Re: Marwan Koukash again : Sun Jan 25, 2015 11:15 pm  

I've a lot of time for the Doc, he is a nice fella the few times I've met him but this idea is lunacy though and when did he become a BILLIONAIRE?

I agree with The Butcher that some people need to look at the attention he gets the game, I don't think anyone is trying harder to promote RL than MK. Some ideas are a bit out there but at least they get talked about, this board is a graveyard sometimes.

Carry on Doc

Re: Marwan Koukash again : Sun Jan 25, 2015 11:37 pm  

Ande wrote:

I've a lot of time for the Doc, he is a nice fella the few times I've met him but this idea is lunacy though and when did he become a BILLIONAIRE?

I agree with The Butcher that some people need to look at the attention he gets the game, I don't think anyone is trying harder to promote RL than MK. Some ideas are a bit out there but at least they get talked about, this board is a graveyard sometimes.

Carry on Doc

What attention has this got though over here? It's not on the Sky Sports or BBC websites?

It ain't going to sell more season tickets, it ain't going to get more people talking about RL in Britain.

Reality is, it won't achieve the game or Salford any media coverage......just Koukash himself. Tbh he's done a miles better job of promoting and highlighting himself than he has the club he owns.

Re: Marwan Koukash again : Mon Jan 26, 2015 8:43 am  

ThePrinter wrote:

What attention has this got though over here? It's not on the Sky Sports or BBC websites?

It ain't going to sell more season tickets, it ain't going to get more people talking about RL in Britain.

Reality is, it won't achieve the game or Salford any media coverage......just Koukash himself. Tbh he's done a miles better job of promoting and highlighting himself than he has the club he owns.

While I don't disagree with everything you've said, I do need to correct you about Salford. He's been doing a lot of work around the local community. Bringing in as many local amateur Clubs as possible, supporting them with regular training sessions taken by Salford Players. Getting them in on open days to attract more youngsters to play the amateur game. He's opening a retail shop in the Lowery Centre where people can buy merchandise and buy and collect game tickets. He's thrown up billboards advertising the Club and the new season. He's signing-up as much young talent as he can do build the academy side of things. He just finished promoting the Alan Henning memorial game where all the proceeds went to Alan's Family, further engaging the community on an issue that affected many locals. He's in the process of building Swinton its own ground to strengthen the game in the local area and allow the RL Clubs to be part of their local communities again. He just brokered a very considerable deal for Under Armor to provide kit and merchandise to the Club. Plus many many other things that get ignored or not seen by the wider RL community.

The reason why?

Because Salford needs growing from the bottom up in all areas. Something other fans like to harp on about but take little time to find out the realities. All they see is the ins and outs of the squad and not what's going on in reality. Salford has never been so in the public eye, so I'm not sure that accusing him of not promoting or highlighting the Club is actually correct.

I'm no Marwan fanboy. I think he could do some things better, but the caricature Marwan painted by people who for whatever reason don't like him, is far from the reality.

Re: Marwan Koukash again : Mon Jan 26, 2015 12:50 pm  

It's a horrible idea, and will do nothing but devalue SL and take 20+ more of our best players out of our League. I wouldn't support the club. If he truly is interested in promoting the best interests of RL, which I think he is, he should as others have said be getting behind a new French franchise for SL and making the SL more like the NRL.

Re: Marwan Koukash again : Mon Jan 26, 2015 1:12 pm  

ThePrinter wrote:

Reality is, it won't achieve the game or Salford any media coverage......just Koukash himself

Every time he is mentioned in the press "Salford Red Devils owner, Marwan Koukash..."

Re: Marwan Koukash again : Mon Jan 26, 2015 1:51 pm  

I think the enthusiasm is good for the game but i personally see problems with this idea. the main one being for me is: - Who would support the team? which fans would want to travel up and down the UKJ for home games and never get to go to an away game (unless you were loaded) Each game played would have no atmosphere there would either be all home or all away fans depending on where the game is played. That affects the players too having just been to JP's testimonial at Headingley yesterday one of the reasons he said he loved playing at Leeds and stayed there so long was the atmosphere at Headingley, this was seconded by Matt Adamson and Robbie Paul during a speech at the pre-game legends meal.

Re: Marwan Koukash again : Mon Jan 26, 2015 3:17 pm  

TheButcher wrote:

While I don't disagree with everything you've said, I do need to correct you about Salford. He's been doing a lot of work around the local community. Bringing in as many local amateur Clubs as possible, supporting them with regular training sessions taken by Salford Players. Getting them in on open days to attract more youngsters to play the amateur game. He's opening a retail shop in the Lowery Centre where people can buy merchandise and buy and collect game tickets. He's thrown up billboards advertising the Club and the new season. He's signing-up as much young talent as he can do build the academy side of things. He just finished promoting the Alan Henning memorial game where all the proceeds went to Alan's Family, further engaging the community on an issue that affected many locals. He's in the process of building Swinton its own ground to strengthen the game in the local area and allow the RL Clubs to be part of their local communities again. He just brokered a very considerable deal for Under Armor to provide kit and merchandise to the Club. Plus many many other things that get ignored or not seen by the wider RL community.

The reason why?

Because Salford needs growing from the bottom up in all areas. Something other fans like to harp on about but take little time to find out the realities. All they see is the ins and outs of the squad and not what's going on in reality. Salford has never been so in the public eye, so I'm not sure that accusing him of not promoting or highlighting the Club is actually correct.

I'm no Marwan fanboy. I think he could do some things better, but the caricature Marwan painted by people who for whatever reason don't like him, is far from the reality.

Very well said about what he's doing in the community as a whole. The Red Devils were a rudderless ship until The Doc came along.
Its not happening as fast as some people would like, but in the end the Red Devils will be a force in Rugby League again.
The Doc is doing a great job for Salford RLFC and this will spill over to the rest of Rugby League in the area and beyond.
BELIEVE.

Re: Marwan Koukash again : Mon Jan 26, 2015 10:17 pm  

number 6 wrote:

Is it april the 1st?

Would devalue our own competitio

It's already devalued. The best players developed in recent years are playing RU or in the NRL.

Re: Marwan Koukash again : Tue Jan 27, 2015 9:36 am  

casben wrote:

I think the enthusiasm is good for the game but i personally see problems with this idea. the main one being for me is: - Who would support the team? which fans would want to travel up and down the UKJ for home games and never get to go to an away game (unless you were loaded) Each game played would have no atmosphere there would either be all home or all away fans depending on where the game is played. That affects the players too having just been to JP's testimonial at Headingley yesterday one of the reasons he said he loved playing at Leeds and stayed there so long was the atmosphere at Headingley, this was seconded by Matt Adamson and Robbie Paul during a speech at the pre-game legends meal.

Clearly this is just one of the key reasons why this idea will not work.

As I understand it, the team would play their nomadic "home" games in 1 block (in places such as Manchester, London, Dubai, Vegas) then travel on to Aus for the end of the season. So you would have 3 or 4 months of a home game every week, where you are expecting new fans of the game to come and fill a stadium in a new city for up to 16 weeks in a row.

Even if they manage to build a base in 1 city (e.g. London) and build a support base over 16 weeks they would then go 8 months without another home game, and have to do it all again from scratch the following year.

To then take games to Dubai and Vegas would require a marketing budget running into hundreds of millions to get anywhere near a decent crowd.

Re: Marwan Koukash again : Tue Jan 27, 2015 1:57 pm  

Mike Oxlong wrote:

Limelight is all this guy cares about! Sooner he disappears the better!

Better for who, exactly.

Why do you want rid of anybody who is prepared to invest substantial cash into the sport of RL?
Ok, he was over optimistic about Salford's short term prospects but, apart from that, at least he has some new ideas.
Some of them are far fetched and others need work but, he is without doubt, good for the game.