Which club would you invest in?

[Eddie]

18 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

Avignon....huge potential 

You’d have a lot to do, I gather they attract around 100 spectators to home games. 

[DI Keith Fowler]

6 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Dare I say it but Bradford. 

The club is crying out for someone, or a group of someone's, with some serious real money to spend.

A tidy small ground with room for expansion would be the number 1 port of call, the rest could follow on.

This is definitely going to end in Mick Gledhill posting on his twitter that he's heard Bradford have a new investor looking to pump in £10 million. 

[The Blues Ox]

Just now, DI Keith Fowler said:

This is definitely going to end in Mick Gledhill posting on his twitter that he's heard Bradford have a new investor looking to pump in £10 million. 

If he had anything about him he would have already reported this.........

[DI Keith Fowler]

2 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

If he had anything about him he would have already reported this.........

"I'm hearing that Ronnie Milf, who made his money in the European adult film market, is interested in buying the Bulls. Spotted at Odsal earlier today, he has £10 million in his pocket or he might be just pleased to see us."

[wakeyranger]

Newcastle for no other reason than I love the city.

[N2022]

6 hours ago, Viking Ste said:

York - Nice stadium, no real other sport to compete with, large student population & attractive for a weekend break for away fans

Maybe a good call, because actually I don't think people in the city itself really identify with / are drawn to Leeds, or the Hull clubs. But how would you get the uni students etc into it? Often most that are sporty at a decent uni are a more union crowd.

[N2022]

Whichever is about to play WCC ...

[Zilla Budgie]

Widnes 

[Omott91]

15 hours ago, Eddie said:

If you won Euromillions and had £10m to invest in a rugby league club, which one would you choose and why? (other than the team you support). 

Toronto

[The Rocket]

Taree City Bulls. Would love to be the benefactor that helps them win their first Group Three Rugby League premiership in nearly 20 years.

[The Future is League]

17 hours ago, Eddie said:

If you won Euromillions and had £10m to invest in a rugby league club, which one would you choose and why? (other than the team you support). 

A non M62 club.

A majority of M62 clubs have had nearly 130 years to get their acts together and still can't.

[Coggo]

One that makes a profit. There must be one, right? 

[Eddie]

26 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

A non M62 club.

A majority of M62 clubs have had nearly 130 years to get their acts together and still can't.

Which one? 

[Griff]

40 minutes ago, Coggo said:

One that makes a profit. There must be one, right? 

Leeds then.

[sam4731]

15 hours ago, Spidey said:

Warrington - to implement their downfall

I think someone's already beat you to it.

[sam4731]

Double post

Edited March 7 by sam4731

[The Art of Hand and Foot]

17 hours ago, LeytherRob said:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, just for the fun of listening to Baz and Tez try and pronounce it each week on comms

"Give us an L"

[Harry Stottle]

19 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Dare I say it but Bradford. 

The club is crying out for someone, or a group of someone's, with some serious real money to spend.

A tidy small ground with room for expansion would be the number 1 port of call, the rest could follow on.

Didn't Eric Perez and Dr Koucash both have designs on taking over Bradford, what happened were they rejected or was Bradford to deep in the smelly stuff?

[Sports Prophet]

16 hours ago, DavidM said:

It’s a fantastic way to lose 10 million 

Fastest way to become a Millionaire is to start as a Billionaire and then invest in RL.

[Griff]

5 hours ago, Omott91 said:

Toronto

£10m arguably insufficient.

[Bradman Better]

4 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Taree City Bulls. Would love to be the benefactor that helps them win their first Group Three Rugby League premiership in nearly 20 years.

I would prefer Moree to Taree ... by a country mile.

[Sports Prophet]

I would attempt to capitalise London via investing in grassroots and then sourcing investors willing to quadruple my investment.

[Bradman Better]

I would invest in London because it is underfunded and its presence in Super League is vital for the growth of the game.

Richard Lewis understood that. No other RFL or Super League administrator since Richard Lewis left the RFL has grasped that obvious fact.

After London I would invest in Toulouse because France needs a second team, with the funds to recruit top players from the NRL and French rugby union .... and a third team, and a fourth team in Super League. One of those latter must be Paris. The interesting question is whether after Paris it would be better to develop a club in Avignon (which wants one) or in Lyon which would have a huge potential local player and spectator pool to fish in.

London and France are they keys to the game's national and international expansion. After they are developed we can think about other English clubs like Bradford, Sheffield, Newcastle, and Bristol. 

Edited March 7 by Bradman Better

[DI Keith Fowler]

10 hours ago, Zilla Budgie said:

Widnes 

I think it's between Widnes and Bradford in terms of low hanging fruit. 

On the Widnes side for about £600k you could probably buy the club and also clear the historical debts to the council. From there you're in a strong position to renegotiate the tenancy agreement, potentially looking towards a full lease of the stadium and running of the operation. If I know one thing about Halton Borough Council it's that they don't like anything that's a bit of effort, they might be keen to have it off their plate for a fixed return.

I'm of the opinion the stadium is under utilised, the former social club is now council offices, they can go and and the room could return to being a club that's open 7 days a week* showing sport and a basic food offering. I'd imagine for a very low cost the club could rent the bowling green next door during the summer months and have that as a fanzone with a basic outdoor bar, the portable stage & PA system from the West stand and a couple of large screens. There's a food market up near the cemetery if you got onto a few of the vendors there they might be tempted to decamp down the road for an afternoon so you'll have a few options. The current fanzone is a step in the right direction but it's hard to convince people to sit under artificial lights in a basement when it's sunny outside.

*The added benefit being that draught beer could be sold on the concourses on match days again, the stated reason for using plastic bottles is if they were left with a half keg it could go off before the next match because they had nowhere else to sell it. 

I'd be reaching out to Liverpool and Everton womens teams with regards to a return to the stadium which will be on the proviso the artificial pitch goes*. WSL is a much bigger commercial proposition than when they left and I'd imagine the money they'd pay would far outstrip the amount the pitch is currently rented out on weekday evenings for 6-a-side or whatever and would pay back the costs of the works within a few seasons. We'd probably need to get LED pitch side advertisements for them but that's an IMG point anyway so win-win. I'd float with either of them the idea of having more of a stadium presence in terms of their branding/seat colours in one of the stands and building it up as a proper "home" for the team rather than a pitch they rent. Women's football is only getting bigger and it could all be passive income for the club. 

*Another added benefit would be that a return to a grass pitch will aid recruitment. Whether artificial pitches actually cause more injuries is up for debate but it's certainly something the players believe, and we've had a number who have been put off joining by having to play on it every other week. 

On the pitch, it really wouldn't take an awful lot of money to get the club as a regular top 4 team in the Championship and crowds would naturally follow to the 3.5k level again. Then it's a case of maximising revenue from that crowd and sensibly re-investing in the team over a number of seasons. I don't think there's a requirement to having a league winning team tomorrow but there needs to be season on season progression otherwise people will get disillusioned again. 

[Griff]

4 minutes ago, Bradman Better said:

After London I would invest in Toulouse because France needs a second team.... and a third team, and a fourth team in Super League. 

Is that in the same way that the NRL needs four New Zealand teams?