Well, that’s it. Dave Tarry has just set off to deliver our Licence Application to RFL Headquarters in Leeds. Deadline is 5pm, so hopefully he won’t meet any horrendous traffic or get a flat tyre or something!

Here are some Licence Facts for you:

We have to supply six printed copies and a single electronic version to the RFL.

Our Application consists of seven separate documents. These are:

1) The actual application document (part of which you have seen on Sky Sports, but there is a lot more to it than those 10 points!). This is basically an actual application form, which has been filled in and signed by the Reds Directors to state that we are applying and that the information contained within is true.

2) A Marketing Strategy document - this details all aspects of how the Reds are marketed, both now and when we move, and includes in-depth business plans from the Marketing, Media, Ticketing, Community and Commercial departments detailing, amongst other things, how we intend to continue increasing our attendances over the next three years. It also includes independent market research on both the new stadium (with, and again I stress the word independent, research that backs up what David Tarry said about our attendances when we go to the new stadium in 2010 - no, he hasn’t just plucked that figure out of thin air!) as well as a customer service report.

3 & 4) Finance & Business Management details - This comes in two parts.
Part one deals with the RFL’s financial assessment criteria (again, similar lines to what Boots N All have been covering, but as far as I know this section hasn’t been made public). Things the RFL want to know include answers and explanations to all their questions, financial accounts back to 2005 to demonstrate a solid financial history and a three year, forward looking business plan (again, independently verified by one of the biggest accountancy firms in the country) that covers budgets, projections and other accounting stuff that you would really need to ask Financial Director Paul Snape about to understand! Part 2 of this section is an appendix, dealing with the RFL’s request for evidence relating to the answers given in part 1. It contains examples of contracts to prove compliance with RFL regulations, ground safety information, even the lease for our remaining years at The Willows. It also provides details of the policies the club follows in terms of things like equal opportunities, child welfare, HR Development and various other things.

5) Playing Strengths - Again, there were a slew of criteria in this section that haven’t been made as high profile as the ones you all know about, but are just as, if not more important. There is information about the first team squad in there, but the focus is definitely on Player Development, and the club are very lucky to have someone as capable as Alan Hunte in charge of this for us as our Player Performance Manager. The document includes detailed answers to the RFL’s questions on all the playing squads, and provides examples of the philosophy of the department, including evidence of lectures on subjects such as nutrition, behaviour, rehab and strength & conditioning.

6) Current Facilities - As we will still be at The Willows for the first year of the Licence term we have provided two facilities documents. The first details The Willows and covers whether or not it meets the Super League minimum standards (which it actually does in almost all areas).
Again, there are criteria laid down by the RFL, and this document deals with those as well as issues such as safety certificates, structural surveys and other stuff like that. It also covers our agreements with the training facility providers (Sedgley Park for the first team, Parrenthorn for the Academy and Phillips High for the Scholarship) along with details of the facilities provided and supporting photographic evidence.

7) The City of Salford Stadium - This document was the only one not produced in-house (showing the strength of the back room staff at the Reds - not all clubs had the capability to produce their own application and had to outsource) and was produced by Red City Developments and Project Managers Drivers Jonas. It includes an overview of the project from Red City, a current status update from Drivers Jonas, the very latest (and almost final) detailed plans dated 25/3/2008 and the latest Project Schedule showing all aspects of the development and showing whether they are running ahead or behind (currently all green for on time!). Also included in the Appendix of this document are details on the companies who are now on-board to actually deliver the development. It is a very impressive list of collaborators who, between them, seem to have worked on just about every major development in the last ten years!

And that’s it. Apart from a very smart looking CD containing the electronic version so even if David has amishap and it all goes spilling across the M62 if his boot flies open we’re still covered!

In total, one single copy of the Salford City Reds 2009 Super League Licence Application totals 1566 pages (spread pretty evenly throughout the seven documents - we haven’t just submitted 1450 pages of the planning enquiry stuff! In fact, that isn’t included at all!).

Multiply that by six copies and we are actually submitting 9396 pages to the RFL today - all relevant to what they asked us to provide, no waffle and no wastage.

Work began four months ago and the final touches were put in on Saturday morning. The Directors signed the application at Batley yesterday.

It’s exciting today, but we need to remember it could be three months before we hear anything else about this now! All we can say is that the application is hugely comprehensive, and really is the club laid bare for the RFL to judge.

PS - We did consider a horribly inappropriate April Fool’s joke for tomorrow morning, whereby we posted that David had been delayed, hadn’t arrived until 5.05pm and therefore our application had been rejected, but Robin reckoned that a) it would be too cruel, and b) I would probably get strung up at the next Forever Red’s meeting, so we won’t be doing that!
Someone will update later when he’s actually arrived and lodged the application!

Here we go folks