Just would be interested to get some of your thoughts of this idea to take you forward as you move into your new ground next year. I thought of it when responding to a post on the Wigan site but I thought I'd see what you guys would think of it.

I know there is alot of animosity between Salford and Manchester and some of you might reject this out of hand, but I really think this could be an idea for you going forward and hope there may be some support of it.

[iThe best thing salford could do regarding the name change is just drop salford and become the 'City Reds' .

That way they wouldnt alienate the traditional supporter base by having any other reference to Manchester or the surrounding area, but would also open up potential new markets across the region for attracting fans from all over the manchester and salford region.

This way the 'City Reds' could stand for different things depending upon the supporter - to the old they remain Salford City Reds, and will always represent Salford, yet to potential new fan basis in manchester, they could feel they were representative of them (be that the city of manchester / city of salford etc) also and widen their potential fan base to the whole M60 region. Perhaps there could also then be a further clever rebranding phase depending upon the success further down the line to be the 'Cities Reds' bringing together supporters of manchester and salford if it was felt the support started to drift in this way.

I'd see this in a similar way that St Helens re branding has now seen them brand as 'Saints' in order that they do not alienate the existing fan base of st helens, but can also appeal to new markets in liverpool and the supporting area. Lets face it, no one from Hyton are going to support 'St Helens' as there is no ownership, inclusion to them, yet if they support 'Saints' this repersents whatever 'Saints' represents in their mind, and can be different for different supporters.

If Salford put up 1,000 posters in Manchester with 'Salford City Reds' they are never going to get the support whereas convesley if they do the same with 'City Reds' Manchester fans will assume the city refers to them and are more likely to get on board.

The only difficulty with this one is that it would perhaps confuse soccerball fans with their being seemingly references to City and Utd (reds) in their name - that said this could provide a clever marketing ploy and a great deal of media attention across manchester and salford. ie/ Cities Reds - "A Truly United Team"[/i

WUM

I think the OP is confused. There is absolutely no animosity between citizens of Salford and Manchester. Both have an identity issue and are striving to re-establish themselves, but animosity does not feature. As Iain suggests, a WUM or out of touch with local issues etc.

Best thing Wigan can do is drop the name Wigan , just think of all the people in St Helen's & Leigh with no interest in RL won't realise it's a bunch of parochial numbnuts and support them ...

In fact, in an area with United, City, Bolton, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury etc. jamminig up the sports media and being predominant in most people's minds, the idea of "City"+ "Reds" will confuse.

Done to death, move on!



Or as Iain put it - WUM

Wouldn't this influx of confused Mancunians worry they've stumbled into the away end when the crowd started chanting "Salford, Salford"?

Or do we need a new songbook too?

Not a wind up whatsoever - I was simply suggesting this would be a good idea to expand your possible markets and increase your support which will no doubt be needed on moving to barton.

If I was a wind up merchant I would have suggested 'Manchester-Salford Reds' or 'Manchester Reds' as the suggested names. The reason I suggested 'City Reds' is that this is a geographically neutral name to identify the team in the same way 'Saints' have done with their rebranding to try and open up opportunities in surronding merseyside and Liverpool, while it doesnt destroy the herritage and history of the club. Established RL fans will always refer to St Helens much in the same way as we would refer to you as Salford even if you did re-brand and so nothing changes from our POV, only this opens the club up to massive markets right on your doorstep, and thus has potential to transform you into a massive club.

I was simply thinking of the game of RL and your development as a club and opportunities to develop a marketing and competitive advantage....I want to see Barton end up not being big enough for you and you packing it out every week as this would be extremely beneficial not only for you but for RL as a whole. If RL wants to grow as a sport we need to start drumming up interest in the biggest two northern cities - We've managed to do it the other large cities of Leeds / Bradford / Hull in the north, how much stronger would the game be if the City Reds and Saints could really have a crack at Manchester and Liverpool respectively, and imagine what media exposure it could bring which the game is crying out for!

ok you are not a WUM:
"Leeds / Bradford / Hull"

three cities with one (err) "top" football club in each

Manchester conurbation: 4 Premier League teams and 5 doing well as local teams.
Liverpool conubation: 2 Premier League teams and 2/3 doing well as local teams.

It's a totally different problem.

Extremely Ironic Comment for a start!!!



This is not comparable to what I was suggesting for a minute.....For a start it would be suicide for Wigan to do this as Wigan is the substantially recongnised brand name, which any other brand would find it very difficult to get near, even with substantial marketing, which would be a waste of money as it would be unlikely to obtain any affect. In addition the surrounded areas are all relatively saturated as far as the market for RL goes.

Conversely with Salford you have in essence two brands 'Salford' and 'City Reds / Red Devils etc', both of which are relatively small brands only currently appealing to a small number of people. Yet conversely to wigan you also have extremely unsaturated and cash rich potential RL markets which you would be able to tap into, by just a simple re branding excercise. The rebranding would work IMO as no one for any minute is suggesting you cease to represent Salford and to the rugby league fraternity you would always be 'Salford' in the same way St Helens are St Helens and not Saints, yet you open yourself up to massive markets and huge potential!

Should be tried IMO - If it doesnt work for any reason then re-insert Salford in the name in two years and nothing is lost- Nothing ventured nothing gained!!

Not really or else how otherwise do you explain Wigan, who despite a premiership football team playing in only a small town (not a city), manage to not only outstrip the soccer clubs attendances but also have the highest attendances in RL, despite there being 6 city teams within the same league?!!!

Just because there is a strong football market doesnt mean that a strong RL market cannot also exist....Leeds Football club support wise and as a brand is probably stronger than all but two of the 4 strong premiership teams in the manchester conurbation you quote, yet it hasnt stoped Leeds Rugby being one of the biggest RL teams in the country!

Just because someone is a soccer fan doesnt stop them from following RL as well and just because soccer is popular in the manchester conurbation doesnt mean there isnt a potential market of 100s of thousands of people who could come to watch you if you appeal to a wider audiance! If you only got 1% or 2% of people in the manchester region coming to watch you combined with your current gates you could fill out barton each week - but in the parochial north you're not going to open yourself up to these markets as Salford, and lets face it, you need to open up other markets as the interest levels in RL in Salford alone are not substantial enough to sustain you going forward, particulary as going forward you will no longer be playing in Salford and inevitably while not initially, there will be a longer term reduction in your support from that area, purely because of the move.

For a start if the name Salford was lost then I for one wouldn't still be watching and I know a lot of others would feel the same. In fact the only thing that keeps me watching this waste of space year after year is for the love of Salford and dropping the name Salford would certainly drop me I'm afraid!

Sale Sharks didn't drop the Sale bit of their name when they moved to Stockport. How many of their fans actually come from Sale and how aren't fussed about the prefix because they just want to support their local Union team? They even got 16k in for a match in Bolton.

It doesnt even have to be a full scale name change...just a change to the branding of your product by simply changing your badge slightly and having all merchandise, media releases and promotional material going out on the new brand as St Helens have done.

You would still be Salford City Reds RLFC, but you are just promoting the brand of 'City Reds' in preference to anything else. Take a look at the badge below....are you really saying you would stop supporting Salford if all you did was switched to this as your badge and brand from next year and trialed not using Salford in press releases for the year!!

I doubt half of you would even notice!!

This simple change if marketed correctly, could open you up to markets across the manchester region and bring thousands of new fans to the club which otherwise may not think about coming along to support the team, while realistically you lose nothing?! Surely worth considering if it has potential to give us a strong Salford / City Reds?

A few promotional posters across the greater manchester area, with this badge, a couple of strong RL images, and a "Coming soon to Barton / Trafford" strapline could bring you unimagined interest and transform your club!

You're wasting your time pal! Energise you efforts elsewhere!

Salford it is and Salford it will stay!

I'm OUT!

Another idiot from the boundary commission, Wigan for one may be a town but is has a larger population than Salford, secondly Wigan's football team is relatively new to the town of wigan which has always been a Rugby league town, Salford on the other hand have been competing with United and City for the past 100 years. The Leeds question is a good one but if you look at the population of leeds twice as big as Salford and with only one football team which in recent years have been very poor and hence lower crowds of 20,000, only now up to about 30,000, whcih also coincded with a revival at Headingly and larger crowds turning up. So Leeds have to compete with one football team with an average crwod of 30,000 from a population of 500k, whereas Salford have to compete with two (three if you count Bolton) with combined crowds of 150k on a population of 244k means that it is very difficult for Salford to change that mindset of football. No name change will change that, but I like the sound of Orrel Warriors, because outside of Wigan the name Wigan means nothing.

I think the pie eater has a point regarding the branding but i think to ditch the name Salford before weve even given barton a go is suicide.Salfordians are very proud people but the pie eater has a point Salford will always struggle for crowds.Just look at our last game at the willows.Yeah we attracted a 10.000 gate but for kids it was free, and for adults it was a £10.We wouldnt of got half that crowd otherwise.Im a rugby league fan and a salfordian and want rugby league in my area bigtime .But if the barton project fails to which ive no confidence in anyway, especially with these idiots running the show then im all for dropping the name .But to be perfectly honest ive never liked the name City Reds anyway.So i definately think our brand needs tweaking, but dropping the name Salford has to be a last resort for me.

At a time when Salford is gaining more and more media presence as a result of the BBC move to media city, it makes no sense to drop our identity. we can and should be taking advantage of this.

It all boils down to having a succesful team,top to bottom,we have got neither,people will not come and watch a team losing every week,fact,until wilky or somebody else takes this club by the throat and puts the right people in the right places we will go nowhere.We are failing on every front,its embarrasing,25 years of crap.There is no no prouder people than us,Salford is a city for gods sake.

EH??

Barton is very much in Salford, OK it might not be in the heart of Salford but there simply wasn't the land to build such a big project and the added infrastructure around it.

Worzel Wummidge.