Quote: Bigredwarrior "His £800K expenditure is to underpin the entire club. You can’t build a house on sand or it will just crumble. He’s getting the infrastructure right but as he says, it’s a business and not sustainable unless fans turn up. For fans to turn up in bigger numbers, the product on the field needs to improve so it’s a vicious circle.'"
He won't break the vicious circle by not investing in the squad and coach. Speculate to accumulate and if he doesn't (or can't afford to on his own but won't seek other investors) and responds to declining revenue from fewer fans attending by funding a poorer squad that circle will turn into a downward spiral. Fans turn up when they are excited not when the chairman asks them to watch an economy 7 side and unfortunately for chairmen and owners that means investing up front in the team and coach in the hope it puts bums on seats and brings success.
I am sure he wants it to be a self sustaining business which if it could be would obviously be great. I mean that stands to reason doesn't it but the trouble with this ambition is an RL club is not a traditional business with a guaranteed revenue stream. At times it will dip and as he has said he has had to put his own money in. What surprises me is anyone thinks this is out of the ordinary for an RL club. Most of them seem to hover around making a small profit to various degrees of loss.
Ultimately the solution is increased sponsorship, particularly off TV companies and I think increasing sponsorship is going to generate far more income than a couple of thousand on the gate average but he's the one who has to secure that. Crowd size ought not to matter. All the talk about SL running itself and growing the revenue for the game is I am sure fueled by a desire to do this.