Salford City Reds: John Wilkinson dismisses administration rumours

Salford City Reds chairman John Wilkinson has dismissed rumours that the Super League club are close to going into administration.
Last month, Wilkinson said the club were actively looking for investment after losing several revenue streams.
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“
We've lost some income streams but as a club we're stable
”
John Wilkinson
Salford City Reds chairman
But when asked about administration, he told BBC Radio Manchester: "It's hard, but no, we're not (close to it)."
The Reds were late paying off a tax bill in April and released chief executive David Tarry in June.
Before moving from their former home at the Willows to their new £26m stadium in Barton at the start of the season, the Reds had stated that they needed to average around 8,000 fans at the Salford City Stadium.
So far this season, they are averaging just under 6,000 per game.
"We've got a transformation from the Willows to the new stadium, we've lost some income streams there is no question about that but as a club we're stable," Wilkinson added.
"At the new stadium we've said all along we need 8,000 supporters and we need to have our dining room full as well, as we've not got any other way we can earn our money.
"We're going to look at things differently next year, but we need more than that if we're going to go forward, and that's what we've got to aim for."

Just sell the lease for the Stadium to the RFL. I'm sure they could come up with some cock and bull story about saving an iconic venue. Bet Sale would be laughing if the worst comes to the worst. Lets hope not.

All the best.

my god not another Bradford were will it all end good look salford

Think the 12 side super league is going to happen by default. After everything that's been done at Salford I really hope they survive.

Seriously, can it be that hard to run an RL club as a viable business???

Each club should know how many fans it can expect to average each game, and knows when the games are, what their rent/mortgage is, knows exactly what money to expect from SKY/RFL and when - so should easily be able to budget their costs/income. It amazes me that people who run successful businesses without these guarantees can manage to run an RL club so badly.

Average of 5k fans at Salford paying £10 each = £50k * 13 = £650k, plus the SKY money of approx £1m. Plus sponsorship money, plus hospitality, merchandise, share of away ticket sales and cup games etc etc, and you are looking at around £2m guaranteed revenue just for turning up, or doing any additional marketing.

With no relegation there is no need to bust a gut on the salary cap, so you can run a fairly average 25man squad for just over £1m.

I thought when they went to the new stadium there would be huge increases in gates because they would be in a nice area with nice facilities and everything was going to hunky dorrie. if my memory serves me right im sure at one stage it was claimed by some fans that they were going to be the biggest club in SL due to all this new income they were going to get. I cant believe its come to this in such a small period of time. I thought Wilkinson was a commited and smart guy and was happy to bankroll them as well untill things were stable? With a ground share with Sale that must have improved things financially as well. Hope they sort it out. They should be a decent club now.

Hopefully this period will whittle out some of the weaker clubs and those that remain can realise what is happening and reduce the cap.

We're already dwarfed by Union and will soon be by the NRL. So why not just reduce the cap? Sure we'll lose players to those rival competitions but does it matter in the long run?

And there's me wondering what we were all going to talk (rant?) about when the Bradford business is all done and dusted!

That was what we were told years back, when were meant to be moving into an iconic 20,000 seater stadium, with a built in hotel and Casino. The Stadium was going to be OURS and the profits would be for Salford RLFC, since then a lot has happened Red City Developments going bust right in the middle of the whole stadium thing, meant Peel holdings had to come in and take over. Now we only rent the ground and any profits made go to the stadium management company and not Salford RLFC.

As far attracting new fans, out board and then CEO who has now thankfully gone seemed to have the idea of 'build it and they will come' which quite frankly the realistic fans (who get called the doom merchants by some Salford fans) new it wouldn't happen. There was nothing put in place before we moved so it was to be expected that our fan base wouldn't increase that much. People in the area didn't even know what the stadium was for at first!!!

Are there even enough Salford fans to justify the effort involved in trying to save the club? I'm not being inflammatory, I'm just asking if enough people care about Salford RLFC to continue generating revenue if and when this current crisis is averted.

Probably not tbh.
Put it this way, if the club appealed to the fans like Bradford did they'd be lucky to raise enough for a pint...

Sale paying half? I thought that Salford subleased to Sale for 25 years AND THEN negotiated a reduce rent with the landlords. Sale no doubt already helping out with the costs etc after all, ...2013..... Sale City Reds (told ya!)

Throw them out of the league! Deduct all their points! Tear down their new stadium and salt the earth! Show these immoral swine that our sport will not tolerate them!!

Oh wait, it's not Bradford so there's no need for any of that knee jerk vitriol.

Nothing has happened yet, and it's a bit of a different situation anyway.

Salfords 2011 average crowd was 4,754 (and that includes the 10k crowd for Catalans in the final game)
This seasons average crowd so far is 5,864.
So the move has increased the attendance by about 20%.
Whether that's enough or not I have no idea. I'd be interested to know the difference in costs between maintaining a crumbling Willows and ground sharing with Sale.

I'm sure it is. My point was that there doesn't seem to be the screaming horde demanding blood over Salford's potential administration.

However, if it does happen, I do hope your club manages to get a new buyer and survive this.

Sustaining it is as key though. It's promising their attendances are on the up, but how many fans will renew after the 1 year novelty of a new ground wears off. Plus as an away fan at Barton this season, I made more effort to get there then most other grounds, to tick it off, probably won't make the same effort next season unless it convenient.
Saying that, maybe a few extra Sale fans might start watching next season.

That's true, there will certainly be a drop off in away fans. If I do go next season I certainly won't be parking in the club car park again!

It is deeper than Bradford and Salford, which is so far rumour.
Salford, Cas, Hudds, HKR, London, Wakey etc are no bigger than the Fax, Oldhams, Leighs etc its just they have had the majority of recent years in SL and the finances it brings, reverse the cash and things would look similar for those outside SL now.
Clubs have been driven down the new stadia route by the RFL yet clubs playing in hovels are still in SL, so why waste all that money or accept reduced income streams from council owned facilities.
If Salford can move back to the Willows then that would be great for them financially, I wish the option was available for Leigh although this year LSV has removed the financial foot from our necks but I doubt this will be the case for long.
Two divisions of 10, get it introduced for 2013. We need quality at the top and a realistic platform to grow beneath it.

SALFORD FOOTBALL CLUB COMPANY(1914)LIMITED(THE)



Appointment Date: 29/12/1991
Position: Director
Occupation: Company Director
Company Status: Active

Address:

CITY OF SALFORD STADIUM
1 STADIUM WAY
SALFORD
M30 7EY
GB
Directors and Secretaries

Load Officers

Company Accounts:

Cash at Bank:

2010 - £877
2009 - £833
2008 - £3,733
2007 - £4,765
2006 - £15,580
Net Worth:

2010 - £-4,352,212
2009 - £-3,859,637
2008 - £-3,839,986
2007 - £-3,082,290
2006 - £-2,645,284
Total Current Liabilities:

2010 - £3,763,566
2009 - £3,537,791
2008 - £3,955,797
2007 - £4,071,974
2006 - £3,339,912
Total Current Assets:

2010 - £265,351
2009 - £203,566
2008 - £368,390
2007 - £854,442
2006 - £439,852
Stock:

2010 - £12,283
2009 - £23,200
2008 - £44,207
2007 - £41,618
2006 - £24,238

In isolation they mean nothing as stats and headline figures can be interpreted in a number of ways. What I would say, if your figures have been correctly extracted (and again this is the danger of reading things in isolation) is that if Salford have a "negative" net worth, then surely they are insolvent.

You are only looking at the Current assets/liabilities if the Willows is worth more than current deficit then they are technically solvent. The thing that will kill this is the cash position and whether they can pay the creditors.

Everyone knew that moving would not bring in any new fans. They are still called Salford and as horrible as it sounds, not many people like them and the name.

A name change and rebrand would have worked better, Manchester Reds or something else, anything but the name Salford, pay some good money for people to do the research and come up with a new identity. It would certainly make it easier for fans around that area that like league and old swinton fans, not many i know, but maybe 1-2k worth would turn up to watch a Super League team not called Salford.

If they want to continue as Salford then they have to understand the catchment of fans is small and they will not suddenly get any great influx of fans.

It also doesnt help that the ground is so bad. Next to a sewage works, middle of wasteland, it just feels cold and soulless.

I have nothing against Salford, i hope they survive but they were always thinking way above their station with this new stadium and that it would instantly bring in loads of new fans.

*when i quote Salford i generally mean the management not the fans.

Come on. This is just a silly post. People with a specific anti Bradford agenda are very very few in reality.

Absolutely disagree. And you'll be hard-pressed to get 2,000 Swinton fans at a Swinton match, for the record.