There is more to the signing of Willie Mason then adding a player to the squad for 2011 in my opinion.
I get the impression that the board see this signing as them delivering on there promises to us supporters along with the East and North Stand developments.

A geniune superstar of the game signed, sealed and delivered for the next 2 maybe 3 seasons.
Mason is box office as proven by the media scrum on his arrival and the club will be banking on bums on seats from it im sure.

Im certain his presence will attract away fans who are 50/50 on whether to visit Craven Park to make the journey
But the home support base needs to swell to take us onto the next level.
As things stand we are a play off team.
We want to be a trophy winning club and to achieve that takes cold hard cash in modern sport.

Hudge, Rob Crossland, Paul Luen etc etc have done what im sure every one of us would do it we had the means by ploughing money into the club at a personnal cost to make us competitive.
Its now over to us.

Some diehards congregate on this forum i know.
But im sure we all know dormant fans of the club who once they have experianced the match day at Craven Park will come back for more.
These are the fans the club now need to attract and Willie Mason will have been signed partly to try and make that happen.

Despite the losses in the last 3 games Sunday i think will have a really special atmosphere.
So if you have family, neighbours, workmates,boyfriends,girlfriends, mistresses, mates down the pub or whatever who havent been to see the Robins for a while encourage them to go to the game on Sunday.

Get them hooked, get them to buy a pass, merchandise, join the Rovers lottery.
Im sure we havent yet hit the ceiling in terms of what attendances we can reach but now is the time for it to manifest itself with the most high profile player in the game on both sides of the world wearing the famous Red & White shirt

The board have kept their promise and im sure will be waiting to see a return on their investment on the field and off it.

It say's in the HDM that KR fans have been snapping up Willie Mason merchandise since Rovers unveiled their latest signing.It also states the store has been packed and the rush is expected to increase after Willie met the fans yesterday, it's been an unusually busy week.
The store has also seen an increase in the sale of season passes.

Looking good so far...

he's come for a holiday at the ambulance chasers expense

It 's a good rallying call, GML, but I'm not sure quite why it's needed. Considering the gate was over 8000 v Catalans, surely the Mason debut factor will add another 2000 or so to hit capacity; Hudgell said Craven Park would sell out as soon as Mason got here, so I don't think there's any risk that fans won't respond.
The other point is that Hudgell has often said that directors are happy to continue to underwrite losses and have even talked of converting their loans to shares. In that context, the "return" that they are looking for, which he has also spoken about many times, is simply break-even. Mason will undoubtedly deliver 10k crowds which is the required figure to do so, probably before the extensions are delivered, so again there's not that much need to agitate really. IMO. Add in the automatic merchandise uplifts already seen and I think you're worrying unnecessarily.
Also, since when was 10th a qualification for the play-offs?

TO PULL IN CROWS OF 10,000 REGULARLY WILL BE DIFFICULT. FOR STARTERS IS THERE ENOUGH SPORTING FANS TO GO ROUND, LOTS OF PEOPLE IN HULL JUST SIMPLY DONT HAVE THE MONEY FOR SPORT AND ALSO THE HATRED/JEALOUSY IN THIS CITY FOR ROVERS REALLY IS QUITE EYE OPENING AND QUITE SAD. HAVEN DRIVEN A CAB AROUND THIS CITY FOR 12 YEARS YOU REALLY GET TO REALISE THAT. MAYBE THATS THE REASON WHY THE ONES THAT DO GO ARE SO DAMN FANATICAL. ONE THING IS FOR SURE EVEN IF ONLY 8,000 TURN UP THE NOISE WILL BE LIKE 80,000 WE ARE THE NOISIEST FANS IN THE LEAGUE AND THAT IS A FACT.

Well Said GML

I am more conviced then ever that the current set up will deliver what us fans desire.

Some of the recent additions to the non-playing staff such as Neil Pease prove to me that they have the right idea.

I wish they would get the retail arm sorted asap, as I have been disappointed on many visit's to the shop.

And Mrs B, I was unaware that the season had finished and we'd been declared 10th place already!!!

Your the only person I've heard who seems to think we'll achieve this 10k crowd. You keep mentioning it simply so when we don't achieve it on Sunday you'll be able to say..........But Hudgell said.

I can see straight through your post and I'll await your gloat post Sunday evening. FWI I think we can achieve a crowd of 9200. which would be 2000 up on the corresponding fixture last year that brought in 7273 fans.

Thought you where some sort of legal bod. Miss-quoting Mr Hudgell is a bit of a risk. miss quote at best as I see you as a pork pie make. PS why are you still here?

There are enough "sporting fans to go round" Cap Man, City have lost 5000 from last season, you could always try and tempt them in, tell them Mason is here to save your club, just like Jimmy Bullard

Well anyhow, Mason!

I have been excited over the years to see some real stars of the game coming over to SL but the signing of Mason tops them all for me.