According to the Nosey Parker columns in League Weekly, Salford are having to cut the wage bill as three sponsors (Peel Holding, Teley's, and MEN) are cutting down on their financial support.

This has affected Wilshere and also could be an impact on what Mr Parker refers as "backroom staff". (However another report refers to two being recruited to this and MR McRae wanting "five or six" new signings)

There are errors in the report but I feel much seems correct. Therfore it follows that it may mean Mr Myler's transfer fee is swallowed up by the fiscal needs of the wage-bill.

Maintaining sponsorship is getting difficult in the recession.

I believe Heinz have stopped or are stopping their sponsorship of both Wigan Warriors and Wigan Athletic.

The new Inland Revenue rules may be a factor. No more off shore accounts so higher tax and NI contributions so reduced wages for players.

Personally I applaud the club for cutting cloth according to their means.

Think ourselves lucky! with no marketing budget we do well to have the sponsors we have, bring back Trish!!

Dear god no! You have no idea.. Andew Bentham is the one that has kept the coporate side going for more than 15 years now not 3 season wonder Trish Goldsmith ok!

Regardless of who is responsible I truly believe taht the club are missing some very valuable marketing opportunities. The club shop is a joke!!! It has very little stock and the one on the ground doesn't take cards, so if you find something you like but haven't got the cash you have to walk out without buying.

Stuff for kids is almost non existant.... clubs excuse, there's no call for it. That's rather funny as I am always looking for stuff for my 2 year old and I can't be the only one. They seem to think that they can't stock things like baby grows and bibs etc because it doesn't sell straight away in the first 6 months. If it had a generic design it could be kept in stock for ages and eventually sold bit by bit.

In many respects the club has no forward thinking on these issues and some new ideas are drastically needed.

To be fair it does get tiring, flogging a dead horse...

I've been critical of the Club shop for years now and nothing changes. Very poor. If you can get someone to answer phone/email it's like winning the lottery. No online store even though a lot of amateur RL sides have their own online stores these days.

Sad that something so simple can't be managed Even if it is flogging a dead horse, it could at least do it properly.

I tried to buy a Salford rugby shirt for my 2 year old grandson, his dad had bought him a rugby union shirt, I gave up trying to buy one in the end.

The club have no idea when it comes to marketing and it wont look good on the franchise if we need to sell to sustain the club. There is no attraction to support a club that sells its best youngsters to survive. Also where is all the marketing gone on the stadium. That again i say aint going to happen. I have had a season ticket for 19 years now and to be honest we are going back to the dark ages. From what i have seen over the last three years i will no longer pump money into a club that dont care about there fans and decieve you at every turn. And as for the club shop its been crap for god knows how long.

Neil72, I really think you should offer your services as a director, or at the least marketing consultant and financial analyst - clearly the club is crying out for proven ability and professionalism

In a way this was my worry. Last season the club really seemed to get into gear for the franchise bid, we signed Robbie Paul and tried to get publicity and won everything we could, advertised more than we do now we are in Super League, really helped to get fans travelling. We are capable of doing well on the marketing side of things, but we just seem to have sat back and relaxed now we have got the franchise and we can't afford to do that. No matter how annoyed and frustrated we may get as fans we still have to support the club, if we don't then we definately stand no chance for the future. Its not entirely in our hands to make a positive difference for our club, but its not entirely out of our hands either.

Wouldn't worry too much about sponsorship as we are soon to announce a major sponsor for Mcrae's team talks:




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Lets have a Salford Reds megastore to rival MUFC, we could build it on the club car park and stock it with hundreds of items. It will run at a huge loss but who cares.

Supply and demand people

If the club could make money out of a particular item I am sure they would sell it.

So the jist here, on a thread entitled 'finance issues' is: "Lets spend money on marketing and merchandise"?

You couldn't make this dross up...

says it all mate

The definition of supply and demand surely is if somebody wants to buy something then there is a demand a nd therefore the club should supply it. Therefore when I'm stood in the club shop asking for a given item and i'm told there is no call for it?????? Er reality check there is no call for an item that I am stood there actually asking you for... isn't that a contradiction in terms?

Secondly have you ever heard the phrase speculate to accumulate. If you don't offer any items for sale then you can't make any money on them. I am looking for stuff for my 2 year old son. Redgunner wanted something for his 2 year old grandson (not the same child by the way) my sister wants stuff for her 1 year old. Is there a demand pattern emerging here?

FFS it's not rocket science. When my dad worked at the club he set up a caravan on Salford precinct selling merchandise and that did quite nicely until they bought the house on Kennedy Rd to set up this super duper new shop that now has nothing in it. Stop making excuses for them... they are poor on this and need new ideas.

Several people wanted stuff for PIPO's son, I wanted stuff for my 3 month old cousin in Canada. However - playing devils advocate - you need money in the first place to speculate to accumulate, and I'll bet the profit margins are small on the type of goods mentioned (although you can't put a price on keeping customers happy).

Exactly and these kids are the future supporters. Look at what other clubs have got. Are we really that badly off that we can't push it a little bit more

I'm hopeful a few bib sales will offset this tragic news:

"Secondly have you ever heard the phrase speculate to accumulate"

You used to run RBS and Northern Rock
and I want my £5.

Look at our average home attendance and see if this is sufficient for a realistic strategy based on the above comments. I realise more can be done but there is another phrase:
"Cut your clothes according to your cloth."

A better shop - agree but only that.

There ain't half been some written on here recently. Why does everything have to be so extreme?

They did used to sell baby clothes in the shop. Now I haven't asked anybody but my guess is they didn't call a merchandising meeting and say "we're making massive profits on this baby stuff with people queuing round the corner for it so let's not bother selling it anymore".

If they only sell a few a year (and can therefore only order a few) it would be really expensive to have them made and so hard (if not impossible) to make a profit. You have to have something in the bank to speculate with for red13pjb's MBA level business analysis to work

I find it frustrating that everything I buy for my son from the shop is too big for him (and he's a big 3 year old) but I don't for one minute think that the club should be slagged off for making what amounts to a sensible business decision, we're not in a position to lose money in the shop

At last!!!!! someone talking sense.
Its down to ordering minimum orders from suppliers & we are not like Hull's, Bradfords or Wigans fans(for e.g.) who have good/great followings & no man u's in their area's to distract from their merchandise, so where the above clubs can probably shift a minimum order of bibs/babygro's etc in a matter of months, we can't & we are not in the financial position to have stock just lying around.

I always thought we missed a trick with the t shirts.

Did the shop still have the machine to add names and numbers?

If so why don't they order plain tees then add have a limited number of designs that can go on any shirt/

Same with Bibs etc, transfers can be designed easily in this computer age.