The first of a three part series about the aborted launch of association football at Park Avenue in 1895

The launch of soccer in Bradford

Bradford City AFC is credited with having pioneered association football in West Yorkshire as the first club (within the borders of the modern county as distinct from the West Riding) to join the Football League and later, to win the FA Cup. Yet the formation of Bradford City at Valley Parade in 1903 came eight years after the launch of a side at Park Avenue.

Bradford (A)FC played its first home game on 14 September, 1895 – a friendly – against Moss Side FC (Manchester).  The crowd was reported to have been three thousand and whilst not exceptional it would have been considered respectable. The 4-1 victory was also extremely encouraging. [1]

Bradford, and the rest of West Yorkshire had hitherto been a rugby stronghold and soccer had been crowded out. An earlier attempt to promote the association code through an exhibition game at Park Avenue on 16 September, 1882 between Blackburn Rovers and Blackburn District had come to nothing. So called rugbyists had jealously protected the status of the traditional code in the face of a potential insurgency by ‘associationists’. However, the success of Bradford FC at winning the Yorkshire Cup in 1884 cemented the popularity of rugby in the district and prior to 1895 there was no further suggestion about introducing soccer to Park Avenue. [2]

The launch of the Football League in 1888 had gone almost unnoticed in West Yorkshire and there had been little incentive to switch to soccer. In 1890 for example, Bradford FC was reputedly the richest football club in England and the club’s stature was such that it could command prestige fixtures. By 1895 however the outlook at Park Avenue had changed considerably and the finances of the parent Bradford Cricket, Athletic & Football Club had been severely stretched by the purchase of the freehold to the ground that came at the time of an economic slowdown.

The fact that the club’s financial strength had been diminished had inevitably influenced the attitude of its leadership with regards a looming split in English rugby. Mindful of the club’s financial commitments, there had been considerable apprehension at Park Avenue about the merits of a breakaway from the Rugby Football Union (RFU). The issue of professionalism was extremely contentious with growing pressure in the north for broken-time payments to be permissible in order to compensate players for loss of earnings.

The wider debate about professionalism was framed as a matter of principle but in essence it was all to do with the economics of sport and the affordability thereof. It raised concerns both of unfair advantage as well as the viability of smaller and less wealthy football clubs. It was a routine theme in newspaper reports for example that in the Football League, professionalism had resulted in clubs making significant losses and becoming heavily indebted. A fear was that the same might apply across rugby if amateurism was relinquished.

Visit to Goodison Park in 1894

On the other hand the Bradford FC leadership was sympathetic to the view that if professionalism was to be adopted, the financial viability of the club was more likely if association football was adopted as opposed to persisting with rugby.

In 1893 it was highlighted that Everton FC had an annual wage bill of £3,529 which was not much less than the total income of Bradford FC. On the other hand, soccer was capable of generating much greater revenue – in 1893 Everton reported revenues of £9,915 – and in 1892 Everton FC had opened the impressive Goodison Park stadium that put northern rugby grounds to shame. Admittedly Everton FC was probably the only solvent Football League club at the time but it was a club of Everton’s stature that Bradford FC was more likely to benchmark itself against.

Motivated as much by curiosity as self-promotion, on 14 March, 1894 Bradford FC played an exhibition rugby game at Goodison Park and the club’s leadership saw for itself what had been achieved. Bradford FC had for so long lauded in the fact that Park Avenue was the premier ground in the north and that their club was the wealthiest. I have no doubt that the visit would have prompted members of the Finance & Property committee of the Bradford Cricket, Athletic & Football Club to ask whether the wrong shaped ball was being used at Park Avenue. In my opinion the findings of the trip to Liverpool made Bradford FC receptive to establishing an association section just over twelve months later.

In terms of the strategic agenda, adopting soccer was more about finding ‘a game that would pay’ as distinct from any intrinsic affection for the round ball game. The Bradford FC leadership was also sensitive to the role that the club had assumed as the champion and sponsor of sporting activity in the district. Irrespective of the club’s proud rugby traditions, the feeling was that if the local public was likely to be more inclined towards association football, then that should dictate the future.

Nevertheless, the club’s finances meant that adoption of soccer was a last resort. Funds were not available for major investment to build a team from scratch to compete in association football (although at least a new ground did not have to be funded). There was also a considerable risk that without the assurance of Football League membership, there would be limited commercial benefit.

Hence provided that some form of wage control existed, the preferred option for Bradford FC was always going to be that of remaining as a rugby club. Bradford FC had previously enjoyed premium status as members of the RFU and if circumstances had allowed it would have persisted with the status quo as long as it could afford. The dilemma faced by the club was the threat of being left behind by other clubs in Lancashire and Yorkshire (not least its rivals, Manningham FC at Valley Parade) forming a new Northern Union. Ultimately it was the intransigence of the leadership of the RFU in accommodating broken-time payments that meant some form of schism was inevitable.

The launch of the Northern Union

A new Northern Union was established on 29 August, 1895 and Bradford FC and Manningham FC were among the 21 founder members. Whilst it put an end to the uncertainty and speculation that had hung over English rugby for the last two or three years there were also contradictions and shortcomings in the new body. There was subsequent criticism of the Bradford Cricket, Athletic & Football Club that it was an unenthusiastic convert to the Northern Union but it was not unreasonable for there to have been misgivings. [3] For example, the new competition would remain limited in its geographic footprint and appeal. Equally significant it lost a pyramid of junior clubs beneath the seniors who had previously provided a ready supply of new players. During the next five years the number of junior rugby clubs in the Bradford district alone was decimated as the financial implications of the split eroded the viability of smaller clubs, thereby undermining the strength, popularity and ecosystem of local rugby. [4]

Nonetheless, the immediate impact of the split was that – in the short term at least – it made it less likely that rugby would be abandoned at Park Avenue in favour of association football.

By the time that soccer was played at Park Avenue, in September, 1895 much of the uncertainty about a new Northern Union had gone away. Crucially the new body 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. There was now the prospect that rugby could be managed on a profitable basis. And thus the original need for soccer as a viable alternative was removed.

One of the leading sports journalists of his era, Alfred Pullin of the Yorkshire Evening Post was later critical of the motives of rugby clubs such as Bradford – but also the likes of Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds – for diversifying into association at this time with the allegation that it was for the purpose of protecting their names. Indeed, in the case of Bradford it was a defensive measure to pre-empt anyone else – in particular Manningham FC – from doing so. 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.

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. Faced with a significant decline in gate receipts since 1893 it had made financial sense for Bradford FC to investigate other sources of income. Experimentation with soccer enabled the rugby clubs to evaluate for themselves whether association football represented a threat to rugby football as a spectator sport in West Yorkshire.

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.

The end of the soccer experiment at Park Avenue in 1899

Ultimately a number of factors conspired against the short-term viability of a new start soccer 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 a rugby team, let alone be cross-subsidised by gate receipts. 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 Cricket, Athletic & Football Club committee with regards to association football were essentially defensive and 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 to explore different options.

Unfortunately, as far as the soccer section at Park Avenue 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 by the Bradford Cricket, Athletic & Football Club would be doomed to failure. After three seasons based at Park Avenue, the soccer section was exiled to Birch Lane [5] and disbanded at the end of the 1898/99 season.

Former members were subsequently involved in the promotion of association football at a local level in the Bradford district and can be credited with encouraging interest in the sport that helped the launch of Bradford City AFC at Valley Parade four years later. And finally, in 1907 rugby was abandoned at Park Avenue in favour of soccer with Bradford AFC admitted as members of the Southern League and then in 1908 it was elected to the Football League (with the club becoming known as Bradford (Park Avenue) AFC to distinguish itself from its Valley Parade rivals). Had Bradford been a founder member of the Football League twenty years earlier, in 1888 there is good reason to believe that Park Avenue could have become a major centre for association football in England. At that time for example, the revenues of Bradford FC were far in excess of the likes of Wolverhampton Wanderers and even Blackburn Rovers but by the twentieth century it was an altogether different story. [6]

By John Dewhirst

Subsequent features on VINCIT will provide more information about the association football section of the Bradford Cricket, Athletic & Football Club between 1895-99 and its participation in league / cup competition. You will find more about the origins of sport in the Bradford district from the drop down menu above and on the author’s blog, WOOL CITY RIVALS. Read more about the origins of football – both rugby and association – in books by the author, published as part of the BANTAMSPAST History Revisited series.

Read Part Two in the series from this link

LINKS TO RELATED FEATURES…

[1] Earlier that year, was possibly the first game of association football to have been hosted at Valley Parade. On 7 May, 1895 there was an exhibition game that featured women players and attracted a crowd of between two and three thousand people. The origins of women’s football in Bradford – bradford sport history

[2] For more about the first association football match at Park Avenue refer this feature on VINCIT: The late development of soccer in Bradford – bradford sport history

[3] Background here to the launch of the Northern Union in Bradford: The history of Bradford rugby and the case to reassess the split in the English game in 1895 – bradford sport history

[4] The junior rugby clubs of the Bradford district: The forgotten story of Shipley FC – bradford sport history

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

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