 |  We have become phenomenally more busy in the past five years
|
Before professionalism, most clubs' idea of "marketing" was the match programme that told you who was playing and where they came from.
Once the game changed there was a mad scramble to make rugby more appealing to the masses, and gain extra revenue from bigger crowds.
Sale were a club steeped in amateur history, and utterly unprepared for their new era, until local millionaire Brian Kennedy saved the Manchester club from oblivion.
He recruited Dave Swanton to look after the media and marketing side of the business.
GOING TO PRESS
I joined Sale Sharks in July 2000 - having previously worked at Wigan Warriors and Warrington, so I've been in professional rugby for 10 years.
I started with a blank sheet of paper because there was nothing here - no marketing or media facilities whatsoever.
It was almost as if Sale had found themselves in the Premiership by accident, and by 2000 they were struggling.
Since then we've got better on the field, and off it the club has rocketed.
We have become phenomenally more busy in the past five years - you just wouldn't believe it.
When Jason Robinson signed in October 2000 from Wigan, the clubhouse was packed to the rafters with journalists from around the world - but only 3000 fans turned up for his debut.
| SALE'S GROWING SUPPORT Sale's average attendance has grown 45% in the last two years, forcing the club to move from Heywood Road - capacity 5,400 - to Stockport County's Edgeley Park ground - capacity 11, 000 |
In 2001, we finished second in the Premiership and won the Parker Pen Shield, and interest started to grow until Heywood Road couldn't accommodate us anymore.
Now we're playing at Stockport County's Edgeley Park, and getting regular sell-outs.
England's World Cup win has helped build our fan base, as has Jason Robinson's profile.
We've got more than 3,000 season ticket holders now - when I arrived we had 400 - so you can see what impact those events have had.
We used to order 200 programmes a game - now we sell more than 3,000 - that's in the last five years.
Moving our Premiership games to Friday night was a big move for us, because we just couldn't compete on Saturday afternoons.
Manchester Utd, Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton and Wigan Warriors are all within 20 minutes drive of us, so we had to come up with a new strategy.
It's a constant battle for column inches and website space, as there are so many stories knocking about, but we try and keep the players accessible, because it maintains the club's profile.
When I was at Wigan, Jason would probably get 20 requests for autographs a week - now he gets over 300, and Charlie Hodgson and Mark Cueto are reaching that level too.
| When I started at Sale I would be lucky to get six calls a week. These days I usually get 70 a day |
The demand from the press is soaring too. I took my mobile phone on holiday with me when I went to St Lucia, and I was fielding calls from my sun-bed overlooking the Caribbean.
When I started at Sale I would be lucky to get six calls a week. These days I usually get 70 a day.
When Jason scored five tries for the Lions I got 110 in two hours. When he scored the decisive try in the World Cup final I got 430 in two days.
England's win in 2003 gave the game a massive boost, but there's still potential for more. If we are going to encourage more supporters to this game, we need to make it more accessible to new fans.
We've got to make it easy for people to turn up to a match and understand what's going on, because it's a complicated game, and sometimes even the seasoned fans don't know what's going on! 
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