Dear Mr Kennedy

By Whaley Shark
October 28 2012

Not really saying anything others haven't, but I do feel strongly about this

Dear Mr Kennedy

What is going on?

Since the start of ‘Year Zero’, about 15 months ago, we have been sold a vision for the future of Sale Sharks- a competitive team playing at the highest level in modern facilities and, on that foundation, financial self-sufficiency.

So let’s look at each part of the vision.

1. ‘A competitive team...’- Well we really weren’t at the start of the season, but we do seem to be a bit more so now. We haven’t yet started to win in the AP, but we are getting closer and that gives me hope that we’ll start to win a game or two soon.

2. ‘...playing at the highest level...’- I suppose we are at the moment, but it’ll be a miracle if we make the Heineken Cup next year and I fear that this year’s campaign will have to be be sacrificed to the higher priority of Premiership survival. Ah yes, Premiership survival- that’s the real biggie- we are going to have to do something pretty spectacular to ensure that we are in the AP next season.

3. ‘... in modern facilities...’- well, there’s nothing wrong with the SCS facilities as far as I am concerned. I turn up, sit in a seat with enough legroom, and go home again. Access has been done to death but I’ve found a way which works for me. Sale Sharks don’t make any money out of me, but hey ho.

4. ‘...financial self-sufficiency’- that seems to be predicated on an average crowd of 7500. We’re actually getting 7248, which suggests we are running at a loss, and I suspect that doesn’t tell the whole story. First of all, a lot of season ticket holders I know swapped expensive EP tickets for the £ 99 early bird deal in the New Birtles and, second, there seemed to be quite a few cheap ticket deals for the Leicester game. No problem with that, but I suspect the headline attendance figures conceal significant financial underperformance.

So why has the club business decided to treat Angie in the way it has, and I use the word ‘business’ deliberately, because this is surely a narrow minded, short term piece of cost-cutting? Angie is one of the few in the Sale Sharks machine who makes me think it still retains some vestiges of the rugby club from which it sprang. But no, not any more; she seems to be just a human resource, from which maximum benefit is to be extracted before she’s discarded when no more is there to be had. Save a small salary cost (because I don’t believe you actually pay her a banker-style fortune) and sacrifice much of Sale Sharks’ understanding of, and connection with, a bunch of long-suffering, loyal fans. Put at risk the away support the players say they appreciate so much. Who cares, we’ve saved a few quid?

Well, I care! It says to me that something is rotten at the heart of Sale Sharks, a million miles from the old school rugby values which are supposed to exist and which we hear quite a bit about. And maybe this rottenness, this heartlessness, communicates itself to the players, and they realise they’re just expendable assets, and that explains some of the on-field performances?

It needs you to fix it, Mr Kennedy. Maybe not right now, when so much is at stake, but some time soon, please take a long hard look at the club business and ask yourself ‘Is this really what I wanted for Sale Sharks?’

Yours sincerely

Whaley Shark