Quote: Red John "No need to apologise. It's a public forum, after all.
Plans are, indeed, only plans, but you can look at a business plan and determine, within reasonable parameters, how viable that plan would be. A plan that shows Salford pulling in 8000 in their first season at Barton was like a Baldrick plan. A plan based on drawing attendances similar to last season seems more reasonable, doesn't it?'"
Absolutely right.
I cant remember which footie chairman it was (it may have been Ken Bates back in his Chelsea days), who always spoke of budgeting for a mid table finish and going out of both cups in the 1st round that they played in (obviously 3rd round of the FA Cup etc, but you know what he meant) and this was to prevent over ambitioous spending.
Certainly a number of SL clubs have been guilty of hoping/expecting too much and its certainly a shame for your club, who appeared from the outside to be following a sensible plan. Although if you did need 8000 fans to "break even", then clearly,, not enough was being done to achieve this in terms of marketing and promotion and you certainly weren't helped with the enforced switch of the Wakefield game at the end of last season.
FWIW, I hope that you come through the other side, good luck !