1899/90. Armitage was later to be involved with the launch of Bradford City AFC and abandonment of rugby at Valley Parade. In April, 1903 for example the Bradford Daily Argus commented that the endorsement and support of Armitage, ‘the former Buckstone Park pioneer’ towards the new association club at Valley Parade would ‘ensure the popularity and success of the effort.’

That the launch of a new club in 1903 to compete in the Football League should be at Valley Parade as opposed to Park Avenue was a matter of historical accident. At that time Bradford FC was relatively successful and benefiting from the demise of its erstwhile rival, Manningham FC such that it had no reason to abandon rugby. Indeed, the Park Avenue leadership initially rejoiced that Manningham’s conversion to soccer gave Bradford FC the monopoly position as the leading rugby side in the city. On the other hand, the financial circumstances at Valley Parade had created an imperative for change. Arguably the superior and more prestigious facilities at Park Avenue would have been better suited for the venture but instead, the Manningham club gained first-mover advantage which proved decisive in the course of the rivalry between the Valley Parade and Park Avenue organisations.

John Dewhirst

[1] The history of Birch Lane Lost football grounds of Bradford: Birch Lane – bradford sport history

[2] The late development of association football in Bradford and the attempts to launch the game in 1882.

[3] What if. How the history of Bradford football could have been different: Alternate outcomes. Considering what-ifs in Bradford football history – bradford sport history