True mate. Was just trying to counter some of the knee-jerking going on. Heading back into the bunker now...

Clubs are living beyond their means because they have to attract talent to bring people through the gates. No people through the gates means no cash, no cash means mediocre players and mediocre players have no chance of winning trophies.

Players want to win trophies, they can't do that in garbage teams. Is it worth over spending and hopefully getting the magic players needed? Probably not, but its a gamble people have to take.

Another team looking down the barrel. Cannot give teams like these sympathy though, sweeping things under the carpet will only make it worse.

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/18953119[/url

for anyone who didn't get to hear John Wilkinsons comments on BBC Radio Manchester yesterday

The OP has apologised on the Salford forum, although, to be honest, I couldn't work out if he was telling us that what he said was wrong, or if he was telling us he was wrong to say what he said.

In any event, it's beginning to look like a case of 'Move along. Nothing to see here.'

strange how when someone who claims to know a man who
has a dog that chased a cat that caught a mouse that lived in the boardroom at salford and told him salford would be going into administration, and we get six pages of postings most of which are happy to believe it, but nearly 72 hours after the chaiman has explained the position we only get a few commentsis and the thred dies
it any wonder our sport gets so much negative media coverage.

I blame the club board. They're forever handing over information to any passing muppet, and that information is invariably wrong.

Tell that to Portsmouth FC.

If it quacks like a duck....

I really hope Salford sort themselves out, it may not be terminal yet, but planning for 8k crowds whilst getting <6k does not sound good.

Another thing to bear in mind is that, irrespective of whether the rumours are true or not, as far as the fans' forums are concerned, it's now an iron clad truth, and Salford's name will appear in the list of clubs who have been in administration or close to administration when there's (yet another) 'debate' on here about franchising.

So, thanks for that Cavendish Street. Well played, that man.

Portsmouth were passed from one owner with a complicated name to another over a short period of time, with one rumour being that one of those owners had won the club in a card game. Many of those owners went on mini spending sprees.

John Wilkinson has been chairman of Salford since the days of unlimited tackles and baggy shorts, and has always run the club very tightly, so I don't see what happened at Portsmouth FC as really being of any relevance here.

It's a sad day when a RL club in our heartlands is looking to survive by leeching of RU! Good to hear Salford are not in crisis but sounds like they need to find some extra income streams as the likelihood meeting crowd expectations is low. I would have though with the better facilities corporate attraction would be greater and they would be selling more sponsorships and boxes?

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/18577880[/url
More RL clubs need to think like this:


It really is about investing in attracting fans.....I am stunned that a few clubs and one in particular, continue to fail to see this

Actually corporate sales are more valuable than fans.

Can you show us the maths to back up that statement?

Well, for instance, at Leeds to go in the Lewis Jones Suite at the top of the Carnegie for one game costs about the same as a South Stand season ticket.
Leeds get nearly £10k per home game from the "Big Match", "Associate Match" and "Match Ball" sponsorships. That's the equivalent of around 700 season ticket holders over the year.
The new South Stand at Leeds was delayed so as to get more corporate boxes in the design past planning permission. Corporates are vital as those extra bits of revenue that all add up, and I think it's something that some clubs do pretty badly.
So while I'm sure the revenue from each game from fans wil be larger, each corporate entry is far more valuable.

Quins RL sold 1 box in 2 years......and shipped 20% of their fans.
If I was a corporate spender, I wouldn't waste a few k's on a box in a stadium 80% empty......I doubt anyone else would either.
1. Fans
2. Sponsors/corporates.

"Want" yes, "Need" no. Ultimately no single club is vital to the league.


Which has been the marketing approach of London/Quins RL over the years, and a fat lot of good it's done us.


Something that has become very obvious to me is that no-one in London identifies themself as from "London", even though a unified London local authority has existed for well over a hundred years. What chance is there that people in the towns that make up Greater Manchester will identify with a team called "Manchester"? Very little I suspect.

I hope, for the sake of Salford's fans, that this thread is just rumour.

Under which guise has the London club been most successful at attracting supporters?

I don't think we've ever been that successful at attracting supporters. But then again we couldn't market free beer.

If London were to find a decent home do you think they should rename to that area of London or stay as London Broncos?

Personally I have never been a fan of the "London" tag, although there are plenty of Broncos fans who don't share my opinion. With our nomadic history, naming ourselves after a specific suburb would be tempting fate. Given that for most of our existence we've been in the west of the Lodon area I've always advocated "West London" as a tag.

Fulham.

But would like to see them playing out of Millwall as Cockney Rebels.

I find it hard to see how they will be around much longer with the losses they are making. Sugar daddy pockets only go so deep and there looks to be little changing to reverse their P+L margins. Having said that they have survived against the odds for over a decade so who knows.

Not sure about Millwall, but 'Cockney Rebels' I like.
Just as long as we don't have to put up with Steve Harley attempting (and failing) to sing.

I'd guess 'Cockney Rejects' would amuse more up north...


I still think the days of RL as a fully professional sport are counted in very small numbers, a return to semi-professionalism has been the best chance for many years, and it's rapidly becoming more obvious. We also need to stop seeing ourselves as being in competition with other, more popular, sports as we're not.... We're in competition with no-one except ourselves.


And we seem to be losing that one too.

I think the days of RL as a fully professional sport are numbered in TV deal millions. The day we don't get a decent TV deal will signal the end of the fully pro party.

I agree we shouldn't see ourselves as in competition with other sports, but at the same time I'd caveat that by pointing out that we don't exist in isolation either. One of the reasons several RU clubs are in financial bother is that the French RU clubs appear to have money to burn and are upping the ante. If RL does go semi-pro we might find a lot of our talent changing codes, either because French RU apparently has so much money, or because English RU clubs see RL as a source of cheap talent.
But back to the start of my post, if we don't get a decent TV deal we may not have a choice.