I am sure with more money Salford could also recruit professional people and invest in taking the club forward commercially.

Gawd, if I was in charge, Salford would be playing back in Weaste. On Stott Lane playing fields after I ran it into the ground!

It really, really, really, really, really, really, really does.

It would be useful to compare the overall cost of running (pay, budgets and losses) of our off-field outfit with Huddersfields before forming opinions like this.
Sale's, we're told (I've no idea if it's true), costs millions and makes huge losses. Yet everyone on here keeps lauding them as the grand messiah's of effective marketing and something 'our lot' should learn from.

Professionalism and leadership cost nothing. Look at GT's post for a raft of ways the club could improve that wouldn't cost a penny.

I think you miss my point (my fault not yours)... What I'm saying is... should there be a wealthy investor come in at Salford... if they came in with the current set up at the club, it wouldn't work. They would have to get the whole club from top to bottom right before their money would make the difference. If I through a ton of polish at a turd... and spend all the money doing it... it's still going to be a turd... I don't think it would have mattered how much money we had... You are right....Money does make a difference to a club I totally agree... but so do people.

You may well be right, I just think the comparisons to Hudds (or any club) are difficult to quantify.
Are they more successful on the pitch and increasing thier profile and crowds? Yes.

Are they doing so with the same resources we are? Let's not kid ourselves.

All this talk of someone taking us over gives me a non to easy feeling. What's to stop Kennedy taking over Salford with promises of grandure only to run us into the ground and wind us up leaving the stadium free for Sale's sole use? I don't trust them one bit.. I hope n pray I'm wrong.

Clearly there are a number of issues with anyone coming in to "take over" SCR. The first is that for the past few years the accounts have been qualified by the auditors saying that in effect, the club only exists because the current directors have given assurances that they will not look to withdraw their loans, if they did then the business could not carry on trading.

So it's not as simple as the existing major shareholders just agreeing to sell their shares, whoever were to buy those shares would have either to clear the existing loans i.e. pay out the directors who made them or IF those with the loans were agreeable to keeping them in place, to guarantee that the club could keep on trading as it currently does.

All that will have a rather salutary effect I suspect on anyone wanting to get control. However, that said, it seems pretty obvious that if SCR is to go forwards and compete with the big boys in the league then a pretty major investment and a complete shake up is needed - will that happen? Who knows? - Not me!!

That is bound to happen soon. I don't think John will be the owner for much longer.

I think when some people here say 'marketing', they really mean 'Promotion'. Don't forget there a few more Ps in the marketing mix - not least 'product'.

I sincerely believe that the Reds' core product has significantly improved - better rugby being played at a better stadium. Pricing, promotion and additional services like parking, access, staffing, catering etc all make up the 'Marketing'.

You could have spent £10K on a full page ad in the MEN and you might get a few new people to come to the Willows once out of interest. If they didn't enjoy the experience they wouldn't come back. How far has that investment in 'marketing' got you?

Advertising is not marketing.

The question now is what do Dave Tarry and the management of SRLFC intend to do about this development?

Is it time DT appeared at a Forever Reds meeting?

Tomkins thinks it is a great idea that Sale have moved in. menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... to-measure

Tomkins thinks it is a great idea that Sale have moved in. menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... to-measure

If he reads this he knows how the fans feel so why would he put himself in the lions den, would the meeting be constructive or a pile of insults directed at him.

It clearly would not be a pile of insults, I've never seen any fans forum at Salford descend to that, although that's probably what he thinks would happen.

Well according to him... It's 'healthy competition'.... It's only healthy if you have the balls for the fight.... and I'm not yet convinced.

I think it depends on who turns up, some people on this board may wish to come, but i know what you are saying, even the McRae sessions didn't go as low, but then again he only answered two questions and they were the answers he wanted to give and not necessary the answers to the questions.

Dual Salford and Sale branding on the front of the stadium according to the MEN today. Marvellous, absolutely marvellous.

Well, leaving aside the grapevine's well known reliability issues (remember Kevin Sinfield?) isn't the fact that the club aren't happy with the stadium a sign that they're aware of the problems? I'd be worried if the grapevine was telling you they think everything's great.



I'd say better than we could have hoped. We were written off by many people (including some of our own fans) at the start of the season. Also, we will likely finish the season with the second lowest average attendance in SL, yet we're in with a reasonable chance of a play off place. Better than we could have hoped, I think.



I agree ticket prices are too high, but you have to be careful here to avoid 'doing a Bradford'. I think we can agree that the club struggles for money. In order to keep the levels of income up at their current relatively pathetic levels, every pound you take off the ticket price has to be replaced by an increase in attendance of approximately 5% (not including money spent on peripherals, like programmes and the like). 5% of our current average attendance is around 250 people (probably a bit more). Could we guarantee that level of increase? Personally, I doubt it. So, the lost income would have to be replaced from somewhere, and that somewhere will no doubt be the directors who, despite what some people on here seem to think, don't appear to have bottomless pockets.



Agreed, at least partly. The membership scheme started off as a reasonable idea because it allowed members to take other people along for half price. That seems to have gone this year, and the current scheme is a crock. It's not a sign that the club has been run badly for 30 years though is it?



How much of this is the club's fault? As you say further down, ticketing isn't in the club's hands. And the club aren't happy.



Agreed, but a functioning web site costs money. And we haven't got any.



Yup. But then I've not experienced any problems in my dealings with the club.



Again, money. Taking someone from another department isn't always possible because the other department might not be able to spare them.



Again, was this the club or Ticketline?

I'm still not convinced that Salford are a badly run club rather than a club run on a shoestring.

Ive been trying to calm down all day and think of the positives of that mob moving in with us,you know what,i could`nt think of any,i`m worried to death that this is the end of my beloved club,when i first heard of us having our own brand spanking new state of the art stadium all them years ago i was cock a hoop,now its all turned to ashes.Going to listen now to the bullcrap what Tarry comes out with on GMR.

Slight difference between hearing something from a club official and reading a post by Smithy68 on here I'm sure you would agree.



Agree about doing a Bradford but it is imperative we increase our crowds dramatically and if a competitive pricing structure is one potential way of doing it then we have to look at it. We are stuck in a stagnant cycle of poor crowds and low income and we have to strive to break this. You don't think the club is capable of adding 250 to the average attendance in a season? You must have a lower opinion of them than I do.



You don't think we can afford an online club shop?



You don't think we can afford enough staff to have the club shop open 9-5?



It was Salford. My season ticket renewal letter came through my door on the 25th November - just over 2 months before the first game. Sale are advertising their season tickets to go on sale on the 16th April - around 5 months before the first match of next season. If we don't have the resources to handle season ticket sales properly then we should release a player to make it possible.



We all agree we are skint. With that in mind do you not find it frightening that a well resourced, ambitious rival club are moving into our city with the stated intention of 'seizing the North West'?

I thought with the online shop and/or the insure retail surely Sale will want retail space will that be shared or will they want their own outlet? If they share then surely problem solved on the staffing issues and surely a chance to try and have the shop open longer?.

As without doubt our online facilities are dire there must be an option to broker a deal with a third party to license our products to sell online for an initial fee or a percentage of sales?

Well... When everybody was talking about the 'blue seats' a few months ago I was accused of over-reacting... I posted an image on the 4th November which I knocked together... Here... Bottom of page... [urlhttp://viewtopic.php?f=20&t=512697&start=90[/url

So... without any further ado... I'd like to say to all those who criticised my point and my concerns... I TOLD YOU SO !!!

Two separate clubs sharing a shop? Any idea how this would work? Two separate tills with staff from each club pulling people in the opposite direction towards their own club merchandise? If we had any sizes in stock that is.

It works perfectly well all across the retail industry - many shops have concessions or franchises based in the same premises and using the same POS system - just ensure the goods are coded properly - no problem

The fact is Sale ARE moving in - we either accept it and find positive aspects to benefit from or do a King Canute and try & stop the tide!

Ultimately, the market will decide, IF SCR can't attract in the volume necessary to fund itself in the long term then it fails. And yes, I know it's not a level playing field, the media bias in favour of yawnion is immense but no-one is going to right that overnight so we just have to live with it.

Totally different - at House of Fraser the staff are contracted centrally to the premises and not the other way round. Unless you are advocating sacking the retail staff at both clubs and letting the SMC hire the shop staff? They've always proved themselves fully competent.

I'm still waiting to hear the positive aspects of them moving in. Of course we've got to accept it but it doesn't make it any more grating or mean we shouldn't highlight the obvious downsides it will have.