Stadium & Fans & Viability

I see that Salford is not really a RL town like Wigan, Warrington and other self contained towns in the north so there isn’t the continuity of generations of families supporting the club.
Salford is more of a football leaning city with generations of families crossing Trafford Road swing bridge to Old Trafford.
Has there ever been a collaboration with Manchester United? I feel that MUFC owe a debt of gratitude to SRD and the city of Salford. For around 100 years the people of Salford have been the bedrock of support for United and how much money has flowed from the city to MUFC from Salford people? The original Red Devils name has also been purloined!
So we have the greatest sporting institution in the country and one of the greatest worldwide sitting a couple of miles away.
Can we tap into this with some sort of collaboration?
The more people we get at home games albeit on free tickets the better.
I’m not asking United to put their hand in their pocket but on the basis they may do stuff on a gratuitous basis how about ..
Every United season ticket holder gets say 2 free tickets to a SRD home match. Put a limit of say 2-3k free tickets per match. Register online and chose your match.
I’m guessing substantial numbers of United fans also travel to the city for the weekend so arrange Red Devils weekends by scheduling matches so people can see a Salford match and United match on the same day e.g. United kick off Saturday 12.30. Salford at 4.00pm. or vice versa on a Sunday?
Getting people in the ground is key and even if on free tickets they would still use food and drink outlets to boost revenue.
I’m sure there are other ideas that could be used?
Key to all this would be United agreeing to use their online contacts with their fan base to support Salford but I’m guessing that other organisations pay a fortune to advertise with them.
But as I said earlier, United owe us!!

Alas, as someone who has had face to face contact with Ratcliffe at United, we'll get nothing from them. If it doesn't benefit Jim, then Jim couldn't give a toss.

Alex Ferguson has always shown a fondness for rugby league and Salford but how much sway does he have these days?
Just an idea but if one idea in a hundred comes off then why not approach United?

Well, I suppose if we're getting beaten then leaving the car park won't take longer because the Utd fans will have already left...



But joking aside, there has been collaboration with Man U in the past. I remember a leaflet arriving at my uncle's on Hereford Road some 50 years ago where Bobby Charlton said something like "Why not join me watching Salford on a Friday night and then see me play on Saturday?" Hard to say how effective it was because we were getting good crowds in those days anyway.



I'm not sure where your evidence for "there isn’t the continuity of generations of families supporting the club" comes from. My mother talked of how her uncle carried her on his shoulders to the Willows to watch Gus Risman, and ours is by no means the only family with such anecdotal evidence.  I suspect the opposite, that the majority of our supporters are like me, who have the misfortune to come from a family of Salford supporters (could be worse - five or six doors down were three generations of Swintonians), but that's only my opinion, of course.  We might - literally - be a dying breed.

In terms of the idea of free tickets, unfortunately I don't think it would work, or even be cost-effective. I worked over six years in analysis for a couple of large marketing companies (and what a tw*t I looked in red braces and pony tail), and for campaigns like these, a success would be a 4% take up, and 1.5% - 2% much more likely. So there would be a lot of tickets available for people who aren't going to use them. In the past when free tickets were given away there have been kids outside the ground trying to sell them, so this might even cut into the club's revenue a little bit if Man U ST holders see it as an income opportunity.  Not saying they would, but it's possible.

I'd also be surprised if Sky, the Premier League, or the RFL would agree to adjust game times to help Salford sell more tickets.  I can imagine them responding with counter-arguments like setting precedents so they'd have to do it for primarily soccer towns like Leeds, or that London, or even towns like Hull or Huddersfield.

Sorry, this is coming across as negative.  To be more positive, some marketing initiative at the wendy ball games could be useful at Utd, and City (there were plenty of City fans in my class at school, as well), but I'd suggest a heavy discount rather than chucking free tickets at them.  I'd also suggest some larger marketing initiatives, like some focus groups and marketing analysis to get some ideas on how to get Salfordians back to the club.  I've offered to help to do the latter gratis a couple of times in the past.  Mr Wilkinson was dead keen and told me to contact Dave Tarry, who told me it was a waste of time.  I tried again with Koukash, who took my card and I never heard back.

And I couldn't agree more about the parking - in fact, if there is going to be work in sorting this out, then it needs to be done before any offers are given out, as first impressions may affect people returning when they'd be paying full whack.  And £10 to park is robbery, as far as I'm concerned.

Finally, regarding Sale Sharks attendance - I don't think it's hard to see why they attract more people.  They are a top tier yawnion club, and the nearest top tier clubs are Newcastle to the north and Leicester to the south.  By contrast, there are eight Superleague clubs within 50 miles.  But why anyone would want to pay good money  to watch kick and clap is beyond me, though.