By Dave Woods BBC Sport

Bradford Bulls could be forced into moving out of the city, after the latest plans to renovate Odsal Stadium collapsed.

The financial backers behind the scheme that would have turned the old ground into a modern all-seater stadium, surrounded by shops and leisure facilities, pulled out when the government launched an enquiry into the planning application.

Where now for the Bulls?

It leaves the future of the decaying ground in the balance.

But Odsal's history has been littered with grand plans and big designs, all of which have failed to materialise.

Caisley: The ground is in a disgraceful state

In 1954, Warrington beat Halifax 8-4 in a Challenge Cup replay at the famous old ground in front of a rugby league record crowd of 102,569 - though unofficial estimates place the figure much higher.

The local council then decided to act on the plans of a local engineer, Mr Wardley, to transform the stadium and make it "the Wembley of the North".

Eleven years later, after much toing and froing, the plans were scrapped.

In 1972, another plan was hatched - at a cost of �3m - to make Odsal a 20,000-plus all-seater ground.

But that plan also fell through when the council baulked at contributing �1m to the project.

The most ambitious project came seven years ago when the Odsal Dome project was unveiled, with the backing of the local council.

National dreams

The designs would have seen Odsal transformed into a 70,000 all-seater ground, with a sliding roof.

There was even talk of a bid being made for it to become the new national stadium.

But the plans proved to be pie in the sky, and several years later fizzled out.

The most recent plan seemed the most realistic of them all.

But despite political assurances that the scheme would be given the go-ahead, the government decided to call in the planning application for a full review.

That would have meant at best a costly delay to the start of building, at worst the application being totally rejected - and the financial backers decided to pull out.