Quinn in call for more backing

ROUGHYEDS chairman Bill Quinn has again called on the town’s rugby public to back his ambitions.

Despite bringing in a number of high-profile players for this season, home attendances have risen only slightly and have mainly hovered around the 1,000 mark.

As far as the go-ahead owner is concerned, the average increase from 918 last year to 1,018 in 2008 “is not very encouraging”, particularly when work towards a new stadium is continuing — though he is hoping to buck the trend with a bumper crowd for the visit of Doncaster to Boundary Park on Sunday week.

“We recruited very well in the last off-season and signed some high-profile players,” said Quinn, in an interview broadcast on Oldham Community Radio.

“We have done everything we could possibly do to give the people of Oldham a good side to watch and no one can say they have seen terrible games.

“We can’t be classed a rugby town with only 1,000 fans. If people in Oldham want the club to move forward and go for a franchise for Super League then we have to get more support than that.

“Look at the stadium issue. If we go for a stadium with 3,000 seats it wouldn’t be good enough for Super League. If we went for one with 12,000 seats it would be nearly empty, so where do we go from here?

“We want to deliver. We want to give the people of Oldham a top-quality team that can go for top honours, but we do need more people behind us.

“It should be a fantastic game against Doncaster and I would like to look around before kick-off, see the size of the crowd, and say, wow!”

Quinn, who revealed in the interview that “three or four” reserve team players have been offered professional contracts at the club for next season, maintained that despite his frustrations he is sticking at the club for the long-term.

“Bill Quinn is sticking around, but Bill Quinn would like more people sticking around with him,” he said.

“My ambition long term is to take the club to a position of strength so that I can happily say: ‘The job’s done . . . you don’t need Bill Quinn now. The club can stand alone.

“That would give me the greatest satisfaction of all.”