I'm not sure what the Salford club expected really.

Someone thought it'd be a good idea to move from being located in the middle of their core support just 3/4 miles out of Manchester city centre, to the middle of nowhere 6/7 miles out of the city centre.

Attracting new fans or getting old ones back is more than just the rugby. Even if Salford were top, playing great RL, I doubt attendances would be much better. People want to feel part of something, buy into everything the clubs about. A new fan, sat in that soulless ground with just 3,000 species, the ball ache to get to & from there, why would anyone go back?

Good points, and a fair overview.

Without going over old ground again and again, there are some serious challenges that face Salford that don't face any other Club when it comes to attracting new fans.

Over thirty years of decline, forced to move away from its roots into a venue not owned by the Club. The venue is not only in a new area, it's also in an area with little connection to any community. Infrastructure problems out of the Clubs hands are not helping with regards to access, parking etc. Stadia and matchday experience are poor and lifeless, once again mostly out of the Clubs hands as it's the stadium company that has the ultimate say-so on anything at the ground. When you have a Club that has not succeeded since the end of the Vietnam war, the move alone presents a massive challenge. But then you have to factor-in trying to get lapsed fans or interested fans from the Salford area (Where there's a massive football culture) to follow the Club into a different community. Then you have the general apathy of local Salford people to contend with, less disposable income, and lots of other viable attractions to spend what little cash families have to spend. We co-share our lifeless ground with the nomadic despots that are Sale Sharks, who promptly arranged for themselves to be first in the relationship, and quickly got rid of Salford out of the Club shop. We then have the fact that due to being run-down for so long, a change behind the scenes has been paramount even before anything was attempted on the field. We simply didn't have good practices in place where most teams would have without even thinking.

This meant that most things outside of the playing side of things have had to be started from scratch. Basic things such as local ties to local Clubs, Schools, scouting of prospective youth, signing-up good amateur players for the Academy, restructuring the Academy to actually work. Laying down ties to local communities. Every other Club in the league has these things already. Salford didn't. It does now, but this is all part of the long game and wont bare fruit for many years yet. Salford had no facilities, poor equipment, and poor access to knowledgeable sports science practitioners. MK has done a LOT of work behind the scenes to remedy this that I want prattle-on about, suffice to say that there's a reason the Australian National side and NRL Clubs requested to train at Salford. There's still lots of work to be done and things are far from perfect. Can the Club do more? Of course, and should. Can it do things better? Absolutely.

But it's easy for a lot of fans from other Clubs to just see a number when it comes to crowd figures, compare it to their own Club and community which generally are RL heartland communities, and unfairly point the finger like there's something that Salford can't be bothered doing. The Club is trying, sometimes not hard enough, its fans are trying. It's hard to win back thirty years of decline overnight, and the only thing Salford can do is to keep trying and keep improving on the field.

Cheers!

Ayes, fair comment indeed.


And for the people who say, "He's a billionaire, he won't mind chucking a few more million away...", I think they fail to understand how people become billionaires in the first place...

Would that be the same Leigh that had averages under 2,000 until they started winning every game?

Looks like Salford are the new London in terms of Championship fans coming out of the woodwork every week saying how much better they could do.

I think if he were to go anywhere Koucash would buy Wakefield.

The crowds aren't terrible and have shown to be potentially into 5 figures when/if the team is going well

The City doesn't have a great big football club (or two) drawing the fan base away.

The area, alongside Wigan, is the biggest for producing Rugby League tallent.

The potential to build or rebuild a stadium is still there as opposed to having to deal with what he was given, warts n all, in terms of the AJ Bell

Dr Koucash and Michael Carter have become close and could easily work together


Won't happen either way but . . .

Rumour has it that there are still cars trying to get out of the carpark from yesterday's game

Salford fans will hate me for this, but if the stadium deal is really that bad then surely it will be better for Koucash to build a new ground in Manchester and rebrand as Manchester Red Devils? If the RFL got involved the new ground could also be a great venue for England internationals, World Club Challenges and CC semi finals right in the heart of the North's biggest city. You simply can't run an SL team of crowds of under 3k.

Trouble is, and I'm not one of those Salford fans opposed to the idea of name change, all that this would do is create a brand new franchise in a Footballing City. You wouldn't even get the Salford faithful to go because it says Manchester instead of Salford. The satellite towns of Manchester have their own RL Clubs and the Cities of Manchester and Salford have two top Premiership Clubs. Even with a large population, it's hard to keep a new sport going. Look at the Ice Hockey and Basketball as an example.

Salford can grow its crowds, but it will take time and only if the team starts to be consistently good. Without time and results, nothing will change. MK will have to bite the bullet with timescales if he wants success. Look how long it took Crowe with Souths. It wasn't overnight success, and the Bunnies rise is considered quick under the circumstances. Plus they are the number one sport in Sydney.

There's no quick fix, but the team improving year on year will be the key. So far that's on course as it stands at this moment. A good cup run might help matters too.

Sort the parking out i.e. Getting away from the ground or sort a proper park and ride out

Quote ="The Avenger"I think if he were to go anywhere Koucash would buy Wakefield.'" I think Gold Coast Titans might be more favourable :- www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-lea ... ts-5346004 If he were to ditch Salford surely Bradford would be the english club to take on. Potential gates of 15,000 and no stadium restraints. Leigh look like they might be a good horse to back also.

Quote ="The Avenger"I think if he were to go anywhere Koucash would buy Wakefield.'" I think Gold Coast Titans might be more favourable :- www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-lea ... ts-5346004 If he were to ditch Salford surely Bradford would be the english club to take on. Potential gates of 15,000 and no stadium restraints. Leigh look like they might be a good horse to back also.

As a Bradford fan I can honestly say I wouldn't want MK as our owner. Sure, he'd bring lots of money in the short term but his antics looking at other ventures, telling us all he's had enough, sacking Noble after two minutes etc make you wonder how long he'll stick it out. I hope for Salford's sake he does and I hope he goes on to be successful. If he did ditch Salford and came to my club I'd worry hoe long he'd stay before he gave us the boot too. I'm much happier with our new set up where we appear to have a new chairman who wants to build something organic and based on realism and sustainability.

Yep - I'd go along with all of that. Whilst Salford fans seem to be enjoying the ride for now - you just wonder what will happen if/when he does drop them.

Putting it simply, if good doctor goes, Salford RLFC goes.

I read with interest the comments about Greater Manchester. To start with, it has a successful club: Wigan. But, accepting that Wigan are only marginally in the county, can I also request you look at Swinton, Oldham and Rochdale Hornets?
(In fact Oldham RL is closer to Manchester's boundary than Salford.)

All failed in the face of popular inertia and disinterest. All have impressive history. As has Leigh (good luck to them) and Salford.

The question needs to be asked: if Rugby League has issues in flourishing in the big cities where other sports and entertainment thrive (Greater Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, London, Nottingham), what is wrong with the game?
Before Leeds fans jump in: the city should have a thriving Hunslet when you look at the money, population and choices there. Fair play to the Rhinos but they are not as copyable a club as several fans suggest (I cannot see Salford buying Old Trafford and siting a RL stadium beside Lancashire).

I endorse the comments comparing St Helens, Wigan, Castleford and Widnes to Manchester, Leeds or Sheffield. Offer a cross-section of people a day out in the first selection or a day out in the second ... well it's a no brainer. Wigan Pier or the Northern Quarter. Say no more.

Easy answer, we would be in no worse state than we were prior to his ownership i.e we'd probably be weeks/days away from administration.

Whilst Salford has some well known multi-millionaires, non-have ever shown a genuine interest in owning the club. You would have thought someone like Fred Done (Bet Fred) would have been previously but he hasn't.

2,712? Why is anyone suprised?


Salford have always been, and always will be, a nothing club.

Ignoring the obvious catch for a troll ,

please explain why, with the exception of Leeds, RL has not grabbed the attention of thouousands of fans in the big cities: London, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Bristol, Birmingham?
Bradford I am missing out as there is a lot of tradition here.

I live in Nottingham - it's a football city, nobody plays RL. Simple!

I assume much of the reason dates back to the late 1800's. Members of local sports clubs at the time would play a number of forms of 'football', and some would gradually become rugby clubs, some football. Those clubs in the cities you mentioned stuck to football, others to rugby (then the eventual split in 1985).

If you think about it too, there isn't a top level Union presence in those cities either, but if you look at the footprint of RL and RU combined, it isn't too dissimilar to football.

All this isn't an excuse as to why we as a sport haven't in that time managed to do more to penetrate these areas by the way.

Ingrained culture for one thing and has being mentioned upthread the diversity of larger cities in terms of its populace. Some ethnic minorities will not only never have heard of rugby full stop but would not entertain wanting to play or watch it.
There's also little prospects monetary wise in RL except for a very select few and you really have to bust your balls to do well and earn a decent wedge.

you look at soccer and the average wage for a 4th division player is almost £1k/week, Hull City's average is around £30k/week (last year) these wages are available to vastly more people, it can get you on national tv, the lure of potentially earnings millions and having flash cars and a big house/top bit of fanny are all part of the lure away from other sports for young kids.
On top of that there are many, many other things people have access to that the masses never had even 50 years ago, it's really only the tradition of RL in the places it was born in that have being holding the sport together, it's a bloody miracle in many respects that we get the numbers we do.
Outside those heartlands it would/does take decades to build up and tbh I just can't see it realistically happening, even less so under the present regime.

I'm with all of this: my point is that outside the established rugby league strongholds of around Wigan/Saints, Halifax (spreading into Huddersfield), Hull, the Wakefield metropolitan area and the Widnes /Warrington area, it seems difficult to set up well-supported and lasting RL clubs. Leeds is the exception. Bradford has had two setups and may be another exception but I want to hold back for a while.

Mansfield Marksmen/Nottingham City: failed
Liverpool City: a spectacular failure followed by Highfield/2nd Liverpool Stanley/City: failure
It could be me but I'm finding it difficult to find historic teams in Birmingham: good luck to the Bulldogs. Outside, Coventry failed in 1913.
Sheffield again should be a major success looking at the area.
London ... ouch.

My point is that there were attempts both historically and recently to set up RL in these major conurbations. The recent world cup was a success in Bristol but I cannot see progress beyond the hopes (and again good luck to ) the Sonics.

So what is it that is preventing RL from getting support in these areas? We have tried for over 120 years and failed. We have failed when "going to the match" was an important part of many males' lives and even dismal football teams had good support. We have failed when times were hard and when times were good. We even have failed when football was becoming unfashionable (I was there in the '70's and '80's).

Salford's attendance woes are part of this picture.

Perhaps these expansion clubs should have more RFL involvement, ie using some of the Sky monies to gaurantee they have somewhere to play and the neccessary travel facilities for the away matches. Those costs are always the main stumbling blocks.

It wouldn't cost a fortune but would ensure/insure longevity of these clubs, a club thats here today but not in 5, 10 or 20 years time grows no real roots, but 50, 60 and 70 years plus and it becvomes an integral part of the community and FROM THERE it can grow!

All sports in the UK find it difficult to raise their game against the might of football.

If you go to the USA or Austrailia, people will think nothing about watching american football, basketball, baseball etc In tandem with other sports, not pigeon holed into one sport.

I'm not sure why football has such a strangle hold on the UK, but that's just the way it is.

IMO a top flight expansion club won't succeed long term without support from the local community (local teams, schools etc). We have to build bottom up.