To expand on my original post. Culture has become the buzzword at the club since TS became coach but the issues with culture have been there throughout my time as a supporter. In the 70's, 80's and 90's the culture was very much "part time" and similar to most other clubs of the time (anyone remember the TV clips of the players and wives jolly on the eve of the 1980 cup final?). Shaun McRae was probably the first to publicly highlight the culture issue with his infamous "cancer in the club" statement. Despite numerous changes of ownership, coaches and players the "culture cancer" seems to remain and even grown. The piece in HDM about Gaz Ellis' take on what culture looks like is interesting and it's a shame that even a great leader like him was unable to instill that effort culture in a more sustained way after he hung his boots up. Brian Smith managed to achieve it with a workmanlike first team in 90/91, Shaun McRae and Shane Richardson gave it a good go as did John Kear before he was let down by the Hetheringtons.
It would appear then that Mr Smith is correct in prioritising club culture first in the root and branch overhaul of the club. After previous coaches have failed to achieve the support of other club stakeholders in their attempts to improve club culture I think us as supporters will play a major role in supporting him through what will be a painful process.

As an aside, is anyone able to instruct me how to change the thread title to the correct...#backtheblackandwhites
please?

Done it for you

, apologies would have done it earlier but work got in the way

FWIW- I think Pearson has realised the error of his ways; loyalty to the coach when things were going badly, misguided loyalty to players via long contracts, coaching appointments , basically all things rugby related and, instead of wiping his hands and letting the club fold, he has given the dice one last roll and given Smith direct control of all of the above , and handed him authority on all media communication. It seems that we have been drip fed news , rather than confirmation of signings, targets etc, as the club are keeping their cards close to their chest, probably because negotiations with targets are on going or have failed materialise. Despite the optimism of some, it seems there is a general feeling of unease among a large section of the fanbase ,from reading posts on forums and talking to others and the signings made so far, have yet to convince many that things will improve, playing wise, any time soon. I like Smith, but performances like the ones we witnessed at the Castleford and Huddersfield games seem to confirm that the attitude and culture shift we are hoping for, is as far off as ever. I do think if we'd got the win against Wigan, those two games may have ended differently, score wise but that defeat really did for us. We have to hope that the club have a proper half lined up, to replace Clifford, or I do fear a large drop off in pass sales, which could really hurt, or even kill off the club as challengers in the future.

Nailed it. The best summation of our current situation I've read.

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Thank you for doing that. Work, the scourge of the drinking man!

I see our attendances are up again this season. So once again I will repeat what I said last year and the year before that, in that I hope the Club understands that over players Coaches, a great merchandising set up and a great Stadium to play in, we, the long suffering fans, are our Clubs greatest asset. Other clubs and sometimes much better teams like Salford, Leigh, Huddersfield (particularly) Castleford and yes even Rovers, would kill to have a fan base the size of ours now, never mind what its potential is. If we had witnessed a season the likes of our noisy neighbours or that of Leigh we would be averaging around at least 13,000 now.

But that can't go on forever and even the most passionate are becoming disinterested and disengaged and feeling that things will never change back again. Many of us now simply stick around for love and an inability to change, it is as I often say like having dysfunctional kids. can't live with em can't live without them. One things for certain we certainly don't stay loyal because we are getting great entertainment do we? The fact is even with the most devoted of followings, in such hard economic times you can't keep promising crock of gold and delivering a crock of you know what! Season ticket sales will be interesting!!

I agree with the above. I know of a few people who didn't renew for this season, and their decision seems to have been vindicated. My business partner had a pass for 10-15 years, and was sick of AP's marketing spiel before every season, and then we crash and burn.

I spoke with him this morning, and said about the Jack Walker signing, and his reply "well, that won't make me buy a pass".

A lot of apathy around, perhaps a lot of misguided loyalty as well to grow the attendance figure this year, on the back of some absolute garbage

attendances will plummet at every club next season,because the braindead at the rl decide to let sky televise every match. what a set of plonkers.

I think this is one of the issues with the Hull fan base. Clearly don’t understand rugby if he doesn’t think Jack walker is a class signing for numerous reasons.

We are an extremely entitled fan base with a very vocal majority who don’t actually understand A. How a salary cap sport works, B. What actually a decent player looks like and C. That we can’t just magic up signings.

The historical precedents relating to increased television coverage from other sports are pretty positive, and there’s a case that more exposure is good for any sport.

Or....a wider audience see it, think that looks good and decide to go to a game?

For me that's the difference between being a fan and a supporter. A fan will decide to attend / buy a pass providing the team are winning / entertaining. A supporter goes / buys a pass regardless.

In my opinion i think the signing of Jack Walker will be seen to be one of the best signings we have made for several seasons.

I would agree if it was terrestrial tv coverage but its Sky and not everyone has or wants Sky TV.
Now if Sky sold some games to Channel 4 or the BBC be replayed over the weekend when there is nothing worth watching that would be good for the sport.

I think/hope that's what would happen after the 30 day negotiation period with SKY ends.

2 games on SKY, 2 on free to air and 2 on OurLeague.

I’m a supporter.

I'm not privvy to more information about the club's business than any other normal supporter. In my opinion, when a business loses income streams it needs to diversify / reduce spending to survive. This would be very painful for a rugby league club as it is impossible to diversify and reduced spending will almost certainly result in reduced performance resulting in further reductions in income. It's a downward spiral. The only way to halt the demise is for a rich person / group of people to begin backing the club (eg what is happening across the river). I am not a rich person but love the club enough to donate say £20/30 per month. I wonder how many of the faithful would be able / willing to do the same and how such an enterprise could be organised / regulated?

As you say I think some form of fan support in terms of a trust etc could be a good way to help the club move forward. If say 3000 fans joined and paid a fiver a week that would be significant amount of income in to the club. Whether that would mean any sort of Supporters Trust would require some stake in the club and all the legals required would be worth it or whether AP would be happy for such who knows.

Admirable sentiment, though what confidence would the supporters who contributed have of the money being spent wisely? Recent evidence suggests that this may be unlikely.

Plus, once this has been received and spent, what next? Another plea for money?

We have been down this road before, and many of us have and continue to put money into the club in season passes, merchandise, etc. (despite the quality of the merchandise becoming progressively more dreadful)

Personally, given the way the club has squandered the money it has had - and there are myriad examples we all could name - I believe there would not be sufficient money raised.

The terrible management for the best part of a decade, the "jam tomorrow", the "give us your money or the club may die" implied threats - there is much more, but I'm losing the will to continue.

The club has been woefully managed for a long time, and while I will continue to buy a pass because the club is in my DNA, like it or not; giving them more money is not an option I am willing to consider until there is concrete evidence of permanent change.

Fair enough. For me however, it wouldn't be a financially motivated transaction, more a case of a charitable donation to a cause I care about passionately. If a share offer was acceptable to the board and the opportunity for dividends tempted more to invest then it would of course be a good option. Any individual could refuse a dividend payout and leave the money in the club (or reinvest it) if they so wished.

Wouldn't be a purchase for dividend, and being honest would not expect give the state of RL as a game they would ever generate one.

It would be about owning a microscopic part of the club that has been in the blood of my family for generations; wouldn't expect any returns, voting rights, whatever. Just to be a shareholder - even a single share - would be enough.

There must be a method of contributing that's attractive to supporters and acceptable to the club. As Chris 71 says, if 3000 signed up at £10 / 20 each per month that would be a significant income stream for the club.