Image makeover for Sale?

Endangered species
By Sarah
April 24 2002

On Wednesday the press ran news of Bryan Redpath's decision to stay on at Sale. Tucked away at the bottom of the Daily Mail's article was an interesting quote from Brian Kennedy: "We have to go back to the drawing board, reinvent ourselves and relaunch a new brand with a new name."

Yes, he may have been misquoted or taken out of context but it doesn't stop you wondering what his plans are to turn Sale around financially. The full quote was:

"Sometimes I feel like packing it in because the people of the north west obviously don't want to support a professional rugby union team."

"We have no real future on gates which are the lowest in the Premiership because the economics do not add up. We have to go back to the drawing board, reinvent ourselves and relaunch a new brand with a new name."

Surely there can't be another name change in the pipeline. Sale endured humiliatingly being called Manchester Sale in the late 90s and then adopted the Sharks tag, which has caught on quite well as far as I can see. I do remember hearing a while ago that Brian was happy with the branding and intended to continue to use the Sharks name. It would be very surprising if that attitude had changed.

As far as reinventing the team's image and relaunching the brand, moving ground would be a big step forward. It depends on what timescale is being talked about, but with the depressing realism that "we have no real future on gates", it makes sense that somethig has to change or we won't be riding high in the league for many more seasons.