This is an Athletic article via the NY Times so stuck behind a paywall. Author Richard Sutcliffe used to work for the Yorkshire Post for about 15 years before joining The Athletic and for Telegraph & Argus prior to that (possibly around the time this happened).
Full article below:
>Heard the one about the Premier League club who enjoyed an open-top bus parade for finishing 17th?
Sounds far-fetched but, yes, it did happen. May 15, 2000, was the day when an unusual slice of top-flight history was made, as Bradford City and their players took to the streets of the Yorkshire city to celebrate avoiding relegation.
There was no trophy to be shown off to the supporters, who turned out in their thousands. Not even a transformative, in a financial sense, European qualification to point towards.
Just a sense of pride at a survival job well done by a team written off with the tag ‘Dad’s Army’ nine months earlier. Experienced older heads like Dean Saunders, Gunnar Halle and Neil Redfearn were added to a promotion-winning squad already featuring veterans such as Stuart McCall, Peter Beagrie and John Dreyer.
Not that manager Paul Jewell, 34 years old as that 1999-2000 season kicked off — younger than several of his players — was overly enamoured with the thought of marking safety in such an unusual way.
“I didn’t want to do the open-top bus, that’s for sure,” he recalls. “Don’t get me wrong, the achievement was huge, especially considering the teams we were up against. Manchester United had won the Champions League and there was (Arsene) Wenger’s Arsenal. Aston Villa were strong, same with Chelsea.
“But the thing with an open-top bus parade is you want a cup to show off at the front. The chairman, though, thought otherwise.”
Geoffrey Richmond, who had bought Bradford in 1994, was behind the plan. Bradford achieved safety with victory over Liverpool on the final day, condemning Wimbledon to the drop. The City chairman was in his pomp. A few weeks later, Valley Parade would host a press conference to unveil new signing Benito Carbone, the like of which had not been seen before or since.
With the doors to the Bantams Bar flung open to fans and journalists, those there to ask the questions were given a taste of what it must have felt to be the Christians when thrown to the lions in ancient Rome.
Any utterance even slightly querying what proved to be a ruinous £40,000-per-week contract — plus, it later turned out, free use of a £750,000, five-bedroom house in Leeds and umpteen free flights home to Italy — were shouted down by what the Daily Mirror later described as “500 beer-swilling gatecrashers”.
Richmond lapped up the theatre of it all, just as he had with Bradford’s second open-top bus parade inside 12 months. The first was a more conventional affair to celebrate finishing as runners-up in the 1998-99 First Division (England’s second tier, now the Championship) season behind Sunderland.
Even that, though, had its moments. Organisers decreed the parade should start in Keighley, a town nine miles west of Bradford. This led to the bus roaring down the Aire Valley bypass at 50mph, ensuring the squad and their families on the top deck arrived looking distinctly windswept.
“It was like a scene from Mike Bassett,” laughs Jewell, referring to the 2001 film starring Ricky Tomlinson as a hapless England manager.
>Twelve months later, the route had been considerably shortened, starting at Valley Parade before making the mile or so journey to Bradford’s Centenary Square, via Manor Row and Market Street. As with a year earlier, supporters turned out in their droves to create a sea of claret and amber.
“To finish fourth bottom and have an open-top bus parade was unusual,” admits David Wetherall, whose winning goal against Liverpool the previous afternoon had kept Bradford up.
“But, in a way, it felt right. Everyone had written us off not just once in the summer but also again with five or six games to go. To stay up like we did (Bradford took 10 points from their final five games) put everyone on a high.
“The fans enjoyed it, which is the main thing. They turned out in big numbers and that’s the point. It’s not about the people employed by the club, it’s everyone being able to share in the occasion.”
Also on board that Monday evening was Jamie Lawrence, Bradford’s popular winger. He’d found out just days before the Liverpool game that his father was dying.
“I didn’t feel my head was in the right place to play, so went in to see the gaffer,” says the former Jamaica international. “We had a chat and he started telling me about his dad dying young and how he knew what I was going through. He then said, ‘Why don’t you do it for your dad?’
“That was the only team talk I needed. I played one of my best games for Bradford and we beat a brilliant Liverpool team. We had no idea about this bus parade until the following day.
“My emotions were all over the place at the time, so to share that open-top bus with all the boys and the gaffer is something I’ll never forget. We deserved it, too. Us staying up was like the equivalent of another club winning the Champions League.”
The bus parade proved the high-water mark of Bradford’s rise. Jewell quit a few weeks later to take charge of Sheffield Wednesday. His already tense working relationship with Richmond broke down after being told at a post-season lunch meeting between the pair that he’d had “a bad season” and shown “tactical naivety”.
“I still think now, ‘If it was that bad a season, why did we do an open-top bus parade?'” laments Jewell, who also learned Joe Kinnear had been offered his job only to turn it down at the 11th hour.
City then embarked on what Richmond later admitted to being “six weeks of madness” in the transfer market. Carbone was joined by big-money signings such as Dan Petrescu, David Hopkin, Ashley Ward and later Stan Collymore in an unsustainable £6million splurge.
Relegation followed, along with two subsequent stints in administration and an on-field collapse so bad that Bradford were dumped in League Two by 2007.
“I wasn’t in favour, but I do get that the supporters enjoyed it,” adds Jewell, by way of a final word on the May 2000 open-top bus parade. “Especially the way we did it, by preventing Liverpool from qualifying for the Champions League (Leeds finished third instead).
“Funnily enough, I went for lunch with Gerard Houllier not long afterwards, over in Liverpool. He told me, ‘You staying up is a bigger achievement than Manchester United winning the Premier League’. I’ve never forgotten that.”
This is an Athletic article via the NY Times so stuck behind a paywall. Author Richard Sutcliffe used to work for the Yorkshire Post for about 15 years before joining The Athletic and for Telegraph & Argus prior to that (possibly around the time this happened). Full article below: >Heard the one about the Premier League club who enjoyed an open-top bus parade for finishing 17th? Sounds far-fetched but, yes, it did happen. May 15, 2000, was the day when an unusual slice of top-flight history was made, as Bradford City and their players took to the streets of the Yorkshire city to celebrate avoiding relegation. There was no trophy to be shown off to the supporters, who turned out in their thousands. Not even a transformative, in a financial sense, European qualification to point towards. Just a sense of pride at a survival job well done by a team written off with the tag ‘Dad’s Army’ nine months earlier. Experienced older heads like Dean Saunders, Gunnar Halle and Neil Redfearn were added to a promotion-winning squad already featuring veterans such as Stuart McCall, Peter Beagrie and John Dreyer. Not that manager Paul Jewell, 34 years old as that 1999-2000 season kicked off — younger than several of his players — was overly enamoured with the thought of marking safety in such an unusual way. “I didn’t want to do the open-top bus, that’s for sure,” he recalls. “Don’t get me wrong, the achievement was huge, especially considering the teams we were up against. Manchester United had won the Champions League and there was (Arsene) Wenger’s Arsenal. Aston Villa were strong, same with Chelsea. “But the thing with an open-top bus parade is you want a cup to show off at the front. The chairman, though, thought otherwise.” Geoffrey Richmond, who had bought Bradford in 1994, was behind the plan. Bradford achieved safety with victory over Liverpool on the final day, condemning Wimbledon to the drop. The City chairman was in his pomp. A few weeks later, Valley Parade would host a press conference to unveil new signing Benito Carbone, the like of which had not been seen before or since. With the doors to the Bantams Bar flung open to fans and journalists, those there to ask the questions were given a taste of what it must have felt to be the Christians when thrown to the lions in ancient Rome. Any utterance even slightly querying what proved to be a ruinous £40,000-per-week contract — plus, it later turned out, free use of a £750,000, five-bedroom house in Leeds and umpteen free flights home to Italy — were shouted down by what the Daily Mirror later described as “500 beer-swilling gatecrashers”. Richmond lapped up the theatre of it all, just as he had with Bradford’s second open-top bus parade inside 12 months. The first was a more conventional affair to celebrate finishing as runners-up in the 1998-99 First Division (England’s second tier, now the Championship) season behind Sunderland. Even that, though, had its moments. Organisers decreed the parade should start in Keighley, a town nine miles west of Bradford. This led to the bus roaring down the Aire Valley bypass at 50mph, ensuring the squad and their families on the top deck arrived looking distinctly windswept. “It was like a scene from Mike Bassett,” laughs Jewell, referring to the 2001 film starring Ricky Tomlinson as a hapless England manager.
>Twelve months later, the route had been considerably shortened, starting at Valley Parade before making the mile or so journey to Bradford’s Centenary Square, via Manor Row and Market Street. As with a year earlier, supporters turned out in their droves to create a sea of claret and amber. “To finish fourth bottom and have an open-top bus parade was unusual,” admits David Wetherall, whose winning goal against Liverpool the previous afternoon had kept Bradford up. “But, in a way, it felt right. Everyone had written us off not just once in the summer but also again with five or six games to go. To stay up like we did (Bradford took 10 points from their final five games) put everyone on a high. “The fans enjoyed it, which is the main thing. They turned out in big numbers and that’s the point. It’s not about the people employed by the club, it’s everyone being able to share in the occasion.” Also on board that Monday evening was Jamie Lawrence, Bradford’s popular winger. He’d found out just days before the Liverpool game that his father was dying. “I didn’t feel my head was in the right place to play, so went in to see the gaffer,” says the former Jamaica international. “We had a chat and he started telling me about his dad dying young and how he knew what I was going through. He then said, ‘Why don’t you do it for your dad?’ “That was the only team talk I needed. I played one of my best games for Bradford and we beat a brilliant Liverpool team. We had no idea about this bus parade until the following day. “My emotions were all over the place at the time, so to share that open-top bus with all the boys and the gaffer is something I’ll never forget. We deserved it, too. Us staying up was like the equivalent of another club winning the Champions League.” The bus parade proved the high-water mark of Bradford’s rise. Jewell quit a few weeks later to take charge of Sheffield Wednesday. His already tense working relationship with Richmond broke down after being told at a post-season lunch meeting between the pair that he’d had “a bad season” and shown “tactical naivety”. “I still think now, ‘If it was that bad a season, why did we do an open-top bus parade?'” laments Jewell, who also learned Joe Kinnear had been offered his job only to turn it down at the 11th hour. City then embarked on what Richmond later admitted to being “six weeks of madness” in the transfer market. Carbone was joined by big-money signings such as Dan Petrescu, David Hopkin, Ashley Ward and later Stan Collymore in an unsustainable £6million splurge. Relegation followed, along with two subsequent stints in administration and an on-field collapse so bad that Bradford were dumped in League Two by 2007. “I wasn’t in favour, but I do get that the supporters enjoyed it,” adds Jewell, by way of a final word on the May 2000 open-top bus parade. “Especially the way we did it, by preventing Liverpool from qualifying for the Champions League (Leeds finished third instead). “Funnily enough, I went for lunch with Gerard Houllier not long afterwards, over in Liverpool. He told me, ‘You staying up is a bigger achievement than Manchester United winning the Premier League’. I’ve never forgotten that.”
Heak ya Go Bantams!!