Permanent presence is the key. With 24-hour shopping, home delivery and ‘click and collect’, it's harder now to silo specific groups. I'm not saying the club shouldn't have players doing this kind of thing in supermarkets, it's just getting harder to promote things to people. That's why schools remain a solid option, because the way they operate hasn't changed.

If anything, publicity stunts are the way to go. You get free advertising, there's a decent chance of local TV coverage and it going viral online. Idiocy, fake or otherwise, is a winner; and the best person to carry this is out is Marwan. He is the figurehead and knows how to play the media game. But then you have the issue of professional integrity at boardroom level.

The club does need to do something to make it more visible in the community, but I don't think supermarkets are the way to go because people, on the whole, don't want to be there. For most of us, it's get in and get out as quickly as you can. A better option would be to have a presence at the various festivals that spring up around the city during the summer. The one at Ordsall Park had a huge turn out and, had the club had a stall there, with maybe a few players doing a few training drills, they'd have made themselves visible to all those people. They wouldn't have to pay to be there either, which I very much doubt would be the case with a supermarket. Plenty of space too, which, again, you wouldn't get at a supermarket.

As regards general marketing, the club has a bit of an untapped resource with its existing fans. They could allow every season ticket holder to bring a newby along for free to a couple of games. Or maybe have a stepped introduction, so the season ticket holder can bring one named person along to one game for free, then one for a fiver, one for a tenner and so on.

As for siloing, there are still some specific groups out there. Students spring to mind. There are three universities in the area. Presumably, they have rugby clubs. Are the club in contact with them? Offer each registered member a free (or discounted) match ticket, and maybe a traffic cone to wear.

Overall, what the club really needs is a marketing/media manager. To some extent, that's what Bradford had with Peter Deakin and it seemed to work for them.

Some good suggestions, but I think we can kiss goodbye to whatever student element we attracted at the Willows due to the isolated location of the stadium. I wouldn't even like to hazard a guess at the number of buses it would take, or how long to get from Castle Irwell (for example) to Barton.

Anyone remember the nurses promotion we did at the Willows? I think they were given either free or subsidised entry into the top of the North Stand. It resulted in some reasonable attendances against some poorly supported teams. Whilst freebies aren't the way to go, discounted tickets may be - each week could be a different public service, police, paramedics, fire service, nurses etc.

I work for one of said universities, and it's a good shout given the student population in Manchester and Salford, but there are caveats. For a start, it's not a cheap night out by any means. Also, the rugby league season does not align well with student terms; some students are only around between late September and Easter. So the earlier the better. Once, I bought something from the Apple Store in the Arndale and the guy serving me mentioned that when he was a student at Huddersfield, him and his housemates used to go Giants’ home games now and again. So it can work.

The club did target students hard for a specific match at The Willows. I can't remember the offer details now. It might have been reduced admission and a free pie and pint – something like that. I think they were also given another offer voucher for use at the next home game, which the club used to gauge the success of the promotion i.e. retention. Only one or two took it up. So you can look at this one of two ways, or perhaps a combination of them both: the club should have kept with it instead of binning the initiative straight away (which they had a history of doing under Tarry) or targeting students was not a worthwhile use of [meagre resources.



It has, and has had for some time.



That's not so bad. The 10 bus goes from outside St Mike’s and stops outside Castle Irwell. Say the walk to and from the ground is 15 minutes, then the bus journey coming back is probably 30 minutes or so; buses are pretty rapid at that time of night. Times are roughly 22:10, 22:40, 23:10 (last).



You'd need some kind of verification or ID, as a fair amount of those NHS tickets found their way into the hands of regulars.

Not as bad as I thought, however with most of our games on Sunday afternoons next season do services tend to tail off?



I don't think that would be an issue, as I understand all public services are required to carry/have photo ID.

Same as really. Every half and hour until 11ish.

Interestingly, one thing they used to do in the late 1800s was to get members (or fans) to recruit new supporters, acting as agent if you will. The top recruiters were given free season tickets. Open to abuse, certainly, but an interesting ploy.

For every new season ticket holder you introduce a 10% reduction would be an interesting option.

Incentives in local schools too, when the club do a promo in a club they target the families of the children, for every family that pays too watch a game linked too a specific school the club make a donation of training equipment, that way you get new bums on seats but also invest in the next generation of youngsters in the area. Sure that Under Armour would be interested in getting in on that idea, create interest in the brand and promote it as a rival for Adidas, Nike and Puma.

Re marketing: the hype over the Union World Cup is beginning to become noticeable. As many people cannot differentiate between the codes, can we jump aboard with the slogan: better.

Anyone who remembers getting up early to watch that snooze match that Wilkinson kicked will have no difficulty in "better".

I think it's probably best to ride on their coattails rather than going head-on with union. After England’s victory in 2003, one of things the RFU were completely unprepared for was the upsurge in parents taking little Jonny and Joanna to their local clubs to play. Loads were turned away because there were not enough clubs to take them on. The RFU won't miss out this time around, but the RFL should set aside a pot of monies which amateur clubs can dig into just in case England do win the World Cup (unlikely) and need to recruit people to deal with a potential runoff.

One thing that the club should look at regarding season tickets for next season is a free ticket or half prices tickets for a challenge cup home game. Ive noticed sice we moved to the new stadium we havent had them offers and the attendances have been awful.

Man City went BOGOF for the last Champions League game but I'm not sure whether our Challenge Cup rules allow it.
I'm dead against free tickets.
I don't think it achieves anything and most people,me included,wouldn't pay if we could scrounge a freebie from someone

im against free ticket but if it means uping the season ticket an extra £20 for the deal then im not fussed. im just abit worried as the last 2 challenge cup games the attendances at home were shocking. is it because people dont want to wait in line for a ticket. Our attendances for the leeds game in 2012 and widnes last season must of just been 2 thousand

I wouldn't bother. The Challenge Cup rounds are fading across the board. Plus it might still be the case that the away side gets a bigger cut of the gate receipts.

The RFL should make it compulsory that clubs include Challenge Cup games (prior to semi final) as part of an automatic cup scheme to all season ticket holders, albeit at a discounted price say £5 for kids and £10 adults. It would put an end to the dwindling crowds year on year and encourage more people to attend, particularly if they have already paid.