The Parksider Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 lets face it sheffield is a soccer mad city . even winning at wembley didn t bring in the crowds . salford had a decent ground and fairly decent support at the willows , moving to the new ground has been a big mistake ........mr koukash and other investors would have had far better luck going to areas where there is a strong rugby league tradition and where the supporters have been starved of top class rugby for years . places like oldham , swinton , rochdale , keighley , barrow , workington , and whitehaven , places where despite constant knock backs the potential is still there ! If only investors could turn up at Red Hall and be re-directed to where the RFL require them to go invest. We want a return on "investment", not "investment" that is no more than propping up failure. Good post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbruce Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 If only investors could turn up at Red Hall and be re-directed to where the RFL require them to go invest. We want a return on "investment", not "investment" that is no more than propping up failure. Good post. Isn't that exactly what happened with MK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Parksider Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 Isn't that exactly what happened with MK. Seems he was sold a Scarlet Turkey, hence he still covets Bradford Bulls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelic Cynic Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 Seems he was sold a Scarlet Turkey, hence he still covets Bradford Bulls. Dr Koukash spoke with Nigel Wood on a plane to Dubai. Although resident in/around St Helens Dr K knew St Helens was a well run club. Offered to invest in a club in the north west if the opportunity presented itself. It did,some time later at Salford. The interest in Bradford may have come about because Brian Noble was coaching Salford,ahem,at the time. Dr Koukash felt the offer made for Bradford was fair and reasonable. He doesn't seem to return to an interest once it is rebuffed. This is a thread about Australian investors/Sheffield. Please append any optimistic snippets. I was at the Sheffield v Oldham game on Friday night and from what I saw things are pretty bleak for the Eagles. It's basically an amateur set up. Crowd of around 540 (dubious) with no atmosphere at all. Worse still, no team spirit, players unhappy and hardly speaking to each other in the players area afterwards. Who is in charge? Seemed like Senior was running the show. From the moment I arrived it felt like a club seeing out its time before the inevitable not a full time club looking to expand. It would be a shame if the game lost the Eagles but it seems to me that they are fading away. Do you think it possible for any crowd,of any size,to create an atmosphere given the facility at Bawtry Road? After a defeat of that nature did you expect the players to demonstrate jollity when we now learn the home supporters are allowed into the 'hospitality' area which was denied to them from the start of this campaign? Bawtry Road is the home of the Hallam University students rugby union side.The whole experience is depressing:that is before you put in the displays and results for The Eagles. It is simply a temporary home before the dawn of a new era.Hence the hope of investment and then progress. Nil Desperandum... No reserves,but resilience,persistence and determination are omnipotent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxford Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 Isn't that exactly what happened with MK. Yes! Seems he was sold a Scarlet Turkey, hence he still covets Bradford Bulls. Now Parky, the reason his wife wanted to invest in the Bulls is not quite clear so statements like this without a winking face don't help. It seems much more likely he wanted another chairperson to vote with him on the crucial issues being his motivation or hers. But this is entirely theoretical. And he was, as you say sold a scarlet turkey. 2 warning points Non-Political Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Parksider Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 This is a thread about Australian investors/Sheffield. Please append any optimistic snippets. What more can be said other than if Sheffield get the investors (and proposed investment is probably more common than secured investment) they face problems recruiting players good enough to mount any sort of a challenge for SL in the current system. In 2018 hopefully we'll be back to straight P & R but I wonder whether the salary cap in the championship will go down once again to something like the £300K it was, stifling investment in the team. Unless by then Sheffield are the only club left in the Championship with money? If the club got up in 2018 then SKY pay the wages bill so no room for investment there. So my optimistic snippet is these "Investors" probably don't need a lot of money to make the Eagles an SL club, they probably just need to hang about until the Championship doesn't contain any other club with any real money to outspend them for the best players SL reject. If they have money they won't need any fans, and they won't need to develop the junior game either. It's all optimism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuutaisrambo Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 Good luck Sheffield.........i've given up worrying about the structure, concept, potential and scale of our great game........i see no reason why anyone would invest for financial gain in RL.......it seems a mess at all levels..........i just try to enjoy the good games for the athletic spectacle they are and block out what goes on off the pitch. I'm sure it could work but as others have mentioned Sheffield is a city consumed with Soccer and Wednesday are knocking on the PL door at the minute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yakstorm Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 There is no doubt that Rugby League won't challenge Soccer in Sheffield, however I question whether there has been a huge focus on growing crowds ever in the clibs history. Looking at the history of the club, you have a side that fumbled it's way along at the start, finally started to establish itself in the mid-90s, started to draw some crowds around the 10K mark, then lost their founder (Gary Hetherington), surprised everyone by winning the Challenge Cup, and then budgeted for a surge in crowds simply because they won a trophy. They then started bleeding money, took the quick fix with the Shudderfiels merger and started all over again. Despite this, the club built itself back up, enjoyed a crowd of 2,871 at Bramall Lane in 2010 (plus a series of over 1K+ crowds over that season) and a crowd of 1,895 at Don Valley in 2012. This is despite their limited marketing budget at Bramall and the fact Don Valley is a horrible ground. The club then lost Don Valley and then had to go back to Owlerton, then Doncaster and now Sheffield Uni. It's no surprise that they have struggled to reallygrow their crowds. They are almost the north's version of the London Broncos. A new venue, back in the city centre, plus some decent investment and maybe just maybe Sheffield could draw crowds comparable to some of the other teams in SL and the Championship. PACIFIQUE TREIZE: Join the team by registering as a fan today at pacifique13.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman123 Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 With some motivated guys in there it could be interesting. I think the new format will be good to help their cause with backing. But they had better work hard to avoid the drop. They're not sitting pretty at present No 9 on the table - a bit of a rocket is required urgently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Parksider Posted July 6, 2016 Share Posted July 6, 2016 There is no doubt that Rugby League won't challenge Soccer in Sheffield, however I question whether there has been a huge focus on growing crowds ever in the clibs history. Looking at the history of the club, you have a side that fumbled it's way along at the start, finally started to establish itself in the mid-90s, started to draw some crowds around the 10K mark Well that made me sit up and think! Really? But..... 1989 Eagles.v. Widnes 8636 1989 Eagles.v.Saints 6,200 1990 Eagles.v.Wakefield 8000 1992 Eagles.v.Carlisle 6400 1992 Eagles.v.Wigan 6,000 1994 Eagles.v.Australia 7,450 1996 Eagles.v.Saints 6,700 1997 Eagles.v.Bradford 10,500 1998 Eagles.v.Leeds 8,500 So let's perhaps dispell the myth that Shefield is a "soccer city" whatever that means? I don't currently have time to look too carefully at this but I do recall the only time I went to the Don Valley Stadium frankly it was appalling as a Rugby League ground. I never went again and in those days I went to many matches. Again not got the time to check but I think Eagles did very well at Bramall Lane and Hillsbrough. It leads me to think that as a sports business Sheffield were not so hampered by their crowds as by the lack of a decent facility to play in which in itself hampered the crowds, and having to rent the thing which was probably dead money. You know if Salford, Warrington, Huddersfield, Oldham, Cas and Wakefield, whose crowds were not that much better, if they were better than Sheffield's, had had to face a future playing out of an expensive to rent athletics stadium ad nauseum maybe some of them may have given up, especially if they didn't have a rich investor? So if eagles do have a rich investor on the way good luck to them As for being a soccer city in terms of very few playing the game, such that Eagles don't develop their own players and have to ship them in, the decline in the amateur and junior game in places like Salford, Widnes, Cas, Wakefield Leigh etc and their reliance on imports pretty much shows that Eagles can hardly be condemned for that either Great post Yak..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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