Other than maybe one or two clubs, rugby league teams simply don't make money. Unless you have a backer who can absorb the losses, you're eventually going to become unstuck. It's finally become too much.

The whole sport needs a rethink on how it's clubs are run.

Didn't the Variety Centre get wound up? Or did I imagine that? Sounds more like something that will have cost money in the end to me.

really GT? If you believe it actually went out of business you are naive.

Rightly or wrongly, I always felt secure at the Willows. We never seemed to go and spend beyond our means - which sometimes meant relegation, but almost a guaranteed promotion the year after - and I always felt we competed pretty well within our capabilities ie generally lower table finishes, with the odd decent scalp along the way. How could we have done much better on the size of the crowds we got? Major opportunites were missed following our decent seasons in recent times: 1997 = 6th, 1998 = 11th. 2006 = 5th, 2007 = 12th (and relegated).

The last two years or so, have been like a really bad dream, one from which we aren't seemingly going to wake up from. Scriptwriters from a certain other Salford based soap opera could surely not have come up with what we have been served up:

The sale of decent young talent eg Myler, Turner, Ratchford / McRae going on leave following stress / Alker getting sacked and the whole sorry saga involved with the dismissal of the hitherto iconic clubman / Vievers in / Vievers out / Parish in / Parish out / Vievers in / the shambolic lead up to the final game at the Willows and the potential to sell the new vision to a 10,000 crowd, spurned / a hopeless inept loss to Leigh at the first game at the new stadium / playing the first competitive game in an inch of snow / Sale move in before we've had a chance to warm the bed / Matty Smith sold with a third of the season remaining / players undermining the club on Twitter / a player taking the club to tribunal in an attempt to get out of his contract / a sponsor employed to help the club with their finances getting involved with a winding up petition against the club / players employed to help the club with their on-field performances getting involved with a winding up petition against the club / an extensively dragged-out 'financial rescue' which amounted to a failed attempt to get a loan to see us lurch on for another year...

I've no doubt missed out plenty of other issues which I've either forgotten or blanked from my memory to save further pain.

Less than one year on from the dawning of our new dream, we are faced with the ultimate nightmare: no club to support at all and the loss of our tired but beloved old ground. With no framed turf to help remember her by...

300 pound a week baynesy must of been having you at it mate, i know salford didnt pay the best money in the world but ill guarantee you that they would of been paying more than that, i know patten holdsworth feka and others were on 100k plus, plus simms money you could buy a few good ones with that

That answers the question in the title of the thread.

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He wasn't having me on, he was telling me how the club pays bad wages, just shows a few years of paying big wages and we need council loans and player sales to carry on, if wilkinson hasn't got the money why did he stay in control all them years? I'll tell you why because that gold mine/variety centre kept the pound signs in his eyes! Keep the rugby club surviving on a shoe string budget while he made millions for his family, shows
Where his priorities really lie, and now he's looking to retire he cuts his losses and the willows variety centre gets wound up (takes his
Money and runs)

I'm not saying any of this is not true, but in the early 90's i know for a fact that players were on a lot more than that.

Salford have payed out stupid money is the past, I can recall Richard Webster picking up astronomical wages 250 grand plus. But on the other hand I've a very close friend who played for Salford 1st team and was payed equal to his trade. In the past Salford have.been guilty of both over and under paying.

To see the club i have supported for over 40 years very close to the precipice is heartbreaking, and i am sure that like all true supporters we would do anything to save our club from extinction.The facts are , during our heyday in the 70s the majority of our signings were made from the proceeds of the casino and the willows Variety centre. Since JW has been in charge takings from the Variety Centre will have plummetted, and it has only been his deep pockets that have kept the club alive for so long.Where he has gone seriously wrong is not bringing in new investors a long time ago, and employing a number of people who i believe do not have any empathy at all with the supporters who by definition are the lifeblood of the club. We can all wax lyrical about whose fault it is, but that will not change the situation. What we need is new high profile owners who will be able to attract new sponsors , new corporate guests, invest in the playing staff, market the club efficiently, tap into the resource that is the supporters and bring some success to the club which will in turn increase attendances and make the club viable for the long term. I wonder if Ryan Giggs or Wayne Rooney who say they love RL would like to own a RL club? Very Cheap for them. Heres hoping!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote: RED LEAGUE " I'll tell you why because that gold mine/variety centre kept the pound signs in his eyes! Keep the rugby club surviving on a shoe string budget while he made millions for his family, shows Where his priorities really lie'" Tell you what, as you're suggesting the Variety club made millions of profits, why not provide some evidence for that? You can get hold of the accounts for the entire 19 years of trading here - wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/9515f ... order?ft=1

Quote: RED LEAGUE " I'll tell you why because that gold mine/variety centre kept the pound signs in his eyes! Keep the rugby club surviving on a shoe string budget while he made millions for his family, shows Where his priorities really lie'" Tell you what, as you're suggesting the Variety club made millions of profits, why not provide some evidence for that? You can get hold of the accounts for the entire 19 years of trading here - wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/9515f ... order?ft=1

Talk to 'Cavendish' about suitable medication.