And that means it must be exactly the same situation in Salford, does it?

bloke on the gate must have been winding me up then , you know what those blokes on the gates are like, humour all of their own. Like scousers, but not as funny.

Manchester is a massive city with 2,000,000+ people there. There is at most 120,000 attending games in Manchester at any one time. Plenty of people left who can go watch a Rugby match, football is obviously big there but not everyone follows United or City.

If the area is pure soccer and no one is interested in watching RL why the frik have we got a SL team there?

Because some people think that sticking in a random team with no support in an area where there isn't a team already is "expansion" and is great for the game.

No idea, never understood the salford team. Personaly they offer nothign to SL, happy to see them wound up and sent into amateur land. Nothing team with no interest from anyone, beside Jack Deardon, even Adrian Morley cant be bothered with them.

Wind the club up and sling in widnes.

You're right, not everyone follows United or City. Others follow one of the many lower league and non league clubs in the area. Others prefer to just sit in the pub watching games, whether they've got an interest in the club or not.



You mean why have we got an SL team there that's been around for donkey's years and has plenty of history behind them in the game? Yeah, beats me.

There are also a number of people that don't go who take an interest in Salford RL. The problem is getting them to come through the turnstiles and then get them back again every week. We got 6,000+ the other year against Swinton through free and cheap ticket deals which goes to show people will come and watch us. The problem is getting them to do it regularly whilst putting their hands in their pockets. How do we do it? Well, a decent side playing good rugby in a new stadium will go a long way towards that. I would hope we could appeal to those who can't afford to go to football, but, as I said, it's getting them out of the pub and into the Willows. Changing people's habits is hard.

Beyond that, if anyone thinks they could do a better job at promoting the club then contact our marketing department.

Or we could just wind the club up, yeah. That'd be great.

I have said it before and will say it again, get rugby league at its strongest in its strongest areas then we can start to expand. Get Widnes and Halifax in and use those areas to full potential, they would have the same impact Hull KR have had. The start to expand.

On the football argument yes a lot of these places are football strongholds but why on earth should that be used as an excuse not to target people/areas? There is no reason people can't be fans of both sports, indeed a lot of people are.

Why not show football fans - especially those who are "armchair" fans due to the cost of football - that rugby is an affordable family sport and put more money and emphasis on showing this side of the game and getting people into the game.

You don't grasp what I'm saying, do you? I know people watch both sports, most Salford fans do. A lot of us watch three sports! The club have done plenty of marketing and promoted RL as a family sport throughout Salford. The problem is people aren't willing to give it a try. Especially when the team is down the bottom end of the table and we're not exactly in the most attractive ground in the most attractive area of the city.

If we can improve the team's fortunes and get the ground built we'll have more of a chance to persuade more people to come through the turnstiles. This is the chance we've been given over the next couple of years. If we manage it, it's great for Salford, it's great for RL. If we don't, then hello Leigh or Widnes.

Until that point in time, however, there's not really much point in judging us, is there?

I have always been amused with League fans obsession with crowd figures, as long as your club can pay its way what dose it matter? I would love us all to play in front of 20000 crowds week in week out but at the moment it is a dream. To put a dose of reality into it though look at my area Hull, a so called hot bed of league, Hull City averages more than the two league clubs put together (although quiet a few people count in both sets of averages) what all clubs need to look as like in Hull out of the citys population only 18.5% watch the pro sports which means that nearly 200,000 dont watch anything it is a long slow process to build up crowds as us at Rovers can now see I have taken over 30 people in the last 10 years to thier first game of league only one of who now attends on anything like a regular basis even if all fans did the same it would only make up for the fans who like me are getting on & will one day be to old & frail to get to the games. But as long as we keep on plugging away the newcomers that do become regulars remain very loyal it will just not be an overnight sensation as some would have us belive, It has taken over 20 years to get London going anywhere near a sucsess & probaly another 20 years still to make them a permanent part of the sporting culture in the capital.

What it needs is the RFL to start to actively help the clubs [ all 35 of them ] to increase crowds rather than constantly trying to get corporate/sugar daddy/sponsorship investement

One trick ponys

As I said simple walk through the turnstyle fans

There is so much they could do , but dont

Manchester has a population of 458,000.
If you're talking about Greater Manchester (the county), then yeah you're looking at 2.5million+, but that includes Wigan, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Stockport, which means far more than 120,000 are watching each weekend maximum.