There's lots of opinion about Marwan Koukash, purchase of the club and what he is or isn't doing and how he's doing it.

So if you suddenly had a ton of dough from god knows where, what would you do if you could buy a club. Considering RL's salary cap it can't be a Man C type 'lets just buy everyone' strategy.

Making the club a business is the first thing that should be done in my opinion. Make the bricks and mortar pay for themselves. See Warrington, they have a Primary Care Trust and a physio on site funding back into the club. They have a contract caterer with lounges/boxes available to generate revenue of which Warrington earn a percentage.

This didn't happen in Wilderspool, resulting to Monday through Saturday the club was only open for training etc and costing money rather than making it. It might not have signed Matt King, Adrian Morley and Martin Gleeson but it certainly didn't hurt.

Sometimes clubs are run on heart (John Wilkinson and David Hughes are prime examples) but you need to be a businessman in modern day sport. Koukash is gathering collumn inches, which will gather interest from sponsors and fans alike, so for me he is starting off well.

After that, training set ups, junior set up and fundings and 'patrons' (people to fund it) IE the squad builder at Warrington would be my next step.

Spot on


Leeds have a similar setup with Leeds Met who part funded the Carnegie Stand and use it as classrooms during the week, with the Carnegie Cafe happily feeding these students (and the public) for a reasonable price

. Plus the Hotel which brings in decent revenue and various decent quality function rooms which are marketed well and so bring in additional income during the week. The biggest thing Hetherington brought to Leeds when he and Caddick took over was an insistence that the ground would do more than simply host Leeds home games. Leeds as a club are reaping those benefits now with making a profit year on year without financial input (in fact sometimes taking some out to cover Carnegie's costs) from Caddick.

It's the old saying of the rich get richer. It costs money to build this, granted you will get return, but capital expenditure is massive in current climate. St Helen's are a prime example, been falling away for a few years but by bit, and now they will grow year on year with the infrastructure that has been installed. The more clubs that get a 'business' the better for the game, although not for the purest's of RL

Team up with local amateur clubs - especially in Cas because a couple have good facilities (Cas Panthers & Lock Lane, for example) and set up a leagues club system, buy the closed down Garden House pub on the way to the ground and have that as a sports bar.

Upgrade facilities ASAP to make it inviting to corporate etc and make the best training facilities in British sport (not just RL) and bring in the best coaches, youth coaches, physios, nutritionists and sports psychologists etc to entice players to the club and get them at a peak physical condition with the best training possible to go with it. Add into this hospital level medical facilities for near instant diagnosis of players who pick up injuries during training/matches.

Signing wise - home grown talent that's already at the club mixed in with a couple of high profile signings (using the current Cas side, throw in a top notch SH to partner Chase and a monster prop) then add to squad depth.

Fan wise - lower ticket prices to £15 adult/£10 concession to get more people in through the gate, buying more food/drink within the stadium on a match day, keep the membership scheme currently in place and try strike up a deal with the other clubs to add away tickets into the price somehow.

Link up with both Castleford & Airdale academies to share facilities, have the talented Rugby teams they have use the clubs training facilities and class rooms in a new main stand.

The replies are quite refreshing given the building the club theme rather than buying a team.

The problem is, this would need even more money because the building process takes time. The fans won't come if you have a great setup and your team is constantly losing.

So given that I agree with things above so don't need to restate, I would add that improvements to the team need to be built on an existing team.

I would start a past players association and give them free access to the ground and regular diners/functions to keep them involved in the club. This would help bond the old and the new.
I think I would also, maybe not do the cheap entry but do cheap deals with shirts to get the colours in the stadium so that it was seen as cool to be wearing them around the town.
The business is all about customers and you need them to want to be seen as associated with your "brand" club.

The problem is that business men that get involved in sporting clubs very quickly become fans and not businessmen. Many a successful money maker sinks money into a club they wouldn't put into a similar business chasing the dream.

Hope one of us wins the lottery soon

Sack the coach!

It's the old saying of 'give a man a fish, you feed him for the day, teach him how to fish you feed him for the rest of his life' though. Fill a team with stars with no structure, and you'll still fail miserably. Set the structure, build the stars and add in a few aswel and it will grow 10 fold

Buy a pub in Huntington and set up a York Leagues club.

Develop the YCK foundation so it mirrors the current Leeds Rugby Foundation's 3 year plan.

Re-establish the scholarship set-up that produced Tom Lineham.

Give every schoolchild in the city a free season ticket.

Bring back the free buses from Acomb/Clarence Street/Bootham Crescent/Train station on match days.

Put on a free supporters bus for away games.

Ensure 2 of the 4 stands and half the exec boxes/function rooms/concourse bars in the new community stadium are named after York RL legends, with York RL taking a fair share of the profits.

Offer contract terms to every York-born (or resident) pro rugby player in the game.

Bring back Danny Brough.

The first thing i would do if i owned a club would be to make sure that as many people, and business's as possible in the City/Town knew when we would be playing at home. Who we were playing. KO times, and admission prices. All kids under the age of 16 would get in for a £1 if acommpanied by an adult.

I know you are only dreaming but bloody hell you would have to be very rich

It would depend where it is.

If it were in an expansion area such as where I live I would bring in experienced players for my senior team with an obligation to train juniors up so we could become self sufficient on talent as soon as possible.

Hoping that the parents and kids come along to see their coaches play senior games and get that emotional attachment to the club.

From there I would try and get local businesses to use the ground I build as a conference/wedding/meeting facility to get revenue and interest.

I would also wine and dine the local newspaper sportsdesk editor once a week!!

It starts with the kids. Get your star players out into primary schools giving out free or heavily discounted tickets, running training sessions, giving away merchandise. Make it a part of every player's contract that they have to do a certain number of hours work in the community, even if it's just doing some coaching clinics at local amateur clubs.

Advertise your product. Look at different ways of going about it rather than the traditional route. Viral videos, social media, not just relying on sticking up a few posters with the date of the next game on and hoping that people turn up. Incentivise people to follow/friend you on Facebook or Twitter with special offers for those who do. Someone with 150 Facebook friends who will see something they repost on their wall or tweet about is a free marketing resource for the club.

Make the matchday experience as accessible and pleasant as you can for families. Give kids stuff they can do in and around the ground in the run up to kickoff, rather than just stand on the terrace for half an hour. Parents don't want to take their kids to places where the kids are going to get whiny and irritable simply because they're bored pre-game.

Invest in ensuring that your junior grades have access to training facilities, coaching, medical care, nutritional advice and education opportunities equal to those you offer to your top players. Every player you can bring through your own academy is one less you have to either pay a transfer fee or hefty signing bonus for.

Buy a rival and relinquish SL licence

You dont need to buy them, there are other ways, as evidenced by Agents Harris and Caisley.

A man after my own heart !

We have to get the kids in, even if it's free.

Once they are in, they usually are hooked for life. I was.