Only way we will get anywhere near 10k again is if we pull a marquee signing out the bag, which i very much doubt will happen. 7 or 8k tops for the pledge after yet another bad season.

Clearly the club are aiming for the 12k mark. Which is only 953 more fans than we got this year. Which would only be a £15 increase on this years price. Still a bargain.

One thing I just realised, and just re-read letter to confirm, is that when talking about pledges it doesn't say adult memberships anywhere. This implies that junior and concession tickets could count towards the pledge total. This combined with lowering of age at which kids get in free, hence meaning they'll need junior tickets too makes the 12k target a lot more realistic if I'm reading it right.

Even if it is same as last year and only adult tickets count then think people are being too pessimistic and we should reach 10k without too much trouble. A couple more solid signings would certainly help.

I have several problems with the way our marketing department are working at the moment....

Big announcement spoilt by lack of knowledge of how postal system works
Typo's on letters that are sent out without being proof read
Begging themed letters -yeah we appreciate what you do but bring more money in please! I have to wonder how the tone our tentative approahes to wealthy businessmen read.....

Unless as stated above pledge total is to include the kids tickets which would prob push closer to the 15k figuire which would be clever way of making it look like we have improved on our fan base without much actually changing and a few more fans added in attempt to get tickets cheaper.

Some things I have noticed - no second fans forum that we were told about, the promise of improved food options that has dwindled?

I am not complaining about the money just strategies we seem to be taking! Why not say we are building for the future and hope we can keep you the current members and go down a retention policy with an £80 set price?with play matching the levels before the original pledge (i.e. regular season games only) only marquee signings would have kept all people returning let alone improving on it. I wonder if there were problems trying to sign big name players after the orford saga? because I am sure the signings we have made are positive ones but a greg bird.matt orford type figuire now would have been amazing for morale and anticipation for next year!

I'll get completely hammered for this - but i won't be paying £90 for a ticket. the absolute dross thats been served up this year is not worth paying £30 more.

I'll get one if we hit the £75 price bracket, but otherwise no go.


I suspect a fair bit of the current holders will be thinking along the same lines.

Other than the clubs error with sending the information out early, I think they have done well to keep season tickets prices cheap! I for one definitely expected an increase therefore a small chance of a decrease in price is very good. I understand the likeliness of this is slim but to get a season ticket for under £100 for super league is great value. Yes this season hasn't been the best and im sure a fair few floating supporters will not renew but I am optimistic the majority will!

I don't know about getting 'hammered' for it but it does seem an odd logic. If for example you bought a season ticket last year despite the fact that you might only be able to make 1/3 of the games then perhaps £90 wouldn't make as much sense. But £90 is still incredibly cheap to watch top flight SL IMO. You have said you would pay £75 but are not prepared to gamble on paying another £15 by pledging. I hope current members aren't thinking similar things, otherwise the whole scheme will fail.

I think we've all left games this year feeling pretty p!ssed off with the performance given by the team. But the club is massively reliant on the fans to generate income. If the fans don't back the club when they're effectively giving half the games for free then I fear for our future to be honest.

Quite possibly.

I used to work with a couple of "Bulls fans" who continually played merry hell with how crap the team was and its performances were, and said they would not go again unless the cost of tickets were negligible and the performances improved. They were always amongst the most vocal of the complainants after a bad loss.

I just wonder if it ever entered their heads that there might be a connection between their actions, and the club not having the money to recruit and retain the best playing and coaching staff and enough support staff, or to entertain a devlopment and marketing budget like some of our rivals? Given that, unlike most of the current "form" teams we have no sugar daddy?

I suggest the best way to ensure that we continue to see the dross, and probably lose our Licence and disappear into oblivion next time round, is by the fans depriving the club of the income and the cash flow they need to do something about the dross? Would you not agree?

To be honest, I'd suspect the reason for no 'marquee' recruits has much less to do with Orford than the fact that we, as a club, are not perceived as one which is going to win anything. Much as I don't really know I'd suspect Orford's, (not to mention Mimmis') antics would have been regarded in a bad light generally amongst clubs and players.

Ultimately though, a top 'marquee' player wants to play with a successful club, which since we're told that the salary cap leaves most clubs with the same amount to spend on the team (?), means that, if it were just money, we should have the same chance as any other to attract these players.

We'll know more when the annual accounts are filed, but I suspect last year's prices weren't as viable as we were led to believe. No doubt the plan was to entice a large number of supporters through the rock bottom prices and then build on that foundation and look to retain them (and even increase numbers) for the following season.

Unfortuately our p!ss poor performances this season were not part of the plan, and have done the financial strategy no favours whatsoever.
The question is whether these prices for next season have been modified to reflect our league standing/performances, or whether they were set a long time ago - perhaps even when the initial pledge scheme was put together - and they are sticking with it despite the fact that we have failed to make the playoffs yet again, and may even finish lower in the table than in 2010.

I would have liked to see the club set the pledge targets a little lower than they have done. Why not aim for a more realistic figure and build gradually?
If (and it's a big if) we have a more successful season in 2012 it will be far easier to push for a bigger rise in pledges, but to try and do it on the back of the season we've just had might be a bit too ambitious I feel.

All that being said, there will be 4 more season ticket holders from my household in 2012 whatever the price

My opinion? For that is all it is - I can offer no proof either way, in support or to refute:

More than a few Marquee players may have sold their image rights to third parties apparently unconnected with the club. The income they receive from these sources may mean they feel able to sign for the club of their dreams for perhaps less than they might otherwise require, had they not had this additional source of income. For, given the current exchange rates, the effective ending of club-paid image rights/EBTS/Pension etc payments and the impending big increase in NRL salary cap, it seems to me hard to see now how a very senior antipodean could find it worthwhile to come for just a salary within the salary cap?

For some reason, I get the impression there are few if any interested unconnected third parties round these parts. They seem to be more common in some other RL heartland areas though. Maybe the club owners have good connections?

Not sure if I totally agree with that. I'm sure all players would rather play for successful clubs given the choice. Ultimately it'll come down to the deal offered and length of contract, but also who's coaching the team, whether they have mates at the club, facilities, reputation, etc. If a similar deal is offered from 2 clubs then I'm sure most players would choose the one who had the better chance of winning something. The same reason Willy Mason chose Hull KR over us (funny how that worked out). Apparently the 2 clubs offered similar deals. If we had offered more then I'm pretty sure he would have come to us. Offer the right deal to the right player and you'll get them regardless of success.

I can't buy into the fact that we can't get top players because we're crap. We're either not trying to sign a marquee player, not offering the right deal or there are none available. A top draw player will believe that they are the difference between winning and losing.