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Post by redsmith4life on Jul 6, 2016 0:27:28 GMT
How as a club do we reconnect with the fans that are clearly hiding some where, I mean I hear year on year I'm sick of this im never coming back blah blah ..... but where have the fans gone and why, we were getting close to 4500 and now it's down to 3000 if we are lucky. I know people complain about location but let's be honest yes it isn't great but it's not the worst either, I guess my question would be does the city of salford and it's citizens want a rugby league team anymore? Can we do more as supporters, one thing I've never understood is why the club don't run or have a select group of fans that promote and advertise on behalf of the club, surely we as fans our the most passionate about the club therfore become the best advertising
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Post by Astleyred on Jul 6, 2016 6:55:39 GMT
I know the doc quoted season ticket numbers during his interview but It doesn't just seem to be our fans, even the visiting teams numbers have dropped considerably look at the Cas game.
One big factor for me which has seen reduced away support coming is Friday nights especially people coming from Yorkshire.
With regards to our fans I work away and cannot get to every game, when I offer my two tickets out no one wants them......main gripe is getting to the stadium.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2016 6:57:37 GMT
Stop all the off field turmoil and bring some stability on the pitch, we seem to have taken a huge step in the right direction playing wise but for me off field still needs an awful lot of work to get things to the right standards.
In reality the location of the stadium isn't an issue, Wigan's ground is equally difficult to get to by public transport but it's packed week in week out, the difference being they have a winning team and marketing strategy not based on tell your mates to give it a crack.
My feelings about targeting certain communities litter these boards, think for little effort a huge potential new fan base is out there, just someone from the club needs to invest the time to get them interested.
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Post by SalfordSlim on Jul 6, 2016 7:08:28 GMT
In reality the location of the stadium isn't an issue, Wigan's ground is equally difficult to get to by public transport but it's packed week in week out, the difference being they have a winning team and marketing strategy not based on tell your mates to give it a crack. In all honesty the DW (or whatever they call it these days) is a 20 minute walk from 2 main railway stations so our access issues are far worse. We have no train stations within a couple of miles and an unreliable (and infrequent) bus service passing the ground. Getting to The Willows from Manchester town centre was easy via tram and bus and took around 25 mins/half hour and the tram was often busy with away fans. You might get half a dozen or so away fans now on the 67 pre/post match. The location is sh*t, end of. I live next to West One and often walk to the game which takes just over 50 minutes. Despite being a fat knacker I'm able bodied enough to do this. Most fans consider the 15-20 minute walk from The Unicorn in Peel Green excessive. Quite simply we've never had massive crowds and we compete with Utd and City and for most Salford fans Football comes first. The vast majority of SL teams are based in RL towns that have sh*t football teams so this isn't an issue. The RL club is the heart of the community and we don't have that. Even with sustained success on the pitch I'm not sure we'll ever get great crowds. Moving back into the centre of Salford would definitely entice the fairweather fans back but isn't an option so I'm struggling to see where we go from here. In 27 years of watching Salford I've just come to accept that we're cursed and nothing we ever do as a club will come up smelling of roses! |
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Post by Carnster on Jul 6, 2016 7:25:04 GMT
I think a period of stability and some positive press could go a long way to bringing in new/lapsed fans.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2016 7:31:34 GMT
Just what the Doc knows and how he presents/conducts himself today might just go a long way to getting a few extra bums on seats this year.
Something I forgot is the Doc would be best of served by not making statements he's not going to follow through with, the vote of no confidence in the RFL died a death which is a prime example of lining himself and the club up for negative press and derision from other teams fans - Behind closed doors would have been equally productive.
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Post by Astleyred on Jul 6, 2016 7:32:01 GMT
Comparing us with Wigan isn't a great example, yes they have been a success on and off the field for the past 20 - 30 years, but it goes back to the specific area and community.
Wigan is and always will be a rugby league town, same as saints, same as Warrington, it's in their blood and in stilled in community tradition and each of the towns embraces that.
We aren't and never will be, stadium in the back of beyond, no links with the council (it's never been great but feel Koukash cut the last ties with the Swinton demands and fallout) and dropping our city's title from the name.
We've done everything humanly possible to alienate existing as well as attracting new fans.
This is the best rugby league being played by a Salford team I have witnessed in the 25 odd years I have followed them, but it's going to be a difficult one to turn around.
As MR stated the off field antics are a big problem and are affecting the image of the club.
For me for all the money he's saving on paying players he needs to bring someone in to "run the club", a commercial director some like Damien Irvine proven track record who knows the ins and outs of the sport and what's required to run a successful sporting franchise.
With this new low of dip in attendences I just really hope Koukash has a big rethink.
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Post by greg on Jul 6, 2016 18:36:18 GMT
Perhaps the club could run free buses for supporters from the city centre to the stadium?
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Post by Chico on Jul 7, 2016 6:35:03 GMT
Perhaps the club could run free buses for supporters from the city centre to the stadium? Manchester? |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2016 7:00:16 GMT
Perhaps the club could run free buses for supporters from the city centre to the stadium? Salford is rather odd in that it has 2 or 3 central places (Salford shopping centre, Eccles and Swinton), then the heartland of Weaste is pretty much in the middle of them all. This is why the bridge when completed for me will not be the big draw people say, it will certainly help more Sale fans coming from that side rather than RL fans who will in the main be coming from the other direction. |
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Post by greg on Jul 8, 2016 12:48:56 GMT
I travel up to games from the West Midlands, so I don't feel as though I know the geography of the Salford area well enough to comment on where the majority of fans are based or where they could be picked up from. I went to the Warrington game last night and was impressed by just how many supporters we had there. The free travel may have aided this, but we clearly need to do this for home games as well.
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