Fcking hell, Salford fans have gone from having their club on the brink of failure to on the brink of huge investment and huge improvement and people want to bang on about their fans not getting carried away. No. Sod that. Get Carried away, celebrate, party, dream about your club signing Sonny Bill and Jonathon Thurston, about how you are going to dominate SL for years . Tell the world you are the Man City of Rugby League, for Christ sake if the existing fans aren’t allowed to get swept up in the excitement what hope have they of sweeping new fans up in it? Salford fans worrying about what could go wrong helps no-one, it protects them from nothing and achieves nothing. They say the night is darkest before the dawn, they have gone through the darkest times, this is the brave new dawn. Enjoy every last second of it. Sod being sensible, go crazy, have fun you are fans not accountants (though some of course may actually be accountants, but they aren’t Salford City Reds accountants, so its not their worry. Unless they are Salford’s accountants, in which case this doesn’t apply to you, you’re allowed to be negative)

As a hull kr fan i say well done if and when it comes of, we has a club has been their and i hope and pray in my lifetime it does not come to us again and i hope it does not come to any other club

It's also good news that the RFL has the capacity to seek out and attract new money to the game. They got slated for the daft Stobart deal so now they should be congratulated for brokering the deal with KoolKash.

This is great news and lets hope the most inflated hopes for investment are fulfilled. I'd be interested in seeing how far a heartland club with a relatively small fanbase can progress with the right level of backing.

Huddersfield? Remember where they were before Davy? OK they're not at 10,000 but they were truly down the u-bend of the Rugby Leafue toilet.

Apologies for spelling Leafue. My fingers are too fat for this iPhone.

It will indeed be fascinating to see - the good Dr certainly is making all the right noises and it was interesting to hear him say that with a 12,000 capacity stadium then that's where we should be heading towards in terms of crowds BUT recognising also that until the infrastructure is completed (the new access roads that Peel are to build) then it won't happen.

If the promised investment does happen, a decent side is built and Salford do start to compete then are 10 to 12K crowds achievable? Well if not it doesn't augur well for RL ever being able to demonstrate significant growth.

Brilliant news. Lets hope it gets completed quick smart.

After watching the latest press conference, it would appear that if Dr Koulash does takeover the club he would not be throwing money at it. Anyway, he would be restricted by the salary cap.

As long as the club is run as a sound, sustainable business with quality staff in the right positions and has quality training facility with an infrastructure in place to nurture young talent, then that would be fantastic.

Tbh he said he wasn't a sugar daddy meaning he's not going to waste money buying his way to the top and leave us up sh|t creek without a paddle if he then decided to leave abit like what happened with the Brian Snape era in the 70s . he instead intends to set foundations and bring in money from the outside something which Salford as a club could carry on themselves in the far and distant future.

Listening to the chap on Granada, he comes across as a decent bloke and more importantly a sound businessman.
Hope it all works out for the club, hope their supporters see the opportunity and increase in numbers.

Just a thought...but anybody else think maybe one of the attractions for him is knowing the sport has a salary cap? That way he knows he's not going to have to outspend every other club by millions. He seems to be a wealthy guy and smart businesman who maybe thinks he can spend up to the cap but no more ( Ok...no need to s etc) and will have a competitive team? Imagine him buying into a football team and knowing he'd need bottomless pockets whereas for relative peanuts he'll ensure a competative team !

Hope it all goes well for you devils!

If he thinks just chucking money at a playing squad will result in fans flocking to Barton, he will be making the same mistake dozens of others have done previously, and he will fail

Ok Starbug you tell me a time in Salfords history when we've had a good team and we've not achieved good crowds? I lived in Salford now manchester and everyone I've spoken have toyed with the idea of watching Salford but won't because we don't have the team, fans are fickle they follow success if Salford built the team the crowds will follow! Remember 10000 turned up for the last game at the willows with no away fans those fans would turn up again if success prevails.

' History ' tells us nothing except things change, and just a winning team ( a variable even Mr Koukash will not be able to control ) will not guarantee to bring in continuous big crowds

He runs a recruitment business , if he is truly clever his most important recruitment will be non playing staff

Spot on, if Salford get the off-field stuff in place, the on-field success will come in time.

Look no further than Warrington. Often recording crowds of between 3-4K before the move to the new ground. That's why you shouldn't ever close the door on the likes of Cas, Wakey, Halifax etc.

Trying to keep level headed, at present , we are still not sold and and a club facing closure on Feb 4th.

The prospective owner , doesn't want to bail us out , he needs the Stadium & the surrounding development land too and the deal is 'All or Nothing' ( his words ) ie;- if he doesn't get the deal he wants there is still a probability there could be no deal at all. He's playing a high stakes poker game and he's up against Peel! , who are not known for their charity work or giving up assets without reason.
He' s not a traditional benefactor Chairman , who at times poured cash into a club more in hope than reason , he outlined the root issues with our whole set up in 5 minutes:-
Sustainable income outside of gate receipts- the crowds won't miraculously leap to 8-10K , the Club must own it's own ground , to even be remotely sustainable,
Infrastructure- Road- Transport , training facilities.
to say it's an audacious plan is a understatement, and the money he will have to pay out , to A) cover our debts B) buy the property C) rebuild the infrastructure of our our club is frightening .

With the heavy influence of the RFL in this , this smacks of a project - dust us down, align us with this backer, build us up into a model well administered micro managed successful franchise we were meant to be in the first place , then tout the model round = there we told you so ...

Playing wise the 2013 season already a right-off , in month terms for Salford it's still September we've got to find 10-14 SL standard players ( where from ?? ) blend them into some some of team just to compete , maybe we'll do a Leeds so expect us to play some time around July!

so the next few days are so cruicial to the whole project.

That's an eye opening post. I assumed it was a done deal and yes, Peel Holdings are notoriously prudent. I'm sure Koukash has spelt out the alternative to them though - they could own a massive white elephant with two sickly clubs struggling to pay the rent on it OR they could part own a bigger complex with at least one club doing well and paying their way.

Great post by Middleman, the deal is far from done. I like what Koukash says, he seems a decent bloke and very focused on what he wants from this.

I hope it goes through, he buys the stadium, Salford start making money and pulling in big crowds.

Rumours in Stockport are Sale are heading back there by the way.

While I'm not disgreeing with nothing you say, unless anyone on the forums can state categorically what Peel's involvement is with the stadium, then it would seem unclear what their involvement with the stadium actually is. My best guess is the council have taken out loan and Peel themselves are looking to cash in by adding some retail units to the sight, whilst peel maybe providing some of their management acumen, to the running of the stadium. The council have probably tasked Peel to build the road infrastructure sooner rather than later, in exchange for the land to build the retail units.

Now moving on to the good doctor's takeover, I would hazard a guess his takeover has centred around two main points:

1) He is attempting to get a good deal for the stadium and clarify the actual build cost. There has been various amounts quoted, but if that stadium cost £26 million, somebody has profited where the shouldn't have done. Not to say there has been anything untoward going on, more the figures quoted in the MEN are in-correct.

2) He fully understands the issue with access to the stadium and wants reassurances the extra infrastructure will be in place at the earliest opportunity.

Hence, the deals struck between the council and Peel are having to be renegotiated. Since the present board are willing to cut their losses and walk this will be the reason why they have been left out of the talk over talks.

This said, the manner in which he pitched his press conference suggested he is almost certainly going to takeover the club, and he considers himself to be a natural winner, who wants to build a successful club that can stand on its own two feet. It's his determined comments that I feel are being slightly mis-quoted on here, he is merely stating he wants the club to be self sufficient in the long term. Creating a lasting legacy rather than a short lived period of success.

It is definitely a possibility, that the RFL want to build the club into successful example of what can be achieved. The way SL has stagnated over the last few years is partially due to the salary cap and the lesser clubs, like ourselves, are struggling to spend up to this relatively small amount. To generate the the larger sponsorship deals, the required standard has to increase across the board, and this needs the salary cap to be raised so we can start closing the gap with the NRL. If Salford can progress to financial stability similar to that of Warrington, Leeds, Wigan, Saints and Hull, for example, then others are also capable of following.

Peel own the stadium with Salford council through a joint venture company.

Jonny
Sale RU are 5 points adrift with 8 games to claw their way out of the relegation spot. their losing money playing at SCS even with their Aviva premiership sponsorship. If they do get booted playing out of the SCS in the lower division will be disasterous. Kennedy still owns Edgeley Pk so they can retreat. If they haven't already made provision for this I'd surprised! though it may cost them as the rumoured 1st get out clause was after 5 years.
If through Dr Koukash we can get ownership and kick out the squatters it would be quite a result. If they stay they become one of our income streams ..

Whilst I agree with the majority of your post,i'm not sure about ownership of the stadium.
Why would this be a neccessity ?
Plenty of RL clubs dont own their grounds and certainly the likes of Wigan and Hull FC seem to be doing ok.
Surely, it's about negotiating a decent rental agreement ?

Btw, good luck for the coming season

I think the needing to own the stadium way if thinking us due to Salford's low crowds. Wigan and Hull are averaging 5 figure crowds. Salford aren't, and realistically aren't going to for a long time. They need othe revenue streams.