Quote braytontiger="braytontiger"well done to the bulls for hitting their target a great incentive from them in an attempt to re-build a club thats fallen from the top.
from a business point of view this is a huge gamble,in affect the club has decided that they will take a small gain in money before the season starts and risks getting by on away fans paying at the gate throughout the season,given that quins,catalans,salford and crusaders will bring little or no support some weeks the club will have very little money coming into the club and it will take some very good accounting to balance the books and i hope that those that run the club do have the sence to hold some money back for when times are hard.
i hope it works out and i guess time will tell.'"
Good one for your first comment. I think you are probably representitive of most decent RL fans across the game. Most folk will ignore the odd Rhino (rarely Loiner) fekkwit's lame attempts to pee on the bonfire.
Re the "huge gamble" though - It WAS in that it might not have come off. But it HAS come off, and so now I submit its really no gamble at all any more? Gate receipts are the smaller part of club income. The club will generate considerably more money that it was likely to do otherwise. The larger part of income - SKY money, RFL money, sponsorship - is already known at the start of the year. Gameday receipts will be considerably higher than they would other wise be since there will be more people in the ground (even allowing for those season ticket holders who nevertheless pick their games). All ways round, compared to doing nothing this has to be a massive financial step forward for the club.
The REAL whole point of this exercise was that the club realised that season ticket sales would reduce sighnificantly this year if nothing was done, and that the proportion of "walk-ins" would rise substantially as more and more people picked their games to go to (if any). At a stroke - and its a masterstroke - they have not just arrested that decline, but they have turned thousands of otherwise walk-ins (quite apart from otherwise-absentees) into season ticket holders. And put a load on what would otherwise have been the gates. And all at a cost of giving the loyal fans who would have still bought season tickets next year regardless (me and maybe 3,500 others?) a discount of maybe averaging around 50-60% on what they would otherwise have paid. And quite a few of us have in turn pledged for (or secured pledges for) additional family members or friends as a result, so not really any loss at all in many cases. The maths make complete sense, especially when - as we suspect - we may have also have generated new external income conditional upon hitting the target.
It will not take any "very good accounting " (and I speak as one who has been in that business for many years) - in fact the accountants' jobs will be much easier since we have more cash up front and much more certainty. And I can assure you the club's financial control is as effective as any club's anywhere (it has had to be!). All clubs are anyway well used to receiving much of their income early, and husbanding their cash over the season accordingly.
And we now have a huge buzz now around the club.#
Oh, and gate income under a million? Consider:
1. Main Stand prices (£99 min)
2. Coral stand/premier club etc prices
3. Away speccies
4. Walk-ins
5. Season tickets issued after the early bird deadline (prices up 50%-100%)
etc.
