One of the biggest failures of the old franchising system was that it measured crowds as an "average attendance" figure, when in reality it should have been a "ticket revenue" figure.

The old system encouraged the wrong behaviour - mass-discounting of tickets across the board that under-sold the sport. It meant that clubs were serving higher crowds (and incurring higher costs to service those crowds) but taking a huge hit on their profit margin in the process. When the hit the fan, like it did at Bradford, the club couldn't recoup that lost margin from other revenue sources and it became harder to increase the margin on tickets because they'd valued the product so low.

Instead of a 10k average, what really should have been in place was a "over £x million in ticket revenue" target.

For argument sake, a target of £1.8m in ticket sales (just throwing a figure out there) would work out at something like 6,600 season tickets at an average of £180, and 3,300 walk-ups every week at an average of £15. I think that would have been a much better measure.

I'm sure you felt the same when your team was in a worse state but again didn't go down? It's all well and good giving sage advise from afar but the hard-core Salford fans again seem to have pain coming their way? Some solid information in next year's structure is needed but the way it looks is that as soon as Salford are safely in the 8 then a few will be sold?

The big difference is HullFC have always had the fanbase, yes we were on hard times, yes we got bailed out...but the fanbase was always there, some had lapsed due to the poor rugby and the poor Boulevard facilities, but they were still keeping one eye on what the club was doing and could easily be tempted back.

Salford have never had big crowds, it doesn't matter if they inherit an NRL sides worth of top talent and go and win SL unbeaten, the public aren't interested.

10,000 tickets a game at £20 a pop x 11 games is £2,200,000...add the SKY money and you have a £4,000,000 turn over, which I believe Hudgel at HKR said was the break even figure. The £20 a ticket is an average of Season tickets and more expensive walk ups.......Leeds, Wigan, Saints, Hull FC and Wire are the successful clubs by this measure with these 5 occupying the top 6 spots on a regular basis.......HKR, Castleford and Catalans aren't far away, but the other 4 clubs are nowhere near where they need to be and as such they are propped up by a minimum investment of £1,000,000 from benefactors......we're about to see what happens when a benefactor walks away as I suspect Salford are destined for the Championship or worse.....without Beaumont, Hughes, Davy, O'Connor, Argyle, Carter, Marwan et al, these "smaller clubs" wouldn't exist as a viable professional entity.....that's the flawed model.......it's fine so long as they continue, but when Hughes wavered at the end of 2013 he essentially condemned London to relegation.....what will happen to Huddersfield if Davy stopped bankrolling them?

They will struggle to make it to the end of the season without entering administration IMO, will MK step back in and bankroll them once again at that point? Or has that shipped sailed once and for all?

He would be silly to get involved again, As soon as he took the club over It was only going to go one way for me and that has proved to be the case in the end.

Best go into admin now and lose points rather than in the qualifiers and get relegated. If they can refinance now, then prepare for 7 massive games they stand a chance of staying up.

What's the actual insolvency procedure once we get to the split? IIRC, weren't York allowed to complete their fixtures, but barred from promotion a couple of years back?

Not a Leigh then ? A Leigh who most likely brought more revenue through travelling fans, ticket sales & bar/food sales to most Clubs & their local hostelries than many 'established' & top half SL Clubs.

Ask your directors if they prefer the Leigh revenue to the non existent TW or TO13 revenue ? & don't even start on TV deals & multi-million £ global sponsors of which currently there are none !

its laughable to compare Salford to Hull, like comparing Arsenal to Stoke city, Liverpool to Burnley. Salford have never been a big club, had a bit ov a run in the early 70's but that's it.

At the beginning of the season when we offered decent money for Lui it was turned down flat with them saying they are in a good place financially most clubs would struggle without a benefactor so when koucash left it was only going one way

I don’t - it’s a sad day when any team goes under - that by the way is more a dig at the fake than at you.

Should've replied to him then.

Why. you agreed

If you wanted a dig at the fake, why didn't you? instead of using my post to do so.

Why it was still a dig at you as well, just take it on the chin.

A dig for what? because i agreed that it was sad if Salford folded? Yer not reet int yed vasty.

If Salford did drop out of SL, where would they play as the A.J. Bell is already unsuitable for them? Getting to a ground where they have access to more revenue streams is a good idea - North Wales Crusaders are better off playing in front of 300 people at the Queensway athletic stadium where the rental's lower and they get to keep all the bar and catering receipts than they were playing in front of 1k at the Racecourse - but is such a stadium available in a suitable area? There's an argument here for ditching Salford for Manchester Rangers!

Salford city football stadium, trafford athletic track/ sale harriers i think.

Once you start factoring kids tickets into the equation, your average of £20 ticket is down to pan.
Kids season tickets are for "nothing" and usually they give admission both home and away ??

Without Sky, most clubs would be screwed and some, have become over reliant/ lazy due to the TV cash that they receive.

Rumours suggesting they have signed Crosby from Wire for next year?

Corporate tickets, Kids tickets, season tickets, beer, food, replica kit etc....each fan is worth approximately a score per visit...the maths do work


agree......it's been criminal, but what the money men at the lesser clubs need is licensing so they can spend to grow rather than spend to not go down....

That’s not it at all. Salford have won seven major honours and only two of those were in the early ‘70s.

The Willows used to see crowds of 15-25000 back in the 1930s, and in that one decade Salford won more major trophies than Saints did in their first nine decades and just one less major honour than Hull did in their first eleven decades!

The trouble is when you say 15-25000 back in 1930s they then had nothing better to do same has other clubs now it is totally different with loads of different ways to spend their money

Preston north end were one of the biggest clubs in soccer back in the day, there not anymore or likely to be, 7 major trophies in 100 plus years, yeah massive club they should be saved at any cost to ensure there 2000 fans can keep there little club. This may seem harsh but its just the truth of it.