Not disagreeing with any of that. The error is in framing of the picture and the message it sends out about both the level of expertise within the club, and the relative status of each club.

I've never had anything but admiration for Hetherington, even when he was my old clubs South Yorkshire rivals. He has shown he can coach & he can also be an astute & ruthless businessman. He is RL through & through, despite his necessary involvement with the Takes. I went to a RL in Literature discussion a few years back, he was the only senior RL figure there in the audience (apart from Bullseye).

Bullseye would have been there Autograph Hunting! Did he get Yours??

I am glad we are seeking advice from a successful club, and Leeds' successes do deserve praise. But lets not forget that Leeds have several advantages over the other Superleague clubs. Leeds is a vibrant area with two very good universities, and several very nice, affluent suburbs and satellite towns. the "Leeds City region" is named such because Leeds as a city is a place that is thriving!

It is the only true Big City club in Superleague, that does not have more than one SL club in it! That means there are more people to target. Add to that the partial demise of Leeds UNited over the last 10 years and there are lots of people to target.

Having said all that, its pretty cool in this day in age that GH and his organisation have been there when we needed them this last 8-9 months! from advice, to gate money, to line paint!

How can two relative novices (in the business side of things), employed by a man who is a novice in RL terms, seeking advice from the most successful club of the last 5 yerars, who both were once employed by, be anything other than goood?

If we had taken a leaf out of their book sooner, we might have avoided the crisis!

We should know our place! At the moment we are nowhere near Leeds in Rugby or Business terms. We need to close that gap in both aspects of ther operation. Publicising this isnt a problem for me, as it shows that efforts are being made to rectify a shortfall in knowledge. This can only benefit our club long term. Even if it is from Leeds!

Learn from the best, and you can only improve!

This.

Especially the leaf in the book which said "Oy, you can't sign Harris!", perhaps?

Across the board, the worst kind of person to have working for you is the person who thinks they already know it all, even after 2 minutes in the job, and who steadfastly refuses to take advice from anybody. I really don't understand why anyone would have a problem with it.

The advice isn't the point. From a marketing perspective it's a dreadful piece which casts the club in a negative light.

No, that's your view, not some sort of fact. In my opinion, I really don't see the problem. It's just a snippet anyway which will be dead and buried by Monday. I would see it as almost totally irrelevant to marketing.

It's flattering that you feel compelled to differentiate between my 'views' and 'fact' but I'm not sure there's any need. For clarity, I'm not relying on tested hypotheses but as someone put a post up I thought we could discuss the merits of the article.

I see what you are saying, but who are these blue chip companies who are going to be put off by FC talking to the Rhinos? From my experience most sponsorship comes from local companies having a fan of the team on the BoD. That & the desire to be associated with a successful club. It's hardly Microsoft asking Apple for advice.

I disagree.

If I was going to part with any money in terms of sponsorship, advertising, investment, or even a season ticket, I would be glad to know that the people running the business had acknowledged the need to develop themselves and the organisation. Especially if theyd just stood back from the brink of oblivion.

Or we could just deny it ever happened in a Peter Hood styleeee!

If that view was expressed/acknowledged privately then like you, I'd be supportive. However, take that article upstairs to a meeting of non RL business people and my fear is that the first question would be, 'who are we sponsoring, the headmaster or the schoolboys?' It's a subservient image and story which feeds into a view of FC as inexperienced/lightweight and the club as lacking in both expertise and status.

If there was a chance of Coca Cola being main sponsor, then yes. But who are/have been Bulls major sponsors - JCT, Grattans, Greenwoods, Safestyle UK, Curryhouse, Bradford Uni/College? Are they really going to be bothered? I look forward to the day when 2 RL coaches talking to each other is front of the FT.