Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:00 pm  

leicester_rhino wrote:

Were I someone who may or may not buy a season ticket, the signing up of a decent squad would be a tipping point for me, and would give me optimism. £500k saved through not signing up top players, would easily be lost by 2,500 not buying season tickets, and that's not taking walk up customers and merchandise sales into account.

Doesn't seem sound logic to me

There is no logic. A poor revised attempt at the southstand been built, is absolutely no excuse for accepting mediocrity on the playing field for a couple of years.

Why would any sane person just throw money into the club, accepting that, on the basis of "well at least we get a new southstand, and the RU team are looked after".

Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:00 pm  

tvoc wrote:

What is the turnover of Leeds RL? Figures around £11,000,000 have been quoted in the past. The salary cap is still set at £1,650,000 isn't it.

Why should Leeds (with an average home attendance still in excess of 15,000) choose to skimp on the playing squad and if they are/do will it have a negative impact on future income and prospects?

Short term pain for long term gain.

Next season attendances will be lucky to average 12k and the stand will have to take priority - finance is not finite and savings have to be made somewhere.

It is obvious they are not prepared to abandon RU so the biggest tangible opportunity for cost savings is the RL playing/coaching. There has to be reason why so many players are being re-signed to a side that is clearly not capable of competing with the top sides?

Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:03 pm  

why the hell should the union side be subsidised by us? they are a failure, even the union fans won't watch them

Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:09 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

In what other line of business would you tell your current and prospective customers that the quality of your product is likely to decline in the short-term but you'd like them to keep buying it anyway?

Leeds Rugby Limited is a business first and foremost, a sports club second. Getting those the wrong way round even for a short period of time can have disastrous consequences.

Let's be honest this is not a regular business - it is not going to get thrown out of the comp, its success is all about the performance of 17 men on a field every week for 30 weeks.

GH told everyone in 2001 they goal was to build a 1968-like team of local youngsters, the team would have to go backwards before it could go forwards - so this is not unchartered waters for the club?

Businesses that treat their customer like idiots don't engender loyalty - and soon they have a lot of ex customers. If you can see an end goal and the business has been reasonably honest about those goals and the time scales you are more likely to continue to support.

How is saying nothing but putting a team on the field that has been humiliated by the better sides, is struggling to make the play offs and the future looks even worse a better option?

Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:17 pm  

leicester_rhino wrote:

Were I someone who may or may not buy a season ticket, the signing up of a decent squad would be a tipping point for me, and would give me optimism. £500k saved through not signing up top players, would easily be lost by 2,500 not buying season tickets, and that's not taking walk up customers and merchandise sales into account.

Doesn't seem sound logic to me

Spending to the cap doesn't guarantee success - look at this year!!

Let's look at what has happened

Sinfield has signed a 4 year contract - that will be a less money than he was on
Peacock, Webb, Kylie, Kirke, resigned - none will be on more more Webb will be on a big reduction
Burgess, Cross and Senior gone
Buderus, Ali likely to go

No squad additions as yet and I don't see any juniors getting huge contract upgrades

That suggest savings are being made on the playing side?

Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:22 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Let's look at what has happened

Sinfield has signed a 4 year contract - that will be a less money than he was on
Peacock, Webb, Kylie, Kirke, resigned - none will be on more more Webb will be on a big reduction
Burgess, Cross and Senior gone
Buderus, Ali likely to go

No squad additions as yet and I don't see any juniors getting huge contract upgrades

That suggest savings are being made on the playing side?

It also backs up the theory that Hetherington has taken "his eye off the ball", and to put it in realistic terms, has become incompetent.

Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:23 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Spending to the cap doesn't guarantee success - look at this year!!

Let's look at what has happened

Sinfield has signed a 4 year contract - that will be a less money than he was on
Peacock, Webb, Kylie, Kirke, resigned - none will be on more more Webb will be on a big reduction
Burgess, Cross and Senior gone
Buderus, Ali likely to go

No squad additions as yet and I don't see any juniors getting huge contract upgrades

That suggest savings are being made on the playing side?

We'll have to wait and see what happens with regards to signings before we decide.

What I will say, is that we seem to be late to the boat with regards to recruitment again though. At the minute, it's like going to the Boxing Day sales on January 3rd and being stuck with whichever clothes others didn't want!

Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:44 pm  

West Cumbrian Rhino wrote:

We'll have to wait and see what happens with regards to signings before we decide.

What I will say, is that we seem to be late to the boat with regards to recruitment again though. At the minute, it's like going to the Boxing Day sales on January 3rd and being stuck with whichever clothes others didn't want!

How do you know when (if there are any) the signing were started/completed?

Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:48 pm  

Tony Soprano wrote:

How do you know when (if there are any) the signing were started/completed?

I'm only going by every other club having announced signings for next year and us not having done so yet, what benefit does an embargo serve?! It would suggest that we don't have any incoming players yet!

Re: another one missed out on? : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:58 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Spending to the cap doesn't guarantee success - look at this year!!

Let's look at what has happened

Sinfield has signed a 4 year contract - that will be a less money than he was on
Peacock, Webb, Kylie, Kirke, resigned - none will be on more more Webb will be on a big reduction
Burgess, Cross and Senior gone
Buderus, Ali likely to go

No squad additions as yet and I don't see any juniors getting huge contract upgrades

That suggest savings are being made on the playing side?

I'm not suggesting that its not happening, just that it doesn't seem logical