Quote: marshman777 "Also as for the argument that some clubs cant afford a marque player and we are ok. No one thought of Wire when we were skint and Wigan, Staints, Leeds and Bradford were going full time and spending a fortune. Also why should we be penalised because Bradford was run by a bunch of Chimps and cocked it up.'"
The argument surrounding marque players is similar to the one for having a salary cap. If you have no restrictions, then crudely speaking, a club with a very rich owner can buy up all the available talent and win all the silverware ad nauseum.
At the moment we are a wealthy club, so as a supporter you could well say that we have had decades of barren years, so yes, we would like to be a club that buys up all the decent players and wins trophies. But, rugby league is essentially funded by Sky - they put in the majority of the money to keep the SL clubs afloat. From 2015 each SL club will receive £1.825M. And Sky get their money from subscribers / advertisers. Are subscribers going to want to see Warrington beating Hull KR by 100-12 ?. Even as a Wire supporter, I don't think I would get very excited by the prospect, and certainly the neutrals are not going to get turned on by it. I will be going to the London match on Sunday, but I am not going with the same level of excitement that I would if we were playing Wigan or Saints. And what will the attendance be on Sunday ?, I am guessing somewhere around 9,000 max as there will be plenty of Wire supporters that don't bother going either.
So the first consideration needs to be about money, and in particular about ensuring that viewers and spectators see plenty of close matches where the result is difficult to predict in advance. That ensures we get good revenue from gates and Sky, which in turn means the game can remain healthy, and hopefully even start to grow. At the moment Wire are in a fortunate position, we can still buy / attract high quality players whilst complying with the salary cap. I think we should enjoy that situation and ignore the request for marque players. Koukash is simply wanting to cut corners and buy success for Salford. He needs to plough his money into the local schools, clubs, and the Salford academy, to get a healthy number of kids coming through to the first team. Trouble is, it will probably take him 7-10 years to get into that position and he doesn't seem to be a patient man.