Quote: Red John " I don't agree that mullering a lower division team would bring the punters in. These games tend to be very low intensity, with few visiting fans, home fans standing around with their hands in their pockets (or sitting back in their seats) and with very little atmosphere. They end up being like glorified training sessions, and I'm not sure that's a particularly attractive proposition. .'"
I'm basing my thought on what happened with Manchester Storm*. Early on the crowds flocked to see them hammer teams - the crowds had no preconceptions and didn't really know anything about the quality (or lack of) of teams like Bracknell, Ayr, Telford & Blackburn, they just wanted to be entertained by seeing their team win, and win well. How that would translate to an atmosphere for an RL game with a decent sized crowd of newbies is unknown. The atmospere for such a game at Barton would be dire, and that's partly due to us existing fans knowing that it's no big deal to be able to steamroller lower opposition, but the newbies don't have that same world-weariness about them. You get it at Barton sometimes when the kids in the East Stand who are in for some schools/juniors activity are clearly getting more excited about what's going on on the pitch than many in the South Stand.
* And yes, let Manchester Storm also serve as a warning to those thinking that Manchester is the sporting promised land.
Quote: Red John "Does anyone actually know when the lease is up? You'd love to be a fly on the wall of the negotiations when it is up for renewal.'"
Oddly I can't find that answer online despite being sure I remember articles with Wilkinson and John Merry showing the "anchor tenant" agreement being signed. What I do remember is that when they announced that Sale were coming on board, Sale had a longer lease - Sale's is 25 years, so I'm guessing ours may be 15 (I seem to remember something about 5-year break/review clause).