The only way to assure a large dedicated following is to get RL ingrained into the fabric of the community. It's not an easy undertaking and will take many many years if at all. Those areas of the country that have RL woven into the fabric of their communities and history are the ones that continue to hold down the best fan retention figures. I fear that Salford has so much work to do in this respect that it will be almost impossible to make big inroads on increasing their hardcore support. It doesn't mean they shouldn't try though.

A mix of relentless bombardment of all things Salford into the communities, making them part of something, providing them with facilities and making themselves indispensable would be a start. Most Club sides in the NRL provide a host of services for the communities they serve. Restaurants, entertainment, gym's/classes, sporting facilities for amateur sport/RL etc etc. To be fair to Salford, the Willows centre when it was created was the closest thing British Clubs had to the Australian model. Probably no coincidence that the Club thrived when the Variety centre was at its peak. Of course, modern times require a modern take on the old idea.

You need to tell people who and where we are, to the unconverted.
Putting news, info on the Salford website, twitter and facebook is preaching to the converted. A big advertising campaign throughout the season is needed. this would cost a lot initially, ie advertising on TV, but with also a winning team playing entertaining rugby and star names. Salford needs to tell people we are here

agree to an extent. The trouble with this is that we dont currently have the product right on the pitch. It's all very well and good advertising us to the hills and back but if you have a team that are not competative, people are just not willing to part with the money more than once to watch a beaten team.

A big push like that can only come when the product is right.

There's no doubt about it, we need that feel good factor back around the stadium on a match day. When was the last time you genuinely enjoyed a match day experience at the Salford City Stadium? All too often last season and for the majority of this year the place has felt souless, barring the Bradford game and that day there was only 5100 there with what was a dire game.

I'm hoping the new signings and rebranding addresses this. Positive results on the pitch and a team worth paying to see will go a long way to getting us back to those 5,000 crowds and it's important we hang on to these in the first instance. Improve the match day experience, reduce car parking charges and ticket prices, get a decent mascot, an MC with a personality, better half time entertainment, pyrotechnics/fireworks before the terms emerge, banners in the South Stand and so forth. In conjunction with that we need some strong marketing and community work, constant bombardment of local schools particularly those in Irlam, Cadishead, Eccles etc.

It's going to be tough, but I have no doubt it's more than do-able.

As people having said growing crowds and support in the city of Salford will take far more than a name change (or name drop) but it is possible over a period of time if the right things are done.

I would stop going if the name Salford was dropped - it's the club's identity and to throw all that away after 134 years for perceived benefits that would undoubtedly not materialise would be criminal. Rugby League should embrace its heritage not trash it.

If Koukash/Matthews thinks the crowds are bad now they'll have a shock on their hands if they drop the name Salford.

www.reds.co.uk/rugby-news/reds-s ... -of-season

www.reds.co.uk/rugby-news/reds-s ... -of-season

My main concern about the rebranding is the potential for it to be a a massive disappointment.

How can it be a massive dissapointment, anything is better than we currently have.

Totally agree! Salford City Reds = FAILURE!

Regardless of naff our current branding is, if we pass up a chance to come up with something good and get something that is different but still naff, it will be a disappointment.

I agree. I'm really looking forward to the return of the Red Devils and will be really ed off if the logo looks tacky/amateurish.

Or Salford is dropped from it, like I'm led to believe.

I can live with Salford not being displayed on the logo as long as it looks professional.

The logo will be tacky to some of us no matter what is decided... opinions always differ.

Let's reserve judgement.

However, to remove Salford and simply call us The Red Devils is sure to cause brand confusion with our Old Trafford neighbours. A businessman of the good Doctor's knowledge will surely avoid that.

If the current parochial mentality persists Salford will end up like Huddersfield as suggested with a good team, crowds of 5,500 and an owner berating the local population for not being supportive enough. Huddersfield probably has a smaller catchment area and its last previous period of success was well before Salford's last but they along with Town are undisputedly the local sporting focal points. Salford will be forever hobbled by the fact that they are in the backyard of one behemoth called United and in close proximity of another potential behemoth called City. The modern city of Salford has a far less robust and defined sense of itself than the previous incarnation and a significant majority will not have the slightest idea who the ‘pride of the city’ (?) is. The support of the two football giants just exacerbates an already pretty fractured and fluid local identity – Salford is not a St Helens, Wigan or Warrington and i simply cannot ever see the Salford ever attracting the kind of the numbers these teams are capable of. Salford somehow, without major name changes and betraying their past, need to market themselves as Manchester’s premier RL team. An anathema to many perhaps but regular crowds of 8,000 paying punters delivered out of the immediate Salford area are years away if achievable at all.
Many of course might be happy with 5,500 but i doubt if Dr Koukash will be.