sandy wrote:blanchard was originally brought in with the prime task of generating funding for the proposed new north stand a job he successfully did at Surrey CCC. Unfortunatley not long after this an event happened you may have heard of, the credit crunch leading to a global recession which meant most capital projects in RL getting shelved. He was then left in the role of general manager really a job which didn't really suit his expertise.
Poor old Blanchard. IIRC, it was he who first publicly ackowledged Rovers' financial plight in the Observer back in December last year:
' Hull KR have provided the clearest evidence yet of the credit crunch biting at Super League level by cancelling a pre-season training camp in Dubai that had been scheduled for early January. They will instead prepare at the slightly chillier and less glamorous BP Chemicals Sports Ground at Saltend in the east of the city, where they have recently moved in with the successful Skirlaugh amateur club.
"We are very conscious of the economic downturn in various markets," admitted the Hull KR chief executive, Paul Blanchard, who nevertheless insisted that the club remains in a decent financial condition partly thanks to the RFL advance. "Like any sports club or business, we are keen to make as many savings as we can. Our philosophy is if it's not an essential spend it's not sensible to spend it. We also had some of the playing staff and coaches saying it wouldn't be right going with so many supporters suffering financially." '
Comfirmed that the Sky advance was needed by KR, too. At least the man had a shred of honesty and called it like it was.
Do you still use Saltend, BTW, no-one ever seem to mention it any more?
