www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... grabs.html Yooooofffffff!!!!!!

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... grabs.html Yooooofffffff!!!!!!

Guess you be happy if it did.

Consider the 'journalist', then consider the 'newspaper'...

Move along, nothing to see there.

Sam Evans has not been at the club for years and think off season rumours.Widnes are looking for more Investors and sustainability through own fan base.Unlike London and Salford,as how they get decent squads with their attendances.

Nowhere did I suggest that. But whilst you're here, can we borrow your silver polish, doubt you'll be needing it and we've got trophies to polish.

Enjoy Phil Joseph. Nice to see you can give him a game after he couldn't get one here

Lol the story about the Fax lads isnt even accurate as Scott Murrell was a non starter.

I guess as far as Dave Parker goes if you make up enough stuff eventually you are going to get something right.

Sun or no Sun, one thing's for sure - O'Connor is not going to sit in his hillside mansion chucking wads of cash on the fire for 10 seconds of warmth. That's what it must feel like owning and funding a SL club with a mediocre squad.

It begs the question why he did it in the first place. Does Super League possess businessmen with a stupidity spell? Full time squads under the current Sky deal is unaffordable without regular five figure attendances with all it's attendees paying a proper price to get in.

In other news welcome to Salford Mr Koukash - love the name; you'll write some headlines with that!

I've posted it loads of times rich, yes when you get involved all ' reason ' goes out of the window ,how many times is the phrase used " He's a successful businessman, he'll know how to make it work, he wont make the same mistakes the last lot ( successful businessmen ) made " , my accountant commented " Are you stark raving mad " when I told him I had got involved at Leigh, he was right

It ends up as an Ego Trip to some, a competition as to how much money as you rightly say can be tipped on a bonfire, what people have to understand is just because you are successful in 1 particular field of business doesnt make you an expert at another ,but quite often that expert advice isnt sought, and also a sports business isnt an ' exact ' science

If you say so and I will always enjoy the Gold star on my shirt.

Was that for being polite at school?

Seriously, widnes showed the way for championship clubs and played the RFL at their silly game. Depending in Faisal's integrity, Fev are about to do the same. Will the RFL have the balls to boot someone out? My money's on no. Whatever happens, Fax need to step up now, the more there are strong teams in the championship the harder it is for the RFL to carry on as they are.


Good luck to the smoggies next season, give those bulls a beating from us!

Think about it, this is a business man who brought a club at a rock bottom price, they were in the second tier, the door to the top was about to be slammed shut, and they needed rebuilding.

He got them for little, invested some, and now they're back in the top flight his shares in the club will be worth a lot more than what he paid for them (you'd think so anyway) so now he wants to get a return on his investment

I was really disappointed to read about what happened to Paul Hansbury.
A really good bloke who used to put 90+ hours a week in for that club.

From what little I know I think Widnes allthough they had finacial problems were well and truly stiched up by the RFL when they were relagated to allow Crusaders in to Super League.


In their hour of need they certainly did not get the same treatment as Bradford have had recently and as far as I am concerned Widnes are a much bigger name or iconic club in rugby league than Bradford will ever be.

As a buisness venture most if not every rugby league club would not be a good investment as there is little or no chance of making a great deal if any commercial profit that could be taken away to swell your bank account as compared to what would be classed as normal buisness and I would have thought that any new owner or invester would be doing so with this fact in mind.

They are normally attracted by love of the club and the game but that has to be balanced by common sense.

It then comes down to how much money they have and how long they are prepared to spend it on the club concerned.

Whether this is short or long term it would make good sense to get others on board to offset the costs and wouldn't automatically mean that the main man was going to walk away.

The game is on it's knees so much that a finacial crises will not be far away from most, another club today our club tomorrow or the next year so there is no return in looking at potential problems with other clubs as it will be us again no doubt sometime down the line.

But how much has he poured down the toilet to get them where they are now? Which, incidentally is bottom of the SL. If he "sold" the club now he will get little or no money from the sale because it needs more wads of cash just to get rid if the wooden spoon. It needs more Sky money, or a Chairman who lives, breathes and dies for Widnes or ultimately for some part of SL to return to semi- pro status, hence the rumoured change to two SL's of ten.

Purely hypothetical, but if I was to take ownership of a sports club tommorrow, I would implement a 90% of previous years income spend policy, this would force the club/business to operate more susstainably and also to market itself to improve its core customer base, which is the single biggest failing of so many sports clubs

Problem is your customers get hacked off if you're not fighting for a top six spot. Customers are fickle and there are no guarantees that you'll get enough of them through the door in order to pay for a competitive product. In theory you could spend hardly anything and finish bottom of the pile every year.

Yes was a good boy.

Joking aside the game is on a downward slope in how it is run to be honest.I am hoping Widnes come higher than bottom, and i expect bottom ,so anything higher would be a bonus.Teams like Salford cheated last year by spending beyond their money coming into the club,so i think a salary cap should be on attendances and build gradually.Wakefield have increased attendances by doing pretty well and luck with injuries.Goodluck Fax for the season.

What price were/are Wakefields season tickets ?

So the other option is buy a big prop and a fast winger and



Community work, marketing on a much higher scale along with a few leaps of faith are what will grow a sports business, just hoping for a winning team is just slowly dying, the world has changed as it always will, change with it or die , that applies to most businesses

Not sure mate and dont know if had many offers which can increase the average attendances.Widnes did not have many offers and sometimes can be good and bad.

Brew nobody will ever make money on a sports club, you put money in for the love of the club and don't expect to make anything back on it.

Heaven knows why anyone uses the word investor /investment in the same breath as a Rgby League club , if they are very lucky at best they might scrape out with the money they put in .Most can`t do that as it just brings the Club down if they do so they have to leave it till the Club gets in a better position to pay them back which will never happen.

So what wording should be used?

Probably "Freely donating" "Gifting" etc.

Or as money talks, with Rugby League it would be saying "Goodbye".

FAISAL !!!!!!


He's the saviour. Apparently, he swirled his way into the Fev new year's eve party in some super-hero fancy dress outfit, THE SUN's Dave *nosey* Parker was simply sat on his own ( titter ye not ) doing the Ponte Carlo Times sudoko & the numbers game gained momentum.......