Dissapointed with the turnout last night.Not even 7 thousand.Would have thought to get about 8 thousand after last weeks great win .I bet there would have been a good few thousand more if that game would have been on a Sunday.Think all this negative talk about the car parking problems puts a lot of people off as well.

It was good to see that the Local BBC TV news didn't bother mentioning the match just the Warrington game, perhaps knowledge of the match may get people in.

What's this doing for your cash flow? Thought you needed 8k to break even?

How many times does this need saying??

The 8K figure, according to our chief exec, is what is needed to be able to pay up to the max salary cap - the break-even figure is therefore somewhat below that.

However, all that said it surely is disappointing that the crowds remain stubbornly low. There is an increase on previous year's attendances but not yet to levels that are needed if SCR are to be able to compete consistently with the top sides.

A return to Sundays would suit me..They say thats no good for the corporates, but surely an extra 2 thousand on the gate paying 20 quid would be better than a few hundred corporates ?

It was a poor crowd but not entirely unexpected. The damage was done at the start of the season when we shifted such a low amount of season tickets. We should be aiming to double that this off-season and build from there.

We also need to wean ourselves off shifting aload of freebies for every game. I'm not saying this from the 'why should season ticket holders pay when everyone is on a freemans' line, I'm saying it because they don't work. Invariably they fall into the hands of people who would pay to get into anyway. People who would potentially buy season tickets if they didn't think they could get in free every week. It also doesn't say much about the product we are offering if we are letting loads in for nothing. We should be focusing on promotional offers to entice the casual fan so that everyone who gets in the ground is actually paying something.

If we have around 4k home fans per game Salford need to target the 2k+ of these who don't have season tickets and convert them. Start the season with 4k season ticket holders and it would make a world of difference. There seems to be quite a new faces at Barton, I wonder if the club has any idea of how many fans haven't bothered coming since we moved from The Willows and if they have done anything to entice them back?

Why not try something radical next season and cut the admission price to £15 and back ourselves to increase crowds by 25% to cover the potential lost revenue. At present we are going down the same old tried and failed path of attempting to squeeze as much money as we can out of the hardcore support coupled by away fans from the bigger clubs and hoping we can make marginal gains year-on-year. A big push on season tickets coupled with the cheapest entry fee in the League could have a real impact and give us the crowd boost we are in desperate need of. A reduced entry fee may also encourage some of the increased away support we have seen this year decide to return. At present our crowds are inflated by huge away support increases that are unlikely to last and by a large amount of free tickets that earn us little if anything.

The Sunday issue is also something that needs to be looked at. We clearly need to be wary of the lost corporate revenue that Salford assure us would come from not playing on a Friday but in the long run it'll be bigger attendances that are going to keep us in Super League and help us move forward. I'm not a great Sunday convert but Barton is not the most accessible ground on a Friday night to say the least. We need to do something to break the current stagnation. In 2009 we got 7,016 against Wigan at The Willows, feel free to use your % increase calculator on that.

Excellent post Walsh, I think you've hit the nail on the head. As an aside last season we only managed 6,266 so last night was a decent increase on that by over 500.

Great post Washovski, too sensible a post, just wish the Salford board & the management of the stadium could show such simple analysis of the issues & how to tackle them.

A decent increase by who though? There was no increase in home support that's for sure. Last night Wigan were pushing 3k there which means there was roughly just over 3.5k home fans

The whole Club in my opinion as increased ten fold, playing a brand of rugby which is great to watch. I thought the disallowed try for Williams last night would of been the try of the game if it stood, that alone is worth the entrance fee.

The new Stadium is fine in my opinion, apart from the obvious parking issues. I think if you get a good run in the CC or the PO's, you will get some well deserved backing from more locals.

I think Gareth Owen is shaping up to be a great player.

In which case we best get him signed up quick before he gets an offer off another club! His contract runs out at the end of the season

Owen is a belting player he is a tackle machine and a creative pivot, tackles well above his weight, scores tries, creates gaps....we had better not lose him to another club, he has come through the Academy at Salford and is looking every bit a fine Super League hooker.

Great post Walshie of co to sensible to be taken seriously if you get my drift.



I can answer your query re the club and season tickets, I didn't renew this season and never received any info/phone call or letter from the club, so although I have been to all the games minus Hull FC the club have no idea whether I'm there or not. I guess that applys to all who for whatever reason didn't renew. So they maybe lost fans and don't want to know or care why.

I would prefer a Sunday 3pm KO always ,
however friday's game attracted 40 table's of 10 paying roughly £75 per head + the corporate boxes .

say if a Sunday fixture would only bring in half that , you'd need to see 1500 -2000 extra paying spectators at £20 per head to recoup.
can you guarantee that additional 2000 ? the club say no from their mixture of Friday/Sunday games last season at the willows.
Not having a Good Friday game at home is a big loss , I think against a Widnes or a Wire opposition that would have given us our best crowd yet ,

Let's see what Easter Monday brings by way of crowd, 2011 gate against Hull KR was 4,408.

As for the Car Park, I agreed with Iain's Comment the sooner a Hostelry is errected on site or a fans bar is sorted the better , otherwise you're best parking offsite and walking 15-20 minutes, until the Highway upgrades for the rail link - container port are in place it isn't going to miraculously improve.

Listening in to a conversation between a couple of the senior stewards on Friday evening, one was mentioning that a company that were due to move into the stadium have now decided not to, thus leaving space available - he said the space was now going to me used as a fans bar. No idea if what he was saying is true or not.

You play a very attractive style of Rugby and are most certainly worth watching. Your 3/4 are excellent with great pace and handling skills. Smith and Holdsworth are two very good halves.
If Vievers can bring in some bigger forwards who can get you some real go forward then things will be on the up for you guys.
Not too sure about the parking, used it for the friendly and won't go there again. Went to Eccles ARLFC this time, £3 and good people.
Might try the airfield next time but your car park is a no no from now on. It won't stop me coming to watch the game though!
Someone needs a word with Neil Barker and ask him to put something in his write up about alternatives to the ground car park.

Some need to tell Barker to write factual articles about Salford also can't remember the last feel good / positive articles Barker wrote about Salford. It appears Wigan get all the good news stories while Salford get all the doom and gloom.