Rewind to Easter 2024, and Bradford City felt like a club on its knees. Beneath the surface, most fans — apart from the more media-savvy — may not have realised it, but there had been a battle going on for months before it. Not on the pitch, but across social media and through local media narratives. I’ll tell that story properly another time, because make no mistake — very little being said publicly at that point was by accident. But the subsequent changes that came about as a result of the protests demonstrate the power our fan base has, and how if harnessed in the right way, it can be a force for good. In the end, everyone can be proud of this achievement, and the role they played in it.
What matters most here is the outcome: that battle to save the club from slow, creeping mediocrity that lead to the protests — and those protests sparked a shift. A change in approach from CEO Ryan Sparks, and more crucially, from owner Stefan Rupp.
Stefan Rupp promised to invest in the squad — and to his credit, he did. Ryan Sparks showed he had listened to fans by bringing in David Sharpe as Head of Football Operations. But what stood out most, especially during the recent Fans Forum on BBC West Yorkshire Sport, was Sparks himself. There was more humility in his tone, more awareness of what the club really means. He even went as far as saying that we, the fans, are Bradford City’s most valuable asset. This wasn’t merely a reply to a question in an interview, this was a clear signal that a fundamental change in the thinking at the top of the club had taken place, those words were quite literally game changing. The fans are an asset narrative had won out over the toxic fans narrative.
And he’s right. These aren’t just nice words — they’re pretty much factual. We’re the only real monetary asset this club has. Once the fans go, so does any hope of signing players that will be an asset. For years it felt like fans were treated as a nuisance to be managed. Now, it seems Sparks and Rupp have finally changed tactics. Instead of resisting the pressure, they’ve embraced it. And it’s working.
The season began with Graham Alexander telling fans to leave their “bag of bitterness” at home. To his credit, he later admitted those words were misjudged — but they reflected the mood he’d walked into. At the time, that was the culture: one of frustration, caution, and resignation and all too often, default to blaming the fans rather than looking at why fans were so frustrated.
Every season, fans start out with hope, only to realise — usually by October — that nothing’s really changed. Then the mood turns. And it’s not because we’ve got a toxic fanbase. It’s because, as anyone in football knows, this fanbase deserves more than a mid-table League Two club.
Fast-forward to the final day — promotion secured, 40 years on from the Valley Parade fire — and you’d imagine Alexander now sees things very differently. His comments back then were made when he was still new to the club, probably repeating what he’d been told internally. But I suspect he understood why he was wrong, long before the end of the season.
Alexander always knew that Valley Parade and its fans were special — but this promotion seemed to bring a real moment of clarity. You could hear it in the way he spoke after the final whistle, calling it the best moment of his footballing career. You could feel it in Ryan Sparks too, who could barely speak post-match but finally seemed to get what all the fuss was about. Why football matters. Why these moments matter.
Because you can’t script moments like that. You can’t plan them. You definitely can’t buy them. They just happen — sometimes deep into the sixth minute of injury time.
As someone who’s followed City through the highs and lows, I’ve felt that magic before — though not as often as I’d like. I was there in ‘96, when we came back from 2-0 down in the first leg against Blackpool and turned it around 3-0 on their patch, before easing our way past Notts County at Wembley. I was there for that dramatic 3-2 against Wolves, celebrating with the players afterwards. And I was there this time, watching it unfold all over again. I skipped the celebrations in town afterwards because I’ve had my moments before, and I’m now way too soft to deal with the hangover that follows it. But from what I saw the scenes weren’t too different to what happened back then, except many players were still wearing the shirt, I haven’t seen that before, and it kind of told me everything I needed to know about how much the club means to them.
But you get the point. If not for me, then for the younger generation of Bradford City fans — they deserved this moment. And I hope they never forget it.
The Bantam Redemption
As for Stefan Rupp, like Ryan Sparks, he’ll now have experienced something far better than just “getting it right.” Redemption, in football, carries a kind of weight that first-time success never can. It’s harder. It demands you face the part you played when things weren’t working. And both Rupp and Sparks, to their credit, seem to have done exactly that — and they’re now seeing the reward.
After the match, Rupp spoke about how special it felt, and how we did it the Bradford City way. He was right. Nothing comes easy here — even the stadium itself, packed with 24,000 fans, stands as a living memorial to the 56 lives lost in the Valley Parade fire 40 years ago.
A year ago, Rupp would’ve walked into Valley Parade feeling dread, knowing how much anger was directed at him. But on Saturday, all of that was put aside. This time, he’ll have felt something completely different — fans thanking him for doing what, yes, maybe he should have done sooner… but what matters more is that he did it now. In football, as in life, there is a limited shelf life for how long past achievements, or mistakes for that matter can be judged. What matters most is what you’re doing at the moment.
And maybe — just maybe — Stefan Rupp realised that day that football can be just as rewarding as motor racing. Possibly even more so.
As the dust settles on those chaotic final minutes of our League Two campaign — and the carnage that followed — there’s a real opportunity here. Everyone involved in running the club should now feel a renewed sense of confidence and goodwill. And I say that as someone who, despite writing plenty of doom and gloom in recent years, is still an optimist at heart — even if I mostly deal in realism.
There’s something genuine to build on now. The 24,000-strong fanbase isn’t going anywhere — and in League One, that kind of support will matter even more. Stefan Rupp once again owns a club with real momentum, one that’s back to the level it was at when he first took over. Our attendances will be among the best in the division, and we’ve finally got a nucleus of players who clearly love playing for Bradford City — and are willing to give everything for the shirt.
Now’s the time to make the most of what we’ve got — and that includes the growing reputation we’ve built this season. The fact that so many YouTube content creators chose to come to Valley Parade says a lot. It means we, as fans, are starting to make waves. And that’s something we need to protect and grow.
People are starting to talk about Bradford City again — not just as a big club at this level, but as one of the best-supported clubs full stop. It’s not just about numbers. It’s about atmosphere, loyalty, and how much this fanbase genuinely cares. You hear people mention Liverpool, Newcastle, even (I suppose) Leeds United — but if we keep building on what we’ve started, we could be right there in the conversation. Not “for League One” — just full stop.
And that’s no more than we deserve. Because from the inside, it can be hard to see what everyone else sees. But there’s a reason YouTube was flooded with videos from Valley Parade. They knew something special was brewing — and when the moment came, we delivered.
I genuinely believe this season has inspired everyone — not just the fans and content creators, but more importantly the players, the manager, the CEO… and the owner. Stefan Rupp now knows just how special a club he owns. You’d imagine that, on his flight back to Germany, part of him was already thinking: I want to feel that again.
Of course, that’ll take more investment — but it’s important to say this clearly: the money he put in this season made a massive difference. It allowed Graham Alexander to add to the quality of the squad without worrying about moving out the high earners who simply weren’t up to the job, first. Something, that as every manager before him had found, is easier said than done. The best example being Vadaine Oliver, who nobody would take off of our hands and pay anywhere near all of his wage. Without that backing, we could’ve been staring at yet another year of the same League Two football in the same vicious cycle.
That investment helped break the cycle of short-termism — that constant pressure managers feel to find quick fixes just to stay in a job. It rarely works. This time, we had the chance to do things properly. More importantly, Stefan Rupp has learned that he was right to invest, because it worked.
The timing couldn’t have been better. Not only was winning promotion at Valley Parade on the 40th anniversary a fitting tribute, and the 2025 City of Culture, but we were on the verge of losing that post-League Cup Final momentum — the bump in support from younger fans who might’ve otherwise ended up following Liverpool, Man City, or even, well I won’t mention the team again, because this is about us. In a city the size of Bradford, there’s a huge pool of potential supporters — and those early moments of excitement can make all the difference in choosing who you follow.
Sure, there’ll always be people like me — backing the club they were born into. But most fans don’t grow up that way. It takes something memorable — something like the scenes against Fleetwood Town — to turn a casual “I might watch Bradford City” into “that’s my team.”
And we’ve already got 24,000 through the gates. We took over 30,000 to Wembley. So just imagine what our crowds could look like if this momentum continues. Okay, the stadium might not hold it all yet — but that’s a conversation for another day. What matters is this: the future could be brighter than it’s ever been, if Rupp and Sparks keep leaning into the connection they’ve rebuilt with the fans.
A Bright Claret & Amber Future
That dramatic win — in the most Bradford City way possible — felt like the start of something. Hope looked lost deep into injury time… and then Sarce stuck out a toe, the ball rolled slowly into the net, and Valley Parade erupted. Pure chaos — but for all the right reasons.
It could be a catalyst for something much bigger. And no, it doesn’t mean Stefan Rupp needs to bankrupt himself chasing the dream. But it will take smart investment. Speculate to accumulate — and this time, we’ve got the right setup to make it count. We’ve got a manager and recruitment team who know what’s needed. And we’ve got a squad with real character — not a million miles off the spirit of the Phil Parkinson era.
Our fanbase is bigger than ever. Awareness of the club isn’t far off what we saw during the League Cup run. But this time, we’re going up with actual foundations. No need for wholesale changes — just smart tweaks and a continuation of what’s already working.
We don’t need to break the bank to push for the play-off’s over the next few seasons, we need to keep the same open mind, and trust Graham Alexander for the work he is doing off of the pitch, not just on it. But the same applies to Stefan Rupp and Ryan Sparks, trust those you have around you, and give them the support they need to achieve it, and the rest will take care of its self.
The future is bright, the future is claret & amber.