With all the other stuff going on I'd say that the Wildcats tag is the very least of our worries. As long as Wakefield and Trinity are in the name you can stick anything else in you like for me.

Wildcats is a god awful name and whoever chose it originally wants shooting.

Having said that, the Rhinos name has worked tremendously at Leeds. Kids, especially, associate with the name and the mascot. Ronnie the Rhino is a big marketing plus for Leeds and helps engage loads of kids.

However, that's partly because Leeds got it right from the start. The badge, the mascot, the branding, the merchandise, all of it was good from the start and stayed consistent.
But also Leeds spend a lot on marketing and on supporter engagement and crucially spend a lot on the staff responsible for these things.

For example, the last week or so at Headingley has been:

Friday - Home game v Salford - att 14,000 - 200+ dancers from recent Rhinestones dance camp at half time plus the usual amateur teams. Plus Armed Forces Day featuring Royal Marines band and Army v Navy teams.

Sunday - Children's Day - various activities and entertainment on all day including kids RL, football and cricket tournaments. Attracted approx 6,000 people to Headingley.

Monday - Coach Education workshop at Kirkstall. 30-40 amateur coaches present.

Tuesday - Rhinos Touch Rugby session - 30-40 paying participants

Wednesday - Sponsors Day - various activities including participating in Rhinos training session for sponsors and their families

Thursday - Sinny's Club (for members aged 12-16) event - attracted 60-70 kids plus parents

Sunday - Home game v Catalans - att 15.5k - hundreds of u8 players on the pitch pre-match and half time.


Now that's obviously not a normal week for Leeds but it illustrates the effort Leeds puts in to both their brand through the mascot and other aspects, and engaging with people to get them in to the ground and hopefully coming back again.

Until a club puts that kind of effort in, it doesn't really matter that much what you're called, it won't make much difference.

Totally agree Him,

You've got to win the hearts of the young kids and they'll pay you back 1,000 times over during their time as a lifelong fan.

It doesn't happen by accident

Thats the bottom line mate, it would be interesting to know the percentage of fans who stuck with the first club that they ever attended as a kid for a home game. i suspect it would be massive.

Unfortunately the bottom line is profit and loss. We don't fair well there so the marketing budget takes a hit.

... and thus Wakefield Trinity will always be a struggling club with poor attendances with little future prospects. There are things you can scrimp on, promotion is not one of them if you want to build a club.

Like I said on another thread, how much have we wasted bringing in tosh from other clubs who have contributed nothing to the team. That budget could've been used elsewhere. There is money, it's just been used unwisely.

All you list about the Rhinos success can be put down to having a winning team.

It's a shame the the club and the coaches' did not have the vision and foresight you have, not forgetting the business acumen you are gifted with, maybe if they had consulted you on player recruitment and the day to day running of the club we would not be in the hole we are in.

Unfortunately, that decision is the primary difference between a successful and less successful business in every walk of life.
Doesn't mean the businessmen are bad, just that the decision wasn't always the right one.

Our guys have made good decisions in the past too......but splitting finances between promotion and marketing compared to stock and sales (or player recruitment in our case) is a massive decision and many people in every business get that wrong every day.
It's just as bad a business decision to do a massive marketing campaign to tell people about a product you are unable to resource or sell.

You could easily use Glover as the reverse example. He marketed hard and discounted tickets to get people through the door with the intention of them bringing more full price payers with them and getting in ground sales to increase..............didn't work out like that. Wasn't a bad plan in theory but implementing it and choosing the right balance of discount/marketing v sales is really hard.

The advantage Leeds have over us is not that they have a bigger marketing budget (meaning we should just allocated more funds to ours) it is that they have more money to be able to take risks on losing money on marketing and go for the long game of entertaining kids that will give you future revenues rather than immediate cash.
When we do something we have to get it right every time otherwise we waste valuable money that we can't afford to waste.

Im sorry but Im sick to the back teeth of supporters jumping on the NO MONEY band waggon. I know M C s against the speculate to accumulate and that's his choice, he holds the purse strings. WE DO NOTHING to promote our club, and to just expect people to just turn up is complete lunacy.How many of you actually know if the club as any money or not, could it be that we have money but its re directed elsewhere . Who knows. The only thing I do know is that we must be the only R L F C to put little or no effort in to the promotion and marketing of games and facilities at our club. The only way many supporters on the board get to know whats going on s to look at the Trinity official site or because someones read a statement on twitter. Both options don't really reach out to the general public , they just inform supporters. The marketing needs to be looked at very closely, I would say the club can not afford not to promote or market the club.
The simple fact is we don't know if gates and season tickets sales would have been better if no tampering had taken place. had more walk ins either.

Wakefield trinity is a quality,historic name and I would imagine most fans would wish the name to return,as somebody posted its done us no harm to stay as hull kr as with fc.
Bradford I feel should still be bradford northern,maybe Iam a traditionalist,but I hope you get rid of the wildcats,stay in superleague,so long as its not at our expense.

That's an accountant talking!

If we follow that philosophy we are in a downward spiral all the way to the pit at the bottom

Chicken - Egg - Chicken - Egg - Chicken - Egg
[iad infinitum[/i

I am pretty certain that Leeds Rhinos don't view money spent on marketing as a "loss", they will expect it to generate a profit greater than the outlay. Otherwise they would not employ them, they are not a charity.

serious question.

if you were not an ardent wakefield supporter, how would you even know when the next game at BV was on.