Quote: Rugby Raider "Don’t agree with the SL haemorraging attending supporters. Haven’t got the actual stats to hand, but think average SL crowds has been increasing season upon season. Easy to think crowds were huge in the 80’s. That may be true for Cup games, with all semi finals attracting 20k+ and big Wembley crowds. However, many club’s league gates were modest. Early 80’s, Hull and Rovers were comparable to today. However, until Wigan struck gold, their gates, along with Sts, Leeds and Bradford were often c6-7k.'" I'm sure your right but cos I don't get out much I read a lot of national sports stuff and radio and I'm just saying what the perception of many sports writers etc. about our sport seems to be. the term haemorraging fans was the words used on talk sport when the fixtures were discussed. It's a perception thing. We are 'knee deep in the hoopla' as far as the game we love is concerned but to continue to attract national media attention in national newspapers TV and radio etc a level of national credibility is important particularly if we are to reverse sponsorship trends, tv money allocations etc. At present the perception out there does not match the reality. Incidentally not as straight forward as Salford thought, they hoped it would go through the special meeting today perhaps some clubs have reservations this time around. https://salfordreddevils.net/club-statement-21-11-24/

Quote: Rugby Raider "Don’t agree with the SL haemorraging attending supporters. Haven’t got the actual stats to hand, but think average SL crowds has been increasing season upon season. Easy to think crowds were huge in the 80’s. That may be true for Cup games, with all semi finals attracting 20k+ and big Wembley crowds. However, many club’s league gates were modest. Early 80’s, Hull and Rovers were comparable to today. However, until Wigan struck gold, their gates, along with Sts, Leeds and Bradford were often c6-7k.'" I'm sure your right but cos I don't get out much I read a lot of national sports stuff and radio and I'm just saying what the perception of many sports writers etc. about our sport seems to be. the term haemorraging fans was the words used on talk sport when the fixtures were discussed. It's a perception thing. We are 'knee deep in the hoopla' as far as the game we love is concerned but to continue to attract national media attention in national newspapers TV and radio etc a level of national credibility is important particularly if we are to reverse sponsorship trends, tv money allocations etc. At present the perception out there does not match the reality. Incidentally not as straight forward as Salford thought, they hoped it would go through the special meeting today perhaps some clubs have reservations this time around. https://salfordreddevils.net/club-statement-21-11-24/

The NRL are already beginning to sow the seeds here I think, inviting Wigan and Warrington to Vegas, the switching of the ashes series to the UK, clubs announcing partnerships with NRL clubs. If the NRL were going to invest, I think they'd contact the clubs they wanted directly and set up their own comp, that way you don't need to pay the rfl anything. Also as seen with IMG, you can come up with recommendations but club chairmen still rule the roost with their self interest. NRL Europe should dictate the terms to the clubs, not vice versa as it is currently

True. You focus more on the referee rather than the "action" and wait for the inevitable penalty which often goes against the attacking team which I find puzzling.

"trying to stop the Titanic sinking with a plaster." Looks like Salford are in more trouble than they would have us believe. They look to be existing on Council grants and loans and now the clubs are worried that that even get through the winter they need an advance of £500,000 on their sky money. They have still been spending quite big on incoming players and it looks from this that a few of the other clubs have grave reservations. https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... e-30428451

"trying to stop the Titanic sinking with a plaster." Looks like Salford are in more trouble than they would have us believe. They look to be existing on Council grants and loans and now the clubs are worried that that even get through the winter they need an advance of £500,000 on their sky money. They have still been spending quite big on incoming players and it looks from this that a few of the other clubs have grave reservations. https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... e-30428451

They only turn out in huge numbers for International games thats one reason why several RU clubs are in financial difficulty.
The other reason is big company name sponsorship for the stadium and the International game..The International game also takes out of the sports funding four times the money than the club game.Thats a huge diifference.
The RU international games at Twickenham are more to do with tradition than quality entertainment.
The game now is a better product but even in the past years when the game was drab and boring the fans would still pack out Twickenham
Rugby League on the other hand not only suffers from a lack of big company sponsors but an inept Governing body who have no idea how to market the sport.
£500,000 spent with the speadsheet Charlies IMG for little meaningful enhancement for the game would have been far better allocated to a Marketing budget given to a young hungry marketing company

I will give Union a lot of credit for sticking to tradition with their internationals and they've built the show up over many decades. The 6Nations for example is the same time, same cities every year with teams in traditional kits.

RL messes around with the schedule too much, like our 4nations was going well something like 40k at Anfield for a Australia-NZ final then the powers that be decided not to ever host one again??

Salford are a club seriously living beyond their means and have been doing for years. Will they ever work as a top super league club, I doubt it. Granted they're playing above their finances but that will only last for so long. If I was a super league chairman I'd reject their request for emergency funding as they are not sustainable. With such a massive amount needed now they're only gonna end up in s creek in a few months time which will have repercussions in super league down the line. Makes a mockery of img too.

Sadly I have to agree and giving in to Salford’s request based on what’s come out so far would be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Whilst I appreciate cash flow issues can have a real impact the figure of half a million is one hell of a lot to be struggling for. The concern I’d have is whether they are actually sustainable with an emergency injection of 500K further down the line. If there is to be any agreement by the other clubs to agree to bailing Salford out then you’d expect there’d have to be some form of sanctions/penalties imposed on them.

It’s not a good look for a sport already struggling to change the perception of people from outside the sport.

I do agree but if they go under SL is a team short so every team loses a home game. And I'm not convinced that next best scoring team Toulouse are really wanted there due to the travel expenses. Suppose it could be an excuse to bring Bradford back in at last though.

Administration would be a disaster for the Salford club but also the Salford mayor Paul Dennett given the amount of resource and political capital he has spent on Salford. It would be heartbreaking for everyone involved now the stadium deal has been agreed and being finalised.

I don’t know a great deal about the situation but it would be strange for the Salford council to put the money and time into buying the stadium that they have to just let them go to wall when everything is all but sorted. I know we’ve heard it before with Salford but I think SL will give them the loan to see them through.

Clubs like us, Wakey and Cas have all has to make cutbacks recently. Salford obviously can't afford to run at the level or quality of squad that they have but just get the begging bowl out ever year.

They shouldn't have a business plan based on hypotheticals. Salford should operate at a size they can afford until the hypothetical becomes a reality.

In the last 2/3 seasons Salford have been dependent on Council loans, community shareholders and SL providing them an advance.

Where do you draw the line?

The game now for me is dependent on generous enthusiasts.
Rovers, Leigh, Cas, Wakey and hopefully ourselves have all had big cash injections or hand outs from benefactors over the last few years (Sadly you can't call them anything other than that really), Huddersfield will survive whilst Davey continues to bank roll them but take that away and they have been going backwards for years. But, after that they would seriously struggle. However, Salford have lived on loans, grants and gifts for years and I think they have over spent against their income etc. which is pretty foolish. Sadly the only way our game will survive is through each club having a 'sugar daddy' figure at its head. We have As fans become conditioned to it we don't look so much at clubs attendances as much as we do how much their owners are worth. That for me just reflects the fact that wherever it's coming from we don't have enough coming into the game to finance what we have to put out, it's basic economics really and what business would trade like that?

I agree (with one slight caveat, below). It’s mostly down to wider economic trends rather than poop management, imo. Which isn’t to say that the management isn’t poop, just that even if it was good it would only mitigate and not solve the problem.

It doesn’t even feel worthwhile discussing making the sport sustainable at this point.

That caveat - Salford spending beyond their means. It’s foolish from one pov, but the structure of the league and central distributions means clubs in that position (i.e. no sugar daddy) are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.