Is the number of ticket sales generated for Sunday. Are we an embarrassment of a professional sports club? What is going wrong? After the preseason build up and the following we took to Warrington, was a real buzz around Salford, everyone wanted a ticket for Wire. Has the Saint Helens result done more damage that is imaginable? Honestly dumbfounded at those ticket sales. What is so wrong?

I'm afraid to say we've not got a big fan base! Simple as that.
Maybe more wins might bring a few more in but it's a football area plain and simple!

I still believe there is a buzz at the club, especially after the last 2 games.

i don't know what else we can do, we are streets ahead of Cas and Huddersfield after watching last nights games.

i personally have a great feeling about the next few games.

COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would imagine the reasons are; defeat at Warrington despite great support, hammering off Saints in front of the TV cameras (cries of same old Salford), the bad press following Gareth Hocks ban and subsequent release from the club, the bad press following the clubs acceptance for Scotland RU to discuss terms with Kevin Locke and then this week a further story about some dancing. All I ever seem to be asked is, what's going on at Salford?

You just don’t hear about any of this stuff coming from other clubs. It’s been a very disruptive start and even following the internet hit of Rangi’s try and the great result last weekend we still managed to churn out a negative story.

I know it’s also mothers day, but will this shut the “bring back Sunday afternoon games” brigade up?

Hopefully be a few walk-ups on the day. Not everyone pre-orders.

Saying that, it's pretty much the same old story for the locals. I know everyone says the same old mantra of 'When we string a good run together they'll come back.' Myself included. The trouble is, I'm not sure I actually believe it anymore. Short of being top of the league and winning every game, I just don't think this hope of returnees is actually going to happen. One sniff of a poor game and they stay at home.

The only thing we can do is be stronger at home. It's the only way we can get some of the fickler fans to trickle back.

I'm beginning to think that the City of Salford don't really deserve the Club. They simply don't give a toss, which is a shame for the die-hard and passionate Salford born supporters. I just hope MK doesn't see it the way I do at the moment.

Interestingly, I saw Marwan tweet a reply to someone the other day that included something along the lines of "I won't be here forever". The comment's since been deleted though and I can't remember the rest of it to put it into context.

This.

Maybe the club should go on the road in 2016.

I’d imagine pre sales for home tickets are pretty similar for most games just it has never been disclosed before. Most non season ticket holders will pick their tickets up on the day of the game, the number of pre sales doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. The attendance will be no higher than 3.2k, no matter what the Sunday brigade say. Going off the Friday/Sunday poll on twitter and the way people go on about Sunday rugby on here we should be getting 6k easy to every home Sunday home game. Friday or Sunday it makes no difference whatsoever, that my friends is fact. If anything I’d imagine we get less corporates on Sunday!!

This isn't true, several times last season Vickers mentioned decent pre-match ticket sales.

Found the Doc's not-deleted tweet:

Last seasons home game against Wakefield attracted 7,200 fans. The interest is there, the problem is they're just not very interested at the moment and who can blame them? If I was a 'floating fan' I would much rather stay at home, watch United and then go out for dinner with my Mum.

How many RL clubs sell thousands of tickets in advance for standard league games? Apart from the big clubs, the majority of the crowd figure for any game will be ST holders plus walk up fans on the day. There is no real requirement to pre order tickets in RL for most games. A £2 pre order discount makes little or no difference really.

Sadly the predictable 'Salford public are not interested' line is being trotted out already at the first opportunity. I look forward to a list of 30 positives of on the road games being drawn up over the course of the season.

Could more be done to enhance the entire match day experience? Live music in and outside the stadium? Emerging local bands that need the exposure?

Cheaper or subsidised beer? Sponsorship - free samples, gifts or services?

Or why not create a large marquee area outside the stadium for local companies to exhibit and advertise. For instance to attract more women why not ask local salons to consider free pre match hair do's, nail polishing or makeover etc. Or local food shops to offer free samples? Car Manufacturers - free test drive around a small area of the carpark? The possibilities are endless. Perhaps have a system where you have to show your match ticket to qualify? Give these local firms a free pitch or stand and an advert in the match programme in return.

This is the kind of thing they seem to do very well at sports events in America. You have to think outside the box sometimes. It's all well and good officials at the club whining about numbers, but what are the club actually doing effectively to improve it?

Hello TS - Hope you are fit & well.

I am - at this minute - drawing up a list of venues for 2016 which I will give to MK at the end of the season unless ............................thousands start turning up.

Salford - on paper - have never had a more attractive team on view since the Snape Days or maybe 2 generations.

Vickers is coming across as massive bell end on Twitter if he thinks the way to attract fans is by being sarcastic and slagging potential fans off he’s sadly mistaken, if he seriously thinks that because we have won 6 out of 8 homes games then thousands will come flocking in he is in dream land, is he forgetting the massive losing streak we also went on last season? We all know Salford isn’t a big RL area and the sad fact is we will not attract any more than the hard core until we start winning games and actually living up to all the hype, if we did become successful whilst not attracting mass amounts in my opinion we could average around 6.5k. The simple reason for the poor attendances are years of and false dawns.

2007 –14th on 13 and were relegated.
2009 – 13th
2010 – 12th
2011 – 11th
2012 – 11th
2013 – 14th
2014 – 10th

2015 – we start with a loss and another hammering, things look to be picking up but it’s going to take time.

Sunday rugby doesn’t make a difference in fact I bet we have averaged more on Fridays than we have on Sundays over the years (?). And for me this is why I don’t like Sunday’s because they clash with football.

I do get where he is coming from in the sense that people do make up some ridiculous excuses not to attend the games but at the moment we are giving them reason to make those excuses, if we get the product right on the field and we are still in the same position then it’s time to worry.

I really don’t see the benefits in Vickers taking to social media the slag the Salford public off, he beginning to get on my fu*king tits.

As attractive as the teamsheet is, the style of rugby too when it comes off, the club itself is showing itself to be a bit of a circus.

Berating fans & players, airing dirty laundry in public, etc, etc. I can see why this stuff would turn away potential fans - it's making me not want to bother at times. I think we need to sort our off-field image out far more than our on-field performances at the moment.

Why do we have this debate every time? I'm sick of hearing it especially from Martin Vickers, until we shake off the 'same old Salford' image the crowds are going to be relatively the same.

We've hardly done much to shake it so far this season especially with that Saints debacle, it's pretty simple really bit of success on the field and people will come. I was watching the Catalan game in the pub on Saturday and people sat up and took notice and at full time people were asking me when the next home game is...not hard is it, play well win a few and people will return.

Sadly the club hierarchy seem to think they have done an amazing job and everything is in place for the fans to come flocking in and to be fair there are some good mothers day offers on for Sundays game.

However, in pre season I and probably everyone else on here was looking forward to the marketing campaign on local buses and on the east lancs etc. For the first time probably since I have watched Salford we were going to have proper marketing of the club which was going to put Salford firmly back in the minds of the Salford public. Then what did we do? Drop the word 'Salford' from all promotional material, which resulted in an unidentifiable (to most of the city) 'Red Devils' brand on display which seemingly has had little or no impact.



This is spot on.

The only game this season where there has been genuine excitement in the bulid up was Warrington, where we took probably our best away following in the superleague era. Since then we have had:

Koukash: 'I've had enough'
Hock: 6 game ban ending in a release from his contract.
Locke going/not going to union.
Locke enjoying himself on a day off.

The only upbeat story we have mustered from the club in this time is the Chase magic assist which as stated above was soon replaced by another Locke non story.

Added to this we have also had:
New club shop opening in January (still no sign of it).
Discounts on food and drink at the ground with a season ticket/membership (anyone?).

False promises and negative press will not exactly entice the Salford public to attend. Hopefully with our next few fixtures certainly being winnable, followed by hopefully some positive press for a change and we can build up to a bumper crowd vs Wigan on easter Monday.

The Salford public are clearly not interested.

Yes we've been rubbish for thirty years. Yes, Rome wasn't built in a day. But surely even the most die-hard optimist must be getting tired of pumping-out the same old reasons/excuses for simple lack of interest.

FWIW I don't think sticking us on the road will do a great deal with the Club's current record of doing things right off the field. Yet sitting on our backsides waiting for the mass of Salford to acknowledge our existence isn't doing much either.

I guess we'll have to hit the top four of SL then cross our fingers for the hordes to come flooding in. MK must feel like he's polishing a turd at the moment.

I disagree, as said earlier we attracted 7,200 to the corresponding fixture last season where as 12 months on and we’ll be lucky to scrape 3,500. Why did we get 7k plus less than 12 months ago? We had a whole off-season of positivity, a new owner who was signing good players and there was a genuine air of excitement surrounding the club.

The interest is out there, it’s been proven on numerous occasions but we won’t keep them coming back until we’re consistent both on and off the field.

Don't agree. Not going over it all again however as it has been discussed on numerous occasions. Like I stated on my previous post if we can get a decent run together over these next few winnable games then Wigan at home will hopefully have the potential for a bumper attendance.

We'll see.

You must be a bloke, what makes you think more women would attend the game if they could get their hair done? Would a barber make you more likely to go?

I can understand that families need the kids entertaining and that going to a game may need to be an "experience" We need to look at the timing of games and Mother's day probably isn't the best idea. People have commitments on such days and visiting Mum may be one of those.

We probably need to be realistic and say we will never be a top attraction in this area but the club need to address the small things first such as the atmosphere and costs.

1. It's on the same time man u are on .love em hate em it has an impact
2. How many fans who are non season pass holders pre buy their tickets? Its hardly convenient.
3. Its mothering Sunday, unless the whole family is into RL it'll hard to sneak out the day your engineered to pay attention to the ..
Wife/mum/in-law/grandma.

4. Typical turn-up or else threat from our beloved owner, CEO, that most likely has the opposite reaction than the one intended.

5. Another quiet week where the club successfully managed to steer a positive on-field performance into whether an off duty player was allowed to boogie on the Ramblas with his shirt off.

But surely we're going to get the promised thousands of manufacturing sector workers turning up to swell the crowd.




Fridays could clash with football too from the next tv deal. We either start playing Sunday at 6.30pm to avoid any football clash, or just face the fact that we could have clashes with football in 6 months of an 8 month season and just make the product we offer good enough to withstand that.