Quick let's bang prices up to £50 then.

£18 is way too much for me to go regularly, I go about 3 times a season now instead of 10+.

The club would get more money out of me in total if it was cheaper as at £10 I'd go 10 times, at £18 I'll make 2 or 3 games. £100 vs. £54, and add-on the odd beer here and there.

The thing with the 70's Pev is that everyone struggled to get crowds, if you give me time I'll prove that crowds across the board in RL were, well, pretty dire. I believe had our success been in virtually any other decade especially the 60's the numbers would be different.

I have put together an article more or less ready to roll on the subject and I'll role it out soon and for me the the proof is in the reading, winning puts bums on seats.

Anyway I only really popped on to say that the pressure has eased a little.

Quins v Wakefield pulled in only 3,688 for their opening home fixture. Our first home game last year as with this year is Celtic and last year we pulled in 4,026 on Sky so I suspect a few more for this one. 5k anyone?

Your argument shows that cost of admission has little to do with attendances - you're only attending 3 games at a cost of £54 because you're annoyed at the club for raising the price of admission. If it was genuinely about cost you would attend 5/6 games that would cost the same as the 10 games you reckon you would attend at £10 a game, hence showing you can afford to spend £100.

As I said, unless we put prices up ridiculously (like the £50 you so intelligently suggested), people will attend if they want to and won't if they don't. Some who don't want to attend regularly will use the price as an excuse (as you seem to) but the fact still remains that we would struggle to fill the Willows if tickets were free.

I'm not annoyed at the club at all, it's their choice where they set the admission fee and my choice whether I am willing to pay that.

I do feel they are shooting themselves in the foot though by consistently increasing prices as my example shows that it's probable they are reducing total gate income (attendance x admission fee) as a result of crowd numbers being lower by more than the admission cost increases. Shrug.

I used the £50 example to show that people do choose their leisure pursuits based on cost, they don't just decide "I want to watch Salford" and ignore everything else. The very people who make the difference between a 3k crowd and a 6k one are the floating fans not the hardcore and they are more likely to take cost into account (as a reason, not an "excuse"icon_wink.gif.

It will be interesting to see how many Crusaders get on the ground once the novelty and promos has worn off.
Last night was the big one for them and they pulled it off .
Salford have struggled to attract big attendances at the best of times, its even more difficult at present , if we get the same numbers as last season we`ll be doing well.

I'm afraid we're just not seen as "cool". Hopefully the new stadium will alter that.

If you got the membership for £50, you could then get in for £12 every week and get free 4th round challenge cup/Murrayfield tickets thrown in as well.

Membership schemes only work when you can fill the ground. As I have stated previously the current scheme, whilst attractive to some, has served to alienate others. You have to find a balance between attracting new and casual suppporters without alienating existing hard core fans. This scheme for me ignores loyalty at the expense of the former. Hence it will prove to be counter productive. I am certainly not supporting it.

As for the freebies- once you turn fans into consumers it is about the product on the park and in Salford's case this has not been attractive over the course of the last few seasons. So I am afraid if people won't turn up to the Willows they are hardly going to travel to Murrayfield or cup games away. Hence- these are not really incentives (also the offer last year was not unique to Salford but was provided by all clubs). I am tired of people mixing the debate between being a fan, price and value for money- they are not the same thing (they overlap but they are entirely different things).

That's a very one-eyed view. You're more than welcome to your opinion but there are several factual inaccuracies in there.

I am tired of people mixing fact with narrow-sighted, self-centred opinions.

Personally i think we as fans need a shot of insperation imo, a top 8 finish, winning more regular rather than 1 in every 4 or so or a challenge cup run (problem with this is we'd have to go and win it or at least make the final or it could be another sheffield effect)

As for price for a ticket, personally ive just curbed my spending in other areas on a matchday (beer, food, travel) so i can keep going home and away. I could go on a Retro day bender and blow £90 +but then you wouldnt see me for a month..........which for a few of you would be a blessing i know .

Getting in to the match is the important thing everything else is a side show

Last year was the first game back in SL, so maybe we got an optimistic bounce on the back of the previous year. I don't see the last 12 months as having been quite as rosy for us.

I personally think its more about if the average floating supporter thinks Salford will win a match rather than form over a 12 month period, the average floating salford fan will think " well Celtic finished bottom last year and we should beat them ill go"

I seem to recall the game being on a Saturday evening on Valentine's Day and on Sky. That obviously wasn't the best combination for a home opener especially given the opposition.

I don't think a 5,000 crowd is out of the question but I wouldn't be surprised if we get less as well.

Maybe now with just a couple of weeks to the Celtic game, the club should start advertising the game more. Adverts in the MEN, Advertiser, Rugby Leaguer and League express, Posters in shops and pubs etc. I don't think any real fan would have any problem with the club putting some sort offer on for the game for example a full paying adult gets a kid in for a quid, all membership holders can bring a mate for £12 maybe even go round schools and hand tickets out to the kids etc.

I know a lot of these have already been tried and it would cost the club a bit of extra money, but we have to try something. The interest is out there, I can't believe how many times I've been asked when Salford's first game is. If the club put it in the papers and market the offers and the game in the correct way and we still get a crap crowd then at least we can say "Ahhh well, the club have tried and there's not much more that could have done"

I'm not saying do this for every game, but certainly try it for the Celtic game. IMO opinion we can't just sit back and wait till we get the stadium then hope the crowds will come flooding in all of a sudden. We have to generate some interest first and that must start now.