Quote: Mike Oxlong "Who's to say increasing or removing the cap will do anything though? And why would a wealthy investor want to spend any money whatsoever on Bradford or Swinton? If I won the lottery tonight, the last night on my mind would be wasting any of it on buying an RL club, never mind an ailing one.
Look at Salford, and how much the good doctor has ploughed into them. Got great sponsorship deals for them, arguable some of the best players they've ever had, been touted as potential GF winners by Sky and some of the media since he took over - and they are still only getting 1,500 through the turnstiles and into the stadium, including away support. Need to get our heads of the sand and just admit that no one wants to watch the game any more - live or on the TV -
other than the hardcore supporters of each team because it's not entertaining and not attractive enough to bring in new people or new money.'"
Well Koukash and Argyle did it under the current system where we throw as many obstacles as possible at investors, so it's not hard to imagine that there are other potential investors who have been discouraged by how we operate. I certainly think the opportunity should be there for someone to buy a club and throw money at top players to win silverware.
The interest clearly isn't there in Salford unfortunately. They could probably have a World 17 playing there or at Huddersfield and still not average 10k. I wouldn't say the same for other areas though. Bradford for example, got big crowds when they were winning, and I'm willing to believe the same would be the case in Whitehaven, for example, if they had a great team. I agree we need to make it more entertaining and attractive, but for me the way to do that is to give teams the opportunity to buy in top players. I got into the sport to watch Farrell, Dallas and Radlinski; Saints had Long, Cunningham and Sculthorpe; Bradford had Vainikolo, Fielden and Peacock. Their equivalents exist today, but SL teams are unable to attract/retain them due to the cap, so fans end up watching a second rate product, which is naturally less attractive.