Former Salford Red Devils winger Mason Caton-Brown is one of the men pushing to be granted the opportunity to get a phoenix Salford club off the ground.
Salford were officially wound up on Wednesday following a HMRC hearing and since then at least two consortiums have expressed their interest in taking the club on.
Former Red Devils CEO Chris Irwin is leading one bid, with Caton-Brown rivalling him with a consortium of his own. The ex-player-turned-businessman declared his intention to bid on Thursday with the consortium already securing agreements in principle with the council for use of the Salford Community Stadium, kit suppliers and sponsors.
With that in mind, Serious About Rugby League caught up with Caton-Brown to discuss his bid, his intentions and why he believes he is the right man to take Salford into a new era.
SARL: Let’s start at the beginning then, was this bid your idea and talk us through the process of getting your bid off the ground…
Caton-Brown: I’ve been following Salford since I’ve been playing so I’ve seen what’s been going on and I still have businesses in Salford and I speak to my previous sponsor Paul Hancock, we still speak. He’d been speaking about what’s going on and I kind of felt like we could be a solution.
It was him and I that started it and it took off from there, we wanted to be a solution to help Salford to keep a rugby league club in the city.
It’s so important, living in Salford and being in the city, it’s a big part of the community so we wanted to try and find a solution to this.
Salford clearly left a mark on you then…
Yeah, 100 per cent. I came up 10 years ago as a 21-year-old boy and it made me who I am today really. I was investing in the city and I was in the city making friends. I feel like I have to give back in a sense and I want to do it in this kind of way.
If you’ve been to Salford you’ll know, the community is like no other and the fans are like no other and they deserve a rugby team.
How quickly did the consortium come together then?
Very, very quickly. It probably started about a month ago and things just took off. Since then, it’s almost been like every day we’ve been working on this and things have really taken shape.
We haven’t been given a green light but we’re more of less ready to go. We’ve got some agreements to get concreted but we haven’t been given the green light so it’s difficult in that regard. It’s really taking shape, we’ve got a good team behind us of local Salford business people that have done really well in our lives and want to give back to the community and the club and that’s our aim.
We’re nearly there. We’ve got a business plan that’s going to the RFL, that’s the main thing and we’re going to submit that very soon. If we’re successful, this is something we want to do. We want to give back to the community, get the community involved and engaged. That’s our main agenda really, to make Salford a club that is sustainable, as well.
How have the last few weeks been while you’ve been waiting for this December 3rd verdict?
We’ve just been focused on getting ourselves ready because you never know what’s going to happen should it all come crumbling down, which it has done and that’s a bittersweet thing to happen. We’re basically ready to submit our plans to the RFL and see where they go.
What feedback have you had from the RFL so far?
They’ve given us a brief of what we need to do and the date for when we need to submit it by. We’re in contact in them.
There’s obviously a board at the RFL, they’ll review the plans and they’ll pick the best bid. I’m not sure about the process internally for them but all they can do is put their best foot forward and be transparent.
I think transparency will probably be the biggest thing with what’s happened in the past with Salford. That’s one of our main agendas, being transparent, honest and putting our best foot forward.
What about the fan groups, have you been in contact with them?
Yeah, we’re in contact with them, we’ve had a few emails with them today as well. We’re talking to the Supporters Trust, we’re speaking to as many people as we can. If we’re successful we need many fans and groups to be engaged with us as possible to bring this club back to life.
In terms of your plans then, in the short term is it just about providing stability and putting smiles back on faces?
Exactly that. The short-term is about stability, making sure the staff are looking after and just going ahead with our plans. We want to be honest and open with the fans and who we bring in and build out a stable plan that we can execute on.
Are you confident that you can turn it around in time for January 16th when the season starts?
Yeah, we’re confident we can do that. We’ve had discussions with players, coaches, everyone that we need to have. Without being given a green light, it’s hard to make things concrete, but we’ve had discussions with everyone that we need to.
In the long-term, where do you see the club in two, three, four, five years?
So we want to see the club become a sustainable club. Obviously we’re not going to take any gambles like before, with massive loans. We want to build a sustainable club where we can win games and progress in the league. The long term aim is Super League, I’m not going to lie about that. We want to get back into Super League, being a former Super League player myself, it is the best competition to play in.
How involved do you plan to be going forward? Are you looking at becoming chairman, for example?
I’ll be as involved as I need to be. Right now everyone is working as hard as they can to make sure this bid is successful and we’re doing everything we can.
What can you tell us about the consortium, three other members are mentioned in your initial press release, are there any more?
We’ve got a mix of local business people that are working towards making this a successful bid. We’ve got commercial directors, operation directors, managing directors, we’ve got a good mix of people. Most of these are Salford people as well. They’re Salford fans, Salford supporters and I think that’s probably the most important thing. The club comes after the community and the people involved is the unique thing in this, they’re all Salford people.
Finally, I just want to ask about you, what have you done since leaving rugby league in 2019?
While I was playing rugby league, I was investing in the city, in property. As a player you get quite a lot of spare time after training and I was basically building businesses and investing. That took off and I did well for myself.
I’ve been running businesses. Mainly real estate, I have marketing experience as well with sales and marketing, e-commerce.
I’ve always kept an eye on rugby league. Once you play it, you can’t really escape it.
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