It will just make success all that bit sweeter when we do finally lift the Super League trophy in front of over 30,000 Salford City Reds fans at Old Trafford!

You can say you we're on the 2000 or so die hards who were there from the beginning.

The Bradford scenario has the possibilty of being repeated again.

Should United overcome Chelsea in their reply, they will play the semi against City on Sunday 14th @ 4pm, whilst we will be at home to Hull @ 3pm.

The situation will not change overnight as previously said the fans have been dwindling for years starved of success but more importantly a competitive team on the pitch we have wasted god knows how much money on Simms, coaches and poor players .The Doc has lots of issues to address but most importantly get the coach sorted out then he can start to sign players not before . Veivers and Hunte both had no chance its not their fault but they have nothing to work with , Sheens or Smith or whoever wouldn't do any better ! Need coach now and then 6 at least quality signings to have any chance of competing . Once we compete the crowds will come . There are lots of issues as we know but get this right and people will be patient for the rest , i.e access ,parking ,prices,getting a ticket,merchandise the list is endless !!!!

Have to agree, Boggles61. If we were watching a competitive/winning team, all the smaller issues would feel less important. As things are, the team on the pitch become another thing to moan about along with the parking, lack of merchandise, etc.

There is only one thing that will get more people through the turnstiles and thats consistently (year on year) winning a lot more games than we lose.

If you analyse our Superleague record over the past 17 years the team have only achieved a 30% win rate in 385 games. The question is were we financially equipped to really compete in Superleague considering we couldn't spend anywhere close to the salary cap before the takeover? I can't think of any other team in rugby league with a worse record than that. You could argue that the franchise system over recent years has made it worse because with P&R it at least gives your team the chance to drop down a level and start winning more than you lose.

It's really surprising we have any fans left at all.

This.

Although, to get some of the wavering fans to return all we need is for them to look at the fixture and think 'Salford Vs XXXXXXX, should be a close game.' At the moment, nearly every fixture has a guaranteed outcome, and not the good kind. Those fans are going to look at the same fixture now and think 'I'll save my money'.

Doesn't work because everyone says ‘I was there when...’.

It's not entirely true that you need to win a lot more than you lose to get improved crowds. Look at Wakefield since their change of ownership. Crowds really picked up quickly, well ahead of results improving. They created a positive vibe that people bought in to.

I hope that the crowds come back and support you,

I know that the sky's the limt with Dr Kookash and when you appoint a top coach, sign your marquee players, challenge for honours on a year by year basis, but, realistically what do you think is an acheivable average gate?

Does the City's appetite match the Doctors ambition?

There was over 10k there for the last match at the Willows, we know these were all Salford fans aswell as we were playing Catalan. So there is atleast 10,000 who have an interest of some sort. I'd be happy In 3-4 years if we're averaging 7000 a game

Iain if you can think you can get more people to part with their 20 quids by creating a positive vibe I'd be offering my services to Dr Koukash, because I'm sure he could use your help right now.

I'm not sure its true that those 10,000 were solid Salford, I spoke to a fair few fans from other clubs who had come to see the last game at The Willows.
For all the criticism it got, that ground was well liked across the RL family.
My best bet would be we'll be edging towards an 8,000 average by the end of next season - to break into the 5 figure average requires an absolutely massive change in the Friday night habits of an awful lot of people, I'm sure it can be done, but it'll take some serious marketing effort (and I'm taking it as read that we'll have a product to market).

Not quite sure where I said I can. All I said was that Wakefield succeeded in boosting crowds after a particularly grim period before the results picked up. They must have done something right. There isn't only one solution.

Appoint a well respected coach, recruit well and make sure season tickets are on sale as early as possible (ideally in July/August) and we should make up some of the ground lost this season in terms of attendances.

The daft location of the ground is something we can do little about and we have to work around it. While our crowds are dire, the earlier poster who said at least everyone is paying is right, I hope we don't panic and start giving freebies away again.

Better to increase by 500 fans a year who are all paying full price, than artificially boost the crowds temporarily by devaluing your own product.

The numbers can be misleading and certainly have been in the past,and maybe at similar clubs.
What's important is how many tickets are sold,as opposed to given away in promotions.
We need paying fans not just rentacrowd.
Many people were prepared to help with the SOS bail out. Those same people,and more,may need to support higher ticket prices,so that we avoid putting ourselves in the position of needing a bail out.