Manchester Red Devils?

What are Robbie Pauls (refuse to add the Hunter bit as it just shows he's whipped) credentials on the corporate side?

Personally think the more Blease goes on about the crowd figures the more he annoys people and risks alienating fans we already have.

I'm not sure how much truth there is in this rumor as it has been muted ever since Marwan arrived and nothing has happened, however nobody seems to have mentioned the rather large existing Sporting franchise in Manchester that happens to be known as the Red Devils. I would imagine they may have something to say about a perceived dilution of what they would consider to be there branding. Therefore for me Manchester Red Devils is a total non starter. I could see the dropping of Salford from the Club name and simply being known as the Red Devils moving forward. They may see this non geographic specific branding as a way of reaching out beyond the city of Salford. I wouldn't be over the moon about this but would prefer it to being known as Manchester anything.

I wouldn't get too hung up on birth place as I don't think anybody who is born in Bolton or Manchester hospital but spends all their life living in Salford could be described as anything other than Salfordian. Especially if they have Salford parentage.

If a person was born while their parents are in another country, would their nationality be different?

Lot of talk on twitter tonight suggesting something around a rebrand will be announced at magic weekend.

Whether it's true or not, I'm currently swaying towards the former, it's utterly depressing me at a time we should all be shouting how well SALFORD are doing from the roof tops.

Gutting. We need to make it very clear how bad this would be. Simply put, it would be the end.

Devestating. Just managed to convince my 6 year old lad to follow Salford, not wire like the rest round here. He's happily walking round singing Salford songs all day every day. Absolutely gutting to tell him they won't exist any more.

I've been thinking about this so-called re-branding that seems to be causing a Salford Twitter meltdown. This might not be a popular observation but I'll give it anyway...

I think Salford will always have low to fair crowds regardless of success.

If you look back all the way back to the seventies our crowds have never been massive or even consistently medium to high, even when we were at our best in the modern era. If you go back beyond the seventies you see larger increases in crowds, but the reasons for that are as much to do with social-economic, political, and community demographics. Different era, different lives. The one thing in common throughout the modern era is a reliance on wealthy benefactors. Snape, Wilkinson, Koukash. These fellas have been keeping the Club alive off their own backs. While we have undergone a long period of poor performance over many years, it doesn't help that in that time communities, sport, media, everything has moved on and we haven't. We didn't grow with it. We plodded along keeping our head afloat and survived. That's quite an achievement under the circumstances and now that we are at the cusp of turning the corner for something brighter I fear that most of the world has already passed us by. Die-hard fans of yesteryear are mostly six-feet under now, and their kids and Grandkids are scattered throughout the north west and beyond. Salford RL was somewhere their Grandad used to take their Dad. It isn't even in Salford anymore.

Dwindling crowds all over RL, even in the heartlands, spell disaster for the likes of Salford who struggle along with a hardcore minority. A minority proud of their heritage, clinging on to it even with regards to the RL Club. I just don't think we will ever reach large averages for crowds. I think most of Salford has moved on, leaving us to fly the flag. Even a fair number of those hardcore fans are not even Salfordians. I just feel that maybe the ship has sailed for Salford increasing its crowds to large, financially viable numbers. I'm not saying that re-branding is the solution. Far from it, I don't think it will work at all and maybe even be counter-productive.

There will come a time when an owner of Salford is going to say 'we've got to try something different.' The two outcomes are an owner pulling out as the Club becomes less and less sustainable, or trying something else when everything else has failed. I hear a lot of people saying 'Gradual and sustained success will increase the numbers' but we have no evidence for this. In fact this season so far, although a small evidence pool, is pointing at our success having very little gains in real terms. And that's if we keep improving without falter. Something that certainly wont happen.

I don't have a solution. I wish I did. I'm not trying to be overly negative here either, just my opinion. I think unless there's a drastic change in the financial climate over the next decade, coupled with an increase in RL's popularity I don't see how any change for the better is going to happen. MK is either going to have to be happy with a long term plan and hope RL wins the day, or he's going to try something different when faced with the reality that crowds are probably not going to increase to the levels he really wants.

I have a feeling I know which way this one's going to go, even if it isn't imminently.

Was that aimed at my post?

I don't think anyone was discussing or disputing our current season. The topic of this thread is 'Manchester Red Devils' and was discussing any possible re-brading, the whys, why nots, reasons, pros and cons. I'm not really sure what your post is getting at. We all know our season is going well, that wasn't the topic.

You should also try to be a little more civil on here please.